Nuclear weaponsSandia Labs taking a modern approach to evaluating nuclear weapons
Components of nuclear weapons age, and scientists and engineers address that through life extension programs or less comprehensive alterations. The United States last conducted underground nuclear testing in 1992 and has been in a moratorium ever since. Since then, Sandia Lab has used non-nuclear tests, experiments and computer simulations to study environments weapons might face, such as vibration, radiation or extreme cold or heat.
Sandia National Laboratories is transforming how it assesses nuclear weapons in a stockpile made up of weapons at different stages in their lifecycles — some systems that have existed for decades alongside those that have undergone life extension programs.
Back when the United States was developing new nuclear weapon systems, weapons typically were either in production or were retired before they aged much more than about ten years. The United States today is no longer designing new systems, so scientists and engineers refurbish weapons to ensure the stockpile will function as intended and that weapons are safe, secure and reliable.
Sandia Lab is responsible for developing as much as 97 percent of a weapon system’s non-nuclear components. It has created ever-more sophisticated tests and computer models to qualify those systems under its stockpile stewardship role — certifying they always will work as designed when authorized by the president but will never work in any other circumstance, said Scott Holswade, deputy chief engineer.
The stockpile surveillance program assesses each nuclear weapon system to detect or anticipate potential problems.
Sandia note that components of nuclear weapons age, and scientists and engineers address that through life extension programs or less comprehensive alterations. A life extension program refurbishes components nearing the end of their life, remanufacturing or redesigning them. Some components are reused by being requalified to go back into a weapon without change. Remanufacturing means using the original specifications to remake components that have aged. However, sometimes the original technology is no longer available, so Sandia redesigns parts using modern technology — think switching out vacuum tubes for solid state technology.
“A pediatrician does not look at the same things that a geriatrics expert would. The things you’re looking for in ‘pediatrics,’ the defects in design and production, are different than if you’re looking for aging effects late in its lifecycle,” Holswade said. “I think that’s been the big evolution of the program, to start implementing changes that recognize this, and change the [stockpile evaluation] program to optimize for each system, depending on where it is in the lifecycle.”
