The Quality of Science and Engineering at the NNSA National Security Laboratories (2013) / Chapter Skim
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4 The Science Base
4 The Science Base
Pages 26-36
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From page 26... ...
Building on decades of S&E advances and infrastructure developments in support of the weapons mission, each of the laboratories has broadened its S&E activities to address, in addition to other areas such as basic science and energy, a wide array of national security challenges -- global security, including cyber security issues; intelligence community issues; energy and climate security; the Department of Defense's non-nuclear needs; and countering future threats, including weapons of mass destruction and bioterrorism. The fundamental and applied S&E research activities supported by the nuclear weapons (NW)
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From page 27... ...
Despite its importance for the laboratories' broader national security missions, however, materials science may be at risk in the future due to inadequate planning and coordination across the NNSA complex. While the LANL materials science and chemistry effort is perhaps the best defined and supported, there is an overall lack of coordination in materials science and chemistry programs across the NNSA laboratories.
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From page 28... ...
CONDENSED MATTER/MATERIALS SCIENCE AT EXTREME CONDITIONS An in-depth understanding of how materials behave under extreme dynamic loading (very large compressions, high temperatures, large deformations, and short timescales) is at the core of the S&E base for the weapons program and is important for related national security missions at the laboratories.
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From page 29... ...
to produce thermodynamic states that were previously inaccessible; significant advances in multiscale-theory and computations to examine a broad range of condensed matter phenomena; effects of pulse shape and loading path on dynamic fracture; and advances in static pressure research through synchrotron measurements. Each of these achievements, scientifically noteworthy, also provides significant benefits for NW programmatic objectives.
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From page 30... ...
While all three laboratories articulate the importance of the core weapons mission, they have difficulty describing an overall plan of how to allocate resources to different aspects of HEDS work that underpins weapons physics. Nevertheless, good progress has been made in determining many of the complex phenomena relevant to weapons physics.
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From page 31... ...
Accordingly, NIF will be a keystone in the federation of U.S experimental facilities -- such as the Z facility at SNL, Trident at LANL, OMEGA at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and Nike at the Naval Research Laboratory -- that are available for a broad range of research in plasma physics, atomic physics, and hydrodynamics that encompass stockpile stewardship HEDS, but also more widely for the collection of HEDS thrust areas that include laboratory 7 U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration's Path Forward to Achieving Ignition in the Inertial Confinement Fusion Program, Report to Congress, December 2012.
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From page 32... ...
This work should be encouraged by both the laboratory and NNSA. 8 Lack of a HEDS strategic plan was noted in the report accompanying the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2013: "The Committee directs NNSA to establish an independent advisory committee as soon as possible to help set a strategic direction for inertial confinement fusion and high-energy density physics research and determine how best to use current facilities to advance this scientific field." The language in this Senate report also mandated the NIF report referenced above.
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From page 33... ...
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND THE WORK ENVIRONMENT Based on extensive discussions with laboratory staff members, it is clear that they place a significant emphasis on the quality of their S&E activities. They are strongly committed to the overall national security missions of their respective laboratories, and they want their activities to have meaningful scientific and programmatic impacts well into the future.
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From page 34... ...
As such, the scientific enterprise at the NNSA laboratories needs to remain strong to ensure recruitment of the best talent. With the resources available to them and the programmatic guidance developed in conjunction with NNSA, all three laboratories have processes in place to integrate the different stockpile stewardship disciplines together on selected topics.
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From page 35... ...
The staff's expression of concern about the costs and process burdens (e.g., excessive operational formality and lack of shared purpose between ES&H staff and S&E staff) associated with relevant experiments is a significant issue because experiments are needed for addressing stockpile stewardship issues, training and code validation, and to ensure ongoing stockpile stewardship productivity.
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From page 36... ...
To ease the effect of these travel restrictions, Congress might consider requiring that travel restrictions to scientific conferences by scientists and engineers at NNSA national security laboratories be no more restrictive than those that apply to scientists and engineers funded by other agencies of the federal government. SCIENTIFIC FACILITIES Major Facilities and Infrastructure The quality of infrastructure that supports the science base is uneven, ranging from world-leading to unsatisfactory.
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