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Sandia, Los Alamos, New Mexico Tech team on 'energetic materials' research Researchers from DOE's Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology have joined to create the Center for Energetic Materials and Energetic Devices (CEMED). Initial projects CEMED is pursuing include developing energetic devices to help fight wild fires for the forest service and experimental tests to determine blast pressure and validate simulation models of building demolitions. While researchers in the technical security community often call them "energetic materials and devices," the public knows them as explosives and bombs. By any name, though, as the nation remains under the threat of terrorist attack, there is a growing urgency to develop advanced capabilities to identify, evaluate, test and disarm such devices. At the same time, there has been a decline in recent years in research into the science of energetic materials and a corresponding decrease in development of new energetic devices for both peaceful and military applications. The three CEMED partners are establishing the Center to address the immediate terrorist threat as well as the longer-term need to revitalize the nation's energetic materials R&D activities. And each CEMED partner brings unique capabilities to the partnership. Sandia has for more than 50 years 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 (RAMP) partners a chance to stretch their manufacturing capabilities on high-consequence/low-volume systems and assemblies. 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 and accurate materials and test fabrication facilities. And 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 a broad range of federal and state agencies with an interest in energetic materials and devices. Additionally, the Center will be a resource for U.S. companies that develop, use, and manufacture energetic materials and devices, including transportation, mining, oil and gas, automotive, and munitions manufacturers. Submitted by DOE's Sandia National Laboratories |
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