Department of Energy FY 2012 Congressional ... - The FIRE Place

The Science Campaign is planning future activities to answer key questions on time scales consistent
with transformation of the nuclear security enterprise. The NNSA is reviewing several outstanding
high-level issues, such as: the LANSCE Decadal Risk Mitigation Plan; the challenging program related
to initial conditions for boost (2015); a critical decision point for the status of DynEx (scheduled for
2015); nuclear experiments (i.e. experiments conducted in nuclear facilities, ranging from gas guns to
subcritical experiments at NNSS) and related challenges; the high-energy density (HED) 3-year plan and
the priorities for weapons science data from HED platforms; management of hydrodynamic experiments
and the need to provide the capabilities required to support broader national security missions; the
requirement to maintain test readiness capabilities as directed by Presidential Decision Directive 15.
Activities affected by transformation across the nuclear security enterprise include high explosives
research across the Enterprise, plutonium R&D activities in Superblock at LLNL and managing the
balance between research and manufacturing activities at TA-55.
The Science Campaign will continue to improve each of the major elements in our Advanced
Certification subprogram in the Science Campaign and ramp up in design, maintenance, and
experimental support to a level consistent with regular conduct of more frequent and less expensive
subcritical experiments. This result will be enhanced R&D for features benefiting the safety and
security of the stockpile.
Weapons Activities/
Science Campaign Page 86
FY 2012 Congressional Budget