PREDICTION, TESTING, MODELING & SIMULATION

Current Research

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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Classified?

The basic scientific ideas that describe a nuclear explosion - critical mass, fission, implosion- are relatively simple. The specifics of such devices- the necessary amounts of the various materials, the shapes and arrangements of the many components, and the precise timing of events leading up the the explosion-those details are classified "secret restricted data."