Officials from the three organizations this week will sign a memorandum of understanding spelling out the scope of the new research Center.
News media representatives are invited to a signing ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, in the Wyndham Albuquerque Hotel ballroom, 2910 Yale Blvd. SE.
Researchers in the technical security community call them "energetic materials and devices." The public calls them explosives and bombs. By any name, there is a growing need for advanced capabilities to identify, evaluate, test and disarm such devices. In recent years, funding for scientific research on energetic materials has declined, and the development of new energetic devices for peaceful and military applications has correspondingly decreased.
Each CEMED partner brings unique capabilities to the table.
Los Alamos brings to the new partnership a long history of developing and characterizing new energetic materials under normal and extreme conditions, using sophisticated experimental diagnostics, precision fabrication facilities and sites for energetic materials studies. Los Alamos' mission of nuclear weapons stewardship includes modeling and simulation of the behavior of energetic materials and the manufacture of high-energy detonators for the U.S. stockpile and other applications.
Sandia for more than 50 years has had as one of its core missions the design and production of advanced energetic devices and subsystems. CEMED projects will offer Sandia and its Regional Alliance for Manufacturing Program partners a chanced to stretch their manufacturing capabilities on high consequence/low volume systems and assemblies.
New Mexico Tech is the only U.S. university to offer degrees in explosives engineering; it conducts research and testing related to energetic materials and explosives for industry and government agencies.
Customers for CEMED will include the U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and Agriculture, as well as other federal and state agencies with an interest in energetic materials and devices.
The Center also will be a resource for U.S. companies that develop, use, and manufacture energetic materials and devices. They include companies from various industry sectors including transportation, mining, oil and gas, automotive, and munitions manufacturers.
Initial projects CEMED is pursuing include developing energetic devices to help fight wild fires for the U.S. Forest Service and experimental tests to determine blast pressure and validate simulation models of building demolitions.
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.