To back this qualification effort, experiments and modeling and simulations are needed on a variety of scales from large machines — like the Z (pulsed-power accelerator), Saturn (hard X-ray source), and HERMES III (gamma ray source) — to tests in smaller laboratory settings.
Integrated Stockpile Evaluation (ISE), or the evaluation of the stockpile through Science-Based Engineering, is one of several major transformational efforts under way in Sandia’s weapons program. ISE is designed to integrate the knowledge collected on a weapon system during its lifetime in the stockpile and use it in a predictive way. This capability will help stockpile stewards know what issues are likely to come up with respect to each weapon.
Information from modeling, simulation, and validation testing and knowledge from Sandia’s laboratorydirected research and development efforts will be combined to provide predictions on aging and environmental changes, to anticipate problems, and to fix them before they arise. Information from changes to the weapons or even dismantlement can be used to advance the ISE knowledge base.
Another key feature in the stockpile transformation is CASA, creating a Common Adaptable System Architecture, to make use of capabilities of Sandia’s Microsystems and Engineering Science Applications program (MESA) through integrated microsystems. CASA will approach future stockpile requirements using integrated subsystems, small packages developed with advanced technology, in a modular manner.
Built around a centralized controller concept, which establishes standard interfaces among the subsystems, CASA designs will be able to meet requirements identified by the military today and have the flexibility to meet different demands in the future. The concept of CASA will include expansion modules to address self-testing, guidance and navigation, and a variety of other subsystems.
The stockpile of the future demands a nuclear complex of the future. The future complex, discussed in a series of public meetings late last year, is seen as one that needs to transition the skills, capabilities, and facilities of today into new capabilities and skills that will make it responsive, cost-effective, and sustainable.
With the unveiling of Complex 2030, the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration responded with a collection of recommendations based on the input of others. Tom D’Agostino, acting NNSA administrator, testified before the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, that the 2030 plan will establish a smaller, more efficient nuclear weapons complex able to respond to future challenges.
A smaller, safer, more secure stockpile, with assured reliability over the long term, must be backed by an industrial and design capability to respond to changing technical, geopolitical or military needs, D’Agostino said. The 2030 plan “offers the best hope of achieving the President’s vision of the smallest stockpile consistent with our national security needs.”