Underground Nuclear Test Readiness: Geologic and Stemming Issues
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Series: Los Alamos Women in Science
Where: Synergy Center, 3rd flr, Bldg 1, Research Park
When: Time: 12:00 Date: 01/14/2004
Contact(s): J T. Gammel
URL: http://lawis.lanl.gov/LunchTalks
What: Noon - Speaker: Wendee Brunish, EES-11
Between 1971 and the beginning of the nuclear test moratorium in 1992, LANL conducted 157 underground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. For each of these tests, containment design, including hole selection, depth of burial determination, geologic characterization, stemming design, and prediction of test phenomena, was provided by the containment program (currently centered in the Geodynamics Group in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division). During this entire period, there was no release of any radioactivity to the accessible environment. Recent government mandates have required a reduction in the preparation time required to resume nuclear testing from three to five years down to 18 to 24 months. This reduced lead time requires that a number of activities be begun immediately, including containment activities. These containment activities fall into six major areas: hiring and training new personnel to serve as containment scientists, geologists, and modelers; updating and enhancing containment databases and database interfaces; developing modern 3-D stress wave codes; modifying porous flow codes to address containment issues; identifying and predicting performance of new stemming materials; and developing new containment diagnostics sensors and analysis software.
These activities will ensure that we can maintain our capability to contain underground nuclear tests well into the future and that, should testing resume, we will continue our perfect record for containment for all future tests. |
