Sandia computer lab links with scientists across the country
Operation pulls data from around the nation in collaboration with academia, prive industry
By Ian Hoffman
LIVERMORE, Calif -- FOR the first time, the millions of details and scientific insight built into the nation's nuclear arsenal in the Cold War are being tied together in a single California laboratory designed to speed upgrades to thermonuclear bombs and warheads. Federal weapons executives said Sandia National Laboratories' new weapons computing lab, which opened Thursday, is an experiment in pulling data from across the nation and analyzing it in a novel collaboration with academia and private industry.
David Crandall, head of research and development for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said, "It's a real nice feeling to come here, kick the tires" on the new Distributed Information Systems Laboratory at Sandia-California.
"This is part of a leading edge of what we call responsive infrastructure. What is means is being able to respond, to design new capabilities into the(nuclear weapons) stockpile ... without nuclear testing," Crandall told a crowd of about 400 gathered in the building's grassy courtyard.
The $38 million lab will bring Sandia weapons scientists, engineers and computer-simulation and networking experts together in a building that's half classified and half unclassified.
University professors, students and private industry computing experts will share offices in the unclassified half, encouraging a freer sharing of scientific and technical ideas across the traditional walls and fences of the nuclear weapons world.
"You can do top-secret, classified work but also collaborate with academic and industry partners," said Patty Wagner, manager of the NNSA's Sandia Site Office in Albuquerque, N.M., which oversees the New Mexico and California sites of Sandia.
In years past, weapons scientists and computer scientists at Sandia worked in separate organizations and usually separate buildings. Sandia weaponeers use software to design the non-nuclear components that turn thermonuclear explosives designed at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore labs into actual warheads and bombs, including safing, firing and radar systems, as well as myriad safety features to lessen chances of accidents or unauthorized use of a stolen weapon.
Sandia-California computing chief Ken Washington and weapons chief Doug Henson now will share executive offices in the new lab, with room elsewhere for about 130 of their staff and 30 visitors. Data pipelines will link Sandia's lab with the other weapons labs' databases and supercomputers; factories such as Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina; and Pantex assembly-disassembly plant in Amarillo, Texas, and NNSA offices in Washington, D.C.
"The idea is enabling lots of local and distance collaboration between people and information," said Tom Hunter, head of Sandia labs' weapons program.
Mim John, Sandia vice president and head of Sandia's lab in Livermore said the melding of science, engineering and computer simulation in one building offers greater efficiency in adding new features to U.S. weapons.
"What now takes a multi-year process, we hope to shrink down to months or a year, depending on what's being asked of us," she said.
Dennis Beyer, a mechanical engineer who oversaw the new lab project, said the building will be fully equipped next spring with its supercomputer cluster, known as Catalyst, and a new visualization center, sporting a 27-screen central display and six ancillary displays. One mounted in the rear of the room allows a presenter to conduct a video conference without turning his back on his audience.
The essence of the lab is sharing ideas, if sometimes to a limited degree.
"The whole building is designed for suites, so you can 'suite-off' (several rooms) for need to know and all of the suites are soundproof," Beyer said.