Weapon Assessment

Project Description and Significance

The Surety Assessment Program at Sandia National Laboratories provides expert, integrated evaluations of the adequacy of nuclear weapons and weapon-related materials in the areas of performance, nuclear safety, use control, security, reliability, and quality. The adequacy of both hardware and the processes that produce it are assessed.

The program provides expertise and a focused perspective to aid Sandia and the Department of Energy (DOE) in certifying that critical characteristics of nuclear weapons and their associated equipment are, and will remain, acceptable to the Department of Defense and to the nation. Staff members review, test, analyze, and provide professional counsel regarding the adequacy of the requirements, designs, testing, and production of nuclear weapons and weapon-related materials. This assessment continues throughout the life cycle of the weapon.

Sandia's Contribution

During the past several years, the Surety Assessment Program has led definitive studies of the safety of transportation of selected Air Force weapon systems. It has consistently advocated national actions in support of nuclear weapon safety, use control, and security. The program has also supported other federal agencies in risk-related investigations not involving nuclear weapons.

The program is engaged in continuing, rigorous internal studies of the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons, which in turn support ongoing studies of the safety of weapons by the DOE. Our studies form the basis for the DOE's semiannual reliability estimates. A major facet of the evaluation of weapons is the (denuclearized) testing of a significant number of random samples of each weapon, in flight and in the laboratory, each year. The Program has also developed risk assessment and management methodologies, including those associated with software, and has sponsored national symposia to stimulate discussion of better approaches to the management of high-consequence risk. (See the fact sheet entitled "Surety Risk Assessment Technologies.")

Future Work

Nuclear weapon surety will continue to be important to the Nation for the foreseeable future, and Sandia will continuously improve the processes by which risks associated with nuclear weapons are understood and managed. The Surety Assessment Program will continue to generate and disseminate surety risk management information, to develop methods for managing high-consequence risk, and to act as a leading advocate of nuclear surety.

For further information, contact:

William C. Nickell
Sandia National Laboratories, MS-0631
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0631
Phone: (505) 845-9831
e-mail: wcnicke@sandia.gov

Submitted October 1996
Layout design by Wanda Mar.