DARHT, located at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, is the newest and largest experimental facility to come on line to date in the U.S. stockpile stewardship program, which ensures the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal without nuclear testing.
DARHT's experiments are called hydrodynamic tests because metals and other materials flow like liquids when driven by the high pressures and temperatures generated by the detonation of high explosives.
"Simply put, DARHT's X-rays are as key to the U.S. nuclear stockpile stewardship program as hospital X-rays are to helping to assess the health of the human body," said Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. "DARHT and the other tools of stockpile stewardship, including material science, and computer modeling and simulation, help to ensure the safety and reliability of our current weapons systems," Richardson said.
"I am tremendously proud of these men and women," said Richardson, who met with the DARHT team in July. "They are among the best and the brightest from the U.S. science and engineering field."
This week's milestone marks the operational readiness of the first axis of DARHT. When the second axis is completed in 2002, DARHT will have two giant X-ray machines set at right angles, providing a more complete picture of what materials are doing as they implode.
DARHT does not lead to a nuclear reaction. It only provides a nonnuclear replication of what occurs in a real nuclear weapon when the primary stage implodes. In a complete weapon, the primary stage acts as the trigger for the nuclear explosion.
"Monday's test proves DARHT's technical capabilities and is a milestone we have been working toward for a decade," said Mike Burns, DARHT project director. "The facility and the equipment performed magnificently."
DARHT's team comprises about 150 Laboratory employees and subcontractors, and includes staff from Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories.
Todd Kauppila of Los Alamos' Dynamic Experimentation Division was the lead experimentalist for Monday's hydrotest. "The test went very well. We will be analyzing the results over the next few weeks, but initial indications are that we have a very high resolution picture and an exciting new tool to investigate the dynamics of implosions," he said.
"The DARHT project has served as an outstanding example of what the Laboratory can achieve technologically," said John Browne, Los Alamos director.
"DARHT represents excellence in science, engineering and project management. It sets a standard that others will have to work hard to equal," Browne said. "It also gives us a tool that we need when every year we certify the safety and reliability of the nuclear stockpile to the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of Defense, who then certify to the President."
DARHT is capable of generating a beam of power equivalent to 20,000 chest X-rays. The facility's walls, built of specially reinforced concrete, are more than five feet thick in the area facing the high-explosives test. DARHT is capable of handling explosive loads up to the equivalent of 150 pounds of TNT.
The budget for the recently completed first phase of DARHT is about $105.7 million. The second phase, when completed in 2002, is estimated at $154 million.
"Besides offering advanced optical and electronic diagnostics necessary for full-size hydrodynamic tests that are essential experimental confirmation of weapons computer codes, DARHT also will provide capabilities for experiments investigating shock physics, high-velocity impacts, and materials and high-explosives science," said Stephen Younger, Los Alamos' associate laboratory director for nuclear weapons.
"This data will benchmark computer calculations that will serve as the basis for future nuclear stockpile decisions," he said.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.