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The Quality of Science and Engineering at the NNSA National Security Laboratories (2013) / Chapter Skim
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3 Systems Engineering and Aging
Pages 19-25

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From page 19...
... In general, they have a unique base of people with the critical experience, skills, and integrated knowledge to rapidly design and engineer large, complex national security systems. This institutional experience base has been developed over decades, and stockpile stewardship at the nuclear weapons laboratories requires maintenance of the requisite skills.
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From page 20...
... The current surveillance program continues to identify potential S&E enhancements that would lead to an improved understanding of component aging effects, along with adding predictive capability, and retains the information traditionally gained from Joint Test Assembly flight tests. The envisioned transformed surveillance program assumes that the best approach to modern component aging assessment and management should be based on a sampling of components and materials; examination of a superset of that sample to determine the extent of age-related conditions and appropriate corrective actions; and eventual system recommendations, including a system de-rating if weapon reliability is partially compromised.
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From page 21...
... To consider these issues, significant collaborative studies have been undertaken by LANL and LLNL on the topic of plutonium aging leading to the milestone 2007 plutonium aging report, 2 which was an effort to determine a minimum pit-lifetime estimate to support decisions on the need, timing, and capacity for pit-production capability. That study summarized the physics and materials issues surrounding aging of stabilized, delta-phase plutonium alloy based on data from naturally aged samples up to 46 years of age and through an accelerated aging experiment that extended the equivalent age to 65 years.
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From page 22...
... These capabilities play a strong role in SNL's mission and strategy for nuclear weapons, national defense, energy, and scientific excellence and are critical for nuclear weapons stockpile maintenance and LEPs. While advancing the scientific and engineering frontiers of nanodevices and microsystems and enabling advances in other research areas at SNL, the research foundation program for nanodevices and microsystems develops, designs, and produces tens of thousands of components while specifying and procuring a much larger number of components required for the nuclear weapons LEPs for the B61 and W88 weapons as well as for future LEPs.
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From page 23...
... SNL staff told the committee that this gap can occasionally be bridged during the engineering phase of a new project, but such attempts tend to fall short and leave project managers with no choice but to opt for an existing design solution, rather than a more advanced solution deriving from LDRD results that are assessed to have the potential to offer substantial improvements. Lack of technology maturation investment results in an inability to use some innovations that would be more responsive and more efficient than existing technologies.
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From page 24...
... The committee does not know the appropriate fraction of promising technologies that should be matured, but such a large-scale paring down should not be done based on available budget alone but approached more strategically. WORK ENVIRONMENT AND STAFFING The three NNSA national security laboratories appear to have taken aggressive approaches to replace retiring S&E personnel high-quality hires, as gauged by standard metrics such as prior academic performance and class standing.
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From page 25...
... NNSA should continue the approach used for the 120-day study as one means of developing and maintaining a new generation of well-trained weapons designers and the concomitant systems engineering capability. 8 On January 10, 2012, NNSA officially requested that LANL, LLNL, and SNL perform a 120-day study to evaluate alternative warhead designs and to inform NNSA on potential options for future LEPs.
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Key Terms

  • neutron generators
  • materials research
  • security laboratories
  • surveillance program
  • weapons surveillance

  • aging effects
  • ldrd funding
  • technology readiness
  • ldrd projects
  • life extension

  • component aging
  • weapons mission
  • weapons complex
  • refurbished weapons
  • accelerated aging

  • complex national
  • materials issues
  • directed research
  • ldrd results
  • stockpile stewardship

  • foundation program
  • technology maturation
  • customer constraints
  • unique base
  • readiness level

  • future leps
  • readiness levels
  • critical experience
  • integrated knowledge
  • joint test


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