Livermore, California 94551 BoxP.O. 808,L-664 Science & Technology Review Lawrence LivermoreNationalLaboratory University ofCalifornia September 1997 Printed on recycled paper.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

NovaNova andand StockpileStockpile StewardshipStewardship

Also in this issue: Albuquerque, NM emtN.853 Permit No. Nonprofit Org. .S Postage S. U. PAID • Collaborations to Reduce Proliferation Risks • Taming Explosives for Training About the Cover September 1997 S&TR Staff September 1997

Lawrence Lawrence Livermore’s laser remains, Livermore National Lawrence until the National Ignition Facility is completed, Laboratory SCIENTIFIC EDITOR the world’s largest laser. It has been and Ravi Upadhye Livermore continues to be a rich source of experimental National data about the behavior of matter at pressures MANAGING EDITOR Laboratory and temperatures approaching those of an Sam Hunter exploding , but on a minute Nova and scale. In an era when nuclear testing is no longer Stockpile PUBLICATION EDITOR an option for gathering data about the precise Stewardship Dean Wheatcraft nature of nuclear weapons detonations, Nova is 2 The Laboratory in the News proving to be a valuable tool in helping to WRITERS determine the safety and reliability of the Bart Hacker, Sam Hunter, and Gloria Wilt nation’s nuclear stockpile. The article beginning 3 Commentary by E. Michael Campbell and Michael Anastasio on p. 4 reports on Nova’s contributions to ART DIRECTOR AND DESIGNER Superlasers as a Tool of Stockpile Stewardship DOE’s Stockpile Stewardship and Management Kitty Tinsley Program. The cover shows a Laboratory Also in this issue: • Collaborations to Reduce Proliferation Risks technician working inside the Nova target • Taming Explosives for Training Features INTERNET DESIGNER chamber where ten arms deliver 40,000 joules of Kitty Tinsley 4 Nova Laser Experiments and Stockpile Stewardship laser energy to a half-millimeter-diameter target. Livermore’s Nova laser is proving a powerful laboratory tool in support of COMPOSITOR DOE’s Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program. Louisa Cardoza

PROOFREADER 14 Sharing the Challenges of Nonproliferation Al Miguel Lawrence Livermore scientists and engineers are working on a variety of tasks with their counterparts in Russia and other newly independent states of the former Soviet Union to reduce the threat of proliferation. S&TR is a Director’s Office publication, What Do You Think? produced by the Technical Information Research Highlight Department, under the direction of the We want to know what you think of our Office of Policy, Planning, and Special 24 Taming Explosives for Training publication. Please use the enclosed survey form Studies. to give us your feedback. 27 Patents

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About the Review

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is operated by the for the Department of Energy. At Livermore, we focus science and technology on assuring our nation’s security. We also apply that expertise to solve other important national problems in energy, bioscience, and the Page 4 environment. Science & Technology Review is published ten times a year to communicate, to a broad audience, the Laboratory’s scientific and technological accomplishments in fulfilling its primary missions. The publication’s goal is to help readers understand these accomplishments and appreciate their value to ¥ ¥ the individual citizen, the nation, and the world. Please address any correspondence (including name and address changes) to S&TR, Mail Stop L-664, Prepared by LLNL under contract Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551, or telephone (510) Page 24 No. W-7405-Eng-48 422-8961. Our electronic mail address is [email protected]. 2 The Laboratory in the News Commentary by E. Michael Campbell and Michael Anastasio 3

