7,6 Thursday, June 5, 1997 Pahrmnp Valley Gazette
NTS readies itself for experiments
Continued from front page
simply go back to full-out testing," MacDougall said. "We are
required to maintain a stockpile and the experiments are de-
' signed to answer our own questions in maintaining readiness. If,
God forbid, we need to use those weapons, they will be avail-
able."
In 1995, President Clinton made a statement regarding his
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position on subcritical experiments.
"To meet the challenge of ensuring confidence in the safety
and reliability of our stockpile, I have concluded that the contin-
ued vitality of all three DOE nuclear weapon laboratories will be
essential," said Clinton. "In accordance with this conclusion I
have directed the DOE to maintain nuclear weapons responsibil-
ity and capabilities adequate to support the science-based stock-
pile stewardship program."
These experiments will involve chemical high explosives
that will generate high pressures that will be applied to nuclear
weapons materials, such as plutonium. The amounts and design
of the explosions are to be such that no actual nuclear explosion
will take place. The purpose of the experiments is to gather
scientific data on the behavior of nuclear weapon materials by the
use of complex, high speed measurement instruments.
"NTS has become the scene of scientific experimentation
rather than nuclear testing," said Robin Staffin, deputy assistant
secretary, research and development, office of Defense pro-
grams, Department of Energy.
St,n explained that though it appears to be unlikely, the test
site has to maintain suberitical experiments to have the ability to
return to nuclear testing should it be necessary. The immediate
goal is to build a more reliable database for experiments.
"We are doing what we need to do for national security and
to protect allies to the U.S.," said Staffin. "We explore technol-
ogy that we have available to meet those needs. We maintain that
there is still a lot left that we do not understand about nuclear
weapons."
There are two separate laboratories conducting subcrifical
experiments at the present time, Los Alamos National Labora-
tory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Both of
these institutions are conducting experiments in an underground
facility called U1A. The facility lies 962 feet below the earth's
surface and is accessible only by a mine shaft.
The underground complex is a series of tunnels and rooms
that serve as detonation and recording areas. In all, there is
roughly 2,000 feet of tunnels and chambers that the labs use in
their experiments. The tunnels arc supported by thousands of feet
of wire, rock bolts, steel braces and wood supports.
Los Alamos' experiment is called "Rebound," and is sched-
uled to be the first of many subcritical experiments conducted in
the U1A facility. Rebound is dedicated to obtaining critical
equation of state information on a plutonium alloy. Shock waves
generated from a small explosion will be used as a compression
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technique to gather a wide va-
riety of data measured in three
places in the experiment al-
cove or "zero room" where the
explosion takes place.
''Rebound is a study in how
plutonium responds through
dynamic compression," said
Raffi Papazian, test director
for the Los Alamos experi-
ment. "The first priority of the
project is to gather data sets
that hopefully mcasure what
wc set out to measure."
The use of flying plates of
metal that move at a very high
vdocity duringthc fin ofdeto-
nation are used to record the measurements. The plates have a
glass "sensor" that relays light images back to a detection center.
These plates are contained in a metal box that is the source of
signals and located at the site of the detonation.
In the detection center, cameras and lasers record the informa-
tion gathered from the detonation.
A device called a "visar" sends laser signals similar to that of
radar back and forth between the detection room and the zero
room. This serves to measure velocity and sound waves of the
detonation.
The detonation is recorded by a camera system called a
Cordin Camera. It records the Rebound experiment with the use
of mirrors and quick photography which is later transferred to
film, which can be used in the data gathering process.
"Holog," Livermore's subcritical experiment, gathers infor-
mation in a different way according to Test Director David
Conrad. The experiment uses less plutonium and explosives than
Rebound and focuses its attention to surface phenomenon stud-
ies.
"We look at what happens to the front face of detonations,"
said Conrad. "There is less than 200 grams of plutonium and less
than 100 grams of explosives used."
Holog is broken into two experiments.
In the first, Livermore Labs will attempt to measure the ejecta
associated with a point detonated flat-plate geometry. Ejecta is
characterized as mass, particle size distribution, and mass veloc-
ity distribution for two surface finishes.
A large laser beam will produce a holographic image of these
ejecta while three velocimetry beams provide surface velocity
information. The ejecta will be analyzed using holographic
techniques and lasers will measure surface velocity in three
Areas.
In the second part, optical relativity data is gathered from the
shocked plutonium surface at the detonation site. The effects of
different surface preparations and coating thickness will be
measured. Surface velocity will be measured in two locations
and reflectivity in four.
'q'be two packages together have about as much force as a
couple of chem'y bombs," said Conrad referring to the projected
small sizes of the explosions.
The Holog facility is kept remarkably clean and free'of
pollutants. Conrad stated that this is necessary for the experiment
to take place. A speck of dust can actually explode when struck
by a high-powered laser beam causing the optical components to
fail or be destroyed.
Those associated with the project have done their best to
ensure that pollutants do not enter the test area. The ceiling, walls,
and floors of the U1A drifts have been sealed with concrete to
enhance cleanliness and provide structural support. Air locks
help to control the dust and dirt and multiple high-efficiency
filters are in place to clean the air.
In both experiments, cement plugs are used in the chambers
and tunnelways to prevent possible leakage of gasses and
radioactivity. The plugs are seed immediately before the
detonations take place and the remainder of the experiment is
carried out via remote.
The subcdtical eperiments have been delayed for about a
year now and scientists are looking forward to getting these first
two undczway. Holog Project Manager Lee Davies said that Los
Alamos and Livermme Labs have plans to coMuct roughly two
experiments each per year after the initial projects are conducted.
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