Expanding testing capacity for Sandia weapons modernization programs
The Sandia Programs Engineering and Assembly Research facility, or SPEAR, is the newest facility in nuclear weapons systems engineering at Sandia’s California site, expanding the Labs’ capacity to assemble and electrically test nuclear weapons components and systems.
Fat Man sent to Nevada atomic museum
Sandia, DoD and DTRA have moved a Manhattan Project Fat Man weapon shell from 1945 from the Labs' Manzano Mountain storage area to the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. The weapon is part of an exhibit marking the 75th anniversary of the Trinity nuclear test.
Deployed to combat COVID-19
For Sandia employee and Staff Sgt. Tawnya Jones and other members of the New Mexico National Guard, the state governor's declaration of a public health emergency in march meant stepping away from a civilian job and responding to a no-notice military deployment to support the state’s battle against the virus.
Weapon program meets safety, design requirements
Sandia has successfully completed another milestone in the B61-12 gravity bomb refurbishment program, demonstrating that the Labs is meeting important nuclear safety and use-control requirements. Sandia is the design and engineering lab for non-nuclear components of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, including the B61-12, and is the technical integrator for the complete weapon, assuring that the system meets requirements as a unit.
Aloha from Mount Haleakalā
After nearly 60 years of service to DOE, NNSA and Sandia, a facility atop Mount Haleakalā on the island of Maui, Hawaii, has been retired. Crews completed demolition and clean-up activities at the facility in March. The site, which sits at an elevation of 10,300 feet above sea level, was used for telemetry operations that provided high-altitude tracking for tests conducted from Sandia’s Kauai Test Facility.
B61-12 compatible with F-15E Strike Eagle
In early March at Sandia’s Tonopah Test Range, two flight tests were part of a full-weapon system demonstration to verify that the refurbished B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb is compatible with the U.S. Air Force’s F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet. The final compatibility test was a culmination of years of work that included ground testing and computer simulations as well as flight tests.
Titanium imaging advances
Albuquerque-based Advanced Optical Technologies has worked with Sandia through the NMSBA to test and verify their patented Crystallographic Polarization-Classification Imaging process, which reduces time spent on metals characterization from hours to minutes. The new imaging process has applications in the aerospace, automotive, energy and medical industries and for 3D printing.
Automating complex 3D modeling
A team of researchers led by Sandia has invented a first-of-its-kind software for scientists to create accurate digital representations, or meshes, of complex objects. The new software, VoroCrust, offers a novel way to meshes used by scientists in many disciplines to create geometric models of all kinds of parts, from rotors to wheels to protective equipment.
Sandia supports hypersonic flight test
Sandia employees and contractors saw their work culminate in a hypersonic flight test conducted by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army on March 19 at the Kauai Test Facility in Hawaii.
Biomanufacturing innovation
Sandia scientists joined other DOE national laboratories to showcase their bioscience research and capabilities before investors, industry representatives and university partners at the Innovation XLab: Biomanufacturing Summit at the California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Jan. 28-29.