Lawrence Livermore Breaks Ground for NIF Lawrence Livermore Wins Seven R&D 100 Awards Superlasers as a Tool of Energy Secretary Federico Peña joined Laboratory When researchers who won coveted R&D 100 awards Director Bruce Tarter and Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher on sit down at the awards banquet in Chicago this month, May 29 to break ground for the National Ignition Facility. Lawrence Livermore will be well represented. The Stockpile Stewardship Speaking to a gathering of more than 2,000 employees and Laboratory’s seven awards this year match its previous guests, Peña called NIF “one step closer to a better future” record totals, which were set in 1987 and 1988. Since 1978, and concluded that “NIF will unleash the power of the the Laboratory has won 68 of these awards, which are heavens to make Earth a better place.” considered to be the “Oscars” of the research and RAMATIC changes in U.S. nuclear weapons policy have The development of high-power lasers has enhanced the The new $1.2-billion facility will house a 192-beam development community. D followed the end of the Cold War, among them halts to the ability to pursue basic research on nuclear detonation. Since laser, the world’s largest. Through NIF, Lawrence Livermore Each year, R&D Magazine honors the top 100 entries development of new types of weapons and to weapon testing. 1985, weapon scientists from various laboratories have used and other national laboratories will work to achieve fusion to the competition with this prestigious award. Three other The current stockpile must remain safe, secure, and reliable the Nova laser system to conduct more than 12,000 energy as well as help assure the safety and reliability of the Department of Energy national laboratories won awards: into the indefinite future as it undergoes changes caused by experiments. Even as Nova research continues, preparations nuclear stockpile without nuclear testing. Sandia and Oak Ridge each won eight, and Los Alamos aging or remanufacturing and replacement of aging are under way for its successor; the National Ignition Peña’s praise of the Laboratory’s scientific achievements won six. components. This challenge has led to the development by Facility will become a cornerstone of DOE’s Stockpile was echoed by Tauscher, Tarter, Assistant to the Secretary of The Lawrence Livermore winners are: DOE of the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program. Stewardship and Management Program. Defense Harold Smith, University of California President • Absolute Interferometer, by a team led by Gary Henceforth, confidence in America’s nuclear arsenal will Although ten times more powerful and forty times more Richard Atkinson, and Livermore Mayor Cathie Brown. Sommargren of the Laser Programs Directorate. This depend more than ever on our fundamental understanding of energetic than Nova, NIF will still produce total energies Smith said that NIF underscores the importance of the invention super-accurately measures large surfaces to weapon science and technology. That understanding must now only a tiny fraction of those in full-scale nuclear collaborations between the national laboratories and the atomic dimensions (less than a billionth of a meter). This be pursued without recourse to system-level tests of integrated detonations—total energy in the laser beams will be Department of Defense. “NIF marks a creative step toward capability, a hundredfold increase over previous technology, performance—the detonation of full-scale nuclear devices. equivalent to a half pound of TNT, or one billionth of the meeting the needs of national security,” he said. will expand the frontiers of the semiconductor and optical Scientists have turned to several tools, including advanced energy of a nuclear weapon. Yet NIF will be able to Atkinson pointed out that the nation’s universities manufacturing industries and be invaluable in making tools hydrotesting, subcritical experiments, advanced computer approach much more closely than Nova the range of high account for more than a quarter of federally funded research for metrology. simulation and modeling, and what have come to be called energy-densities (and therefore temperatures) produced by in the nation. Through NIF, he sees even greater Contact: Gary Sommargren (510) 423-8599 superlasers, to address some of the remaining scientific issues. nuclear weapons and necessary to achieve fusion ignition. collaborations between UC institutions and the national ([email protected]). Nuclear detonations produce enormous total energy; no With NIF, many of the fundamental processes of laboratories. • Ultraclean Ion Beam Sputter Deposition System, laboratory tool can deliver more than a small fraction of thermonuclear detonation become, for the first time, fully Tauscher called the NIF groundbreaking “a testament to by a team headed by Stephen Vernon of the Laser Programs nuclear yield. But nuclear detonations also produce very high accessible to laboratory study and analysis. As a bonus, NIF the Lab’s hard work.” She also believes NIF will be an Directorate. This system deposits ultralow-defect thin films levels of energy per unit volume, that is, high energy density. will provide a unique means of testing nuclear weapon excellent example of how the national laboratories will work on substrates, reducing defects by a factor of 100,000. High-power lasers can approach such high energy densities, effects and a powerful new tool for basic science with the private sector to develop an alternative energy source These virtually defect-free films are critical to device even if only momentarily in very small spaces. Extremely applications of high-energy-density physics (e.g., as well as future technologies. fabrication in the $120-billion semiconductor industry powerful lasers can, in short, create microscopic versions of astrophysics, plasma physics, and fusion energy). Brown said the City of Livermore was most fortunate to and the $100-billion magnetic recording industry. some important aspects of nuclear detonations, something The next generation of superlasers, such as NIF in the be the home of two unique national laboratories. Calling Contact: Stephen Vernon (510) 423-7826 ([email protected]). available through no other experimental technique. They United States and the French Laser MegaJoule (LMJ), will Lawrence Livermore “a key stakeholder in our community,” • Femtosecond Laser Materials Processing, by a also can permit the production and study of fusion ignition provide still more detailed understanding of the processes of she thanked the Laboratory’s employees for “leadership in team headed by Brent Stuart of the Laser Programs in the laboratory. nuclear detonation. It will enable scientists to gain a much science, engineering, national security, environmental quality, Directorate. This new machining tool uses lasers to machine As a result of superlasers and other laboratory tools, the improved understanding of the basic physics of nuclear education, and job growth.” all materials, regardless of composition (steel, diamond, study of high-energy-density physics can be moved from the weapons, greatly enhance their ability to predict weapon The National Ignition Facility is scheduled to be heart tissue, etc.) with negligible heat and damage to to the laboratory, at least in part. Doing so performance, and provide a sounder basis for assuring the completed in 2003. collateral materials. It uses pulses that are of so short a can offer some real advantages. High-power lasers can support safety and reliability of the nuclear stockpile. Contact: LLNL Media Relations (510) 422-4599 duration that material even within 0.1 micrometers of the more frequent experiments than full-scale weapon testing ([email protected]). machined surface is not damaged. The method enables a could. They also offer more precise control of experimental ■ E. Michael Campbell is Associate Director, Laser Programs. new class of high-precision machining, with applications conditions and greater access for detailed measurements; that ■ Michael Anastasio is Associate Director, Defense and Nuclear ranging from surgery to demilitarization of chemical, is, the variables can, to some extent, be separated. These Technologies. biological, and nuclear weapons components. capabilities contribute significantly to the feasibility of Contact: Brent Stuart (510) 424-5782 ([email protected]). stockpile stewardship and management.

