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Weapons Engineering at LANL
Los Alamos National Laboratory’s weapons engineering work comprises implementation of the core engineering and manufacturing elements of the nuclear weapons program at the Laboratory. These functions include engineering science, plutonium science and technology, component manufacturing, and nuclear waste management that help the Laboratory meet its stockpile stewardship responsibilities.
Los Alamos applies state of the art science and engineering to conduct its stockpile stewardship mission. Here are some of the areas of research we do to ensure that our nation's aging weapons remain in top shape.
- Aging Materials: The United States has never had a nuclear weapons stockpile as old as it is now, and predicting when parts will need to be replaced is a big challenge.
- Hydrodynamic Testing: Hydrodynamics experiments help scientists develop more realistic models of nuclear weapons explosions.
- Subcritical Testing: Because we can no longer conduct a supercritical nuclear test of an entire weapon, we do subcritical experiments at the Nevada Test Site using small amounts of nuclear material.
- Modeling & Simulation: Big, fast computers and better computer models of the processes occurring in explosions are needed to predict the performance of various aspects of nuclear weapons.
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