Sandia Lab News

Frank Hansen earns lifetime achievement award

The Wendell D. Weart Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to retired Sandian Frank Hansen at a ceremony in Phoenix on March 10. The award was created by Sandia and Waste Management Symposia Inc. in 2001, in honor of Wendall Weart, who retired from Sandia in 2000, to recognize the recipient’s long-term commitment to solving major nuclear waste challenges.

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.

NM Capstone Challenge

Three university teams from New Mexico experienced firsthand what it might be like to tackle a national security project at Sandia through the NM Capstone Challenge. The teams had six months to develop an integrated sensing device capable of monitoring multiple environmental conditions during ground transportation of an asset or payload.

Chuck Loeber’s legacy

Chuck Loeber spent 50 years working in the nuclear weapons complex, with the last 20 as an employee and consultant at Sandia. He helped stand up neutron generator manufacturing in the 1990s and oriented a generation of new hires to Sandia and its responsibilities, teaching the popular History of the Nuclear Weapons Complex courses at the Labs and writing a well-known book on the subject. He died on May 10.

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.

Excellence in action

Sandia’s Laboratory Operating System program honored three teams that demonstrated lean thinking and behavior, improved operations and saved the Labs time and money in fiscal year 2019. Labs Director James S. Peery, Deputy Labs Director Dori Ellis and Business Excellence Director Joan Tafoya honored the teams at a ceremony in February, highlighting their innovations and how the teams challenged the status quo.

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