(continued on page 28)

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 4 5 Nova Laser Experiments Livermore’s Nova laser is proving to be a powerful laboratory tool in and Stockpile Stewardship support of DOE’s Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program.

HERMONUCLEAR weapons are of a weapon’s performance. Only by understood. Under these circumstances, In a variety of experimental pulses, Nova produces 16 trillion watts Although direct drive produces high T extremely complex devices, both actually testing weapons did they obtain the laboratories could, with great facilities, scientists are addressing of laser light. energy-densities, this method has in design and operation. When a nuclear the experimental data against which to confidence, certify the safety and different aspects of nuclear explosions. Nuclear detonations produce very definite drawbacks. Simulating direct- weapon detonates, it initiates a chain of measure their physical models and reliability of the nuclear stockpile. In the laboratory, the highest energy- high energy-density. High-power lasers drive experiments requires calculating physical processes ranging from computer codes. This approach worked Circumstances have now changed. density conditions (that is, the highest like Nova can approach such high the complex interaction of laser light chemical explosion to thermonuclear extremely well, as long as scientists did The unavailability of nuclear testing levels of energy per unit volume) are energy-densities, even if only with matter, an interaction not typically burning, not all of which scientists not stray too far beyond the body of requires new approaches to assuring the obtained mainly through laser research momentarily in very small spaces. modeled in computer codes used for understand in every detail. Although direct evidence. The match between safety and reliability of our nation’s on inertial confinement nuclear fusion. Extremely powerful lasers can, in short, weapon design. Perhaps more significant sophisticated computer programs model data and calculation steadily improved, nuclear stockpile. Notably, there is Over the years, Lawrence Livermore create microscopic versions of some are the high standards of laser uniformity these processes, such models leading to increasingly good prediction greater reliance on computer codes, the has designed a series of increasingly important aspects of nuclear detonations, and target fabrication required; even unavoidably require many of overall weapon performance, even accuracy of which must be evaluated powerful lasers, culminating in the something available through no other minor flaws of homogeneity or surface approximations. though some phenomena remained against historical underground testing National Ignition Facility, now under experimental technique. roughness may negate a direct-drive Until a few years ago, scientists less than completely data and data provided by construction.1 NIF will be a neodymium– Using Nova, scientists have been experiment. To avoid these problems, could rely on nuclear tests to provide laboratory experiments. glass laser system with 192 beams. It able to explore at least the lower reaches scientists have usually preferred to rely regular integral tests will be capable of delivering as much as of the high-energy-density regime in on an alternative method. 3 to 4 million joules of laser energy in which the physics of nuclear weapons Instead of directly striking the target, millimeter-scale or greater volumes in poses the most unsolved problems.3 the laser beams enter the open ends of a less than 10 billionths of a second in a Figure 1 depicts the Nova laser facility hohlraum, a hollow gold cylinder a few variety of wavelengths, pulse lengths, in a cutaway view. Major optical millimeters long (Figure 3). When the and pulse shapes. At peak power, NIF components of a single Nova beamline laser light strikes the inner walls of the will generate up to 750 trillion watts of are shown schematically in Figure 2. hohlraum, they absorb the laser energy, laser light. Nova can produce the high energy- which is transformed into an intense Although far less powerful than NIF, densities demanded by weapon physics flux of x rays that heats the hohlraum Lawrence Livermore’s Nova laser is a experiments in two ways. Conceptually, and any sample it contains. Because the very potent machine with over a decade’s the simplest is the method known as laser-generated x rays (rather than the operation to demonstrate its enormous direct drive. All the laser beams focus laser energy itself) drive the value.2 It is a neodymium–glass laser directly onto the target, or physics experiment, this alternative mode of with ten beams. Typically operating at a package, in the target chamber. The operation is known as indirect drive. wavelength of 0.35 micrometers and absorbed energy delivers a strong shock One advantage of the indirect-drive 40,000 joules in 2.5-nanosecond to the target, compressing and heating it. technique derives from the measurability and uniformity of the x-ray flux. The interaction of the uniform x-ray flux with matter also can be accurately Figure 1. Cutaway view of Nova laser facility when it opened in 1985. The space frame (right) modeled. Another advantage of indirect supports the ten-laser amplifier chains. A system of high-reflectivity mirrors ensures that the drive is the relative uniformity with ten laser beams arrive simultaneously at the target, centered in the spherical chamber (left). which soft x rays heat a physics sample

