Science
Z provides the fastest, most accurate, and cheapest method to determine how materials will react under high pressures and temperatures, characteristics that can then be expressed in formulas called “equations of state.”
Energy
The importance of Z in solving the world’s energy challenges is directly connected to its potential in the realm of fusion. Inertial confinement fusion for peaceful production of electricity has always been of interest to Sandia’s Pulsed Power Sciences.
Fusion
In order to fuse the atoms, the force that repels them as they come together must be overcome. Accelerators accomplish this by forcing molecules to collide with one another at very high temperatures (high temperatures are simply molecules moving at high speeds).
National Security
The detonation of nuclear weapons may affect equipment even at great distances from the explosion. This means electronic weapons systems and related equipment may malfunction when exposed, even at a distance, to radiation from an opponent’s weapons.
