A Los Alamos scientist who has studied the history of U.S. and Soviet nuclear testing extensively will take his audience through the "new land" of testing at the arctic site of Novaya Zemlya at the next Director's Classified Colloquium on Wednesday, June 30. Tom Kunkle of Containment and Explosion Phenomenology (EES-11) will compare Soviet testing experiences during the Cold War to the U.S. program in his talk, scheduled for 1:10 p.m., in the Administration Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3.
All attendees must hold "Q" clearances and have sigmas 1-10 assigned by line management. To register for the colloquium and others in the classified colloquium series, write to the Security Help Desk and include name, Z number, group, electronic mail address and telephone number. Kunkle's talk is limited to U.S. citizens, although Q-cleared foreign nationals should check with Kunkle to determine whether they can receive clearances to attend.
Kunkle said his talk serves as a companion to Rod Wood-Schultz's May 19 colloquium on the early history of the Russian nuclear weapons program, focused on above-ground and underground testing and recent, post-Cold War weapons experiments.
The extreme isolation of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, coupled with relaxed Soviet safety rules and treaty policies, enabled tests of very high-yield nuclear devices, a variety of weapon effects experiments and Russian ventures into aspects of nuclear weapon design not readily accessible to their U.S. counterparts, Kunkle said.
Beginning in 1955, a total of 130 nuclear tests were conducted in the atmosphere, oceans and underground at Novaya Zemlya, which is still used for nuclear validation experiments.
"This arctic 'new land' became a fascinating laboratory for nuclear weapons science, engineering and experimentation, yet it is very little known in the West," Kunkle said. "I hope to give my audience the grand tour, within the limitations of a brief talk."
Kunkle has worked at Los Alamos since 1980, specializing in nuclear test containment, nuclear explosion phenomenology and the analysis of foreign nuclear weapon testing and development programs. For 22 years, he has been a member of the Department of Energy's Containment Evaluation Panel, charged with safety oversight and regulatory compliance for all U.S. nuclear test detonations, and currently chairs the Containment Review Panel, which evaluates sub-critical nuclear experiments.
Kunkle has written extensively on the history of U.S. nuclear testing, and recently completed a book on the conduct and consequences of the 1954 Operation CASTLE atmospheric nuclear detonations. He served as science adviser to DOE's test readiness program from 1989-95. He leads the Laboratory's foreign nuclear testing analysis program, is a member of the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee Russia and China working groups, and participates in the technical analysis and reporting of JAEIC community products. Kunkle has earned two National Intelligence Council awards and a Los Alamos Distinguished Performance Award.
He holds a bachelor's degree in astronomy from the University of Arizona, a doctorate from the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and a doctorate in medical physics from the John A. Burns School of Medicine at Hawaii.
The goal for the Director's Classified Colloquium series is to disseminate important and interesting information on classified scientific topics to Los Alamos technical staff. The talks are planned to help inform a wide audience of Los Alamos' major classified scientific research and to stimulate discussions within an appropriate, secure environment, ultimately leading to future ideas and initiatives that will advance classified programs.
More information about the classified colloquium series and upcoming colloquia is available at http://stbblue.lanl.gov/colloquium.html online.