Science & Technology Review September 1997 6 Nova Laser Experiments Nova Laser Experiments 7

in a hohlraum. Figure 3 shows two views behaves at high energy-densities. To pressure, the material’s volume changes Each material possesses its own (a) (b) of a typical Nova hohlraum; Figure 4 describe these conditions in a particular to a new state at higher density, unique equation of state. No single is a rendering of the target chamber material, scientists rely on an equation temperature, and pressure. valid model exists for the entire range housing the tiny hohlraum. of state, which mathematically expresses By varying the shock strength in a of variables, which may cover many Although significant progress has also the thermodynamic relationship between series of experiments from the same orders of magnitude in nuclear weapons been made for direct-drive experiments, the energy content of a mass of material, starting conditions, scientists can obtain operations. Thus, the equation of state Nova is not configured to exploit this its volume, and its temperature. High- a set of pressure–volume pairs. They can for a particular material derives from concept. NIF is designed to handle both energy-density equations of state are then plot these pairs to produce the models of limited scope for particular indirect- and direct-drive experiments. fundamental in describing such material’s Hugoniot—that is, the regimes of pressure, density, and Essentially, physics experiments on phenomena as hydrodynamics and mathematical curve relating the velocity temperature. These models are usually Nova address two basic phenomena: radiation transport; their fundamental of a single shock wave to the pressure, collected in a table of equation-of-state hydrodynamics and radiation. importance also makes them crucial density, and total heat of the transmitting values that can be used in code Hydrodynamics is the physics of the in understanding the operation of material before and after the shock wave calculations. motion of fluid materials. Strongly nuclear weapons. passes. Because of its relative simplicity, For nuclear detonations, the equation influencing hydrodynamic phenomena Suddenly adding large amounts of the Hugoniot is the primary avenue for of state extends through two distinct Figure 3. (a) Side view of a typical Nova is a property of matter termed equation energy to a material system creates investigating a material’s equation of regimes. In the early phase of implosion, hohlraum shown next to a human hair. (b) The of state—the relationship between a intense sound or pressure waves, which state experimentally. before any significant nuclear yield, end-on view shows a target within the hohlraum. material’s pressure, temperature, and become shock waves. Shock compression temperatures are relatively low and such Hohlraums for the National Ignition Facility will volume. is a widely used method for factors as strength of material and have linear dimensions about five times greater Radiation studies center on the experimentally determining equations chemical reaction are most significant. than those for Nova. emission, transmission, and absorption of of state at high pressures. An Scientists study this relatively low- energy in hot dense plasmas. Experiments experiment begins with determining energy-density regime through determine the x-ray opacity of various the initial pressure, volume, and experiments using high explosives or materials and how it varies with energy of the material. gas guns (essentially converted cannons), temperature and density. They also Compressed by a single which in high-density materials can address radiative heat transfer as well shock wave to greater Target generate pressures up to a few as the interaction of radiation fields megabars—that is, up to a few million with matter, including the absorption times normal atmospheric pressure. and re-emission of radiation. Such data determine the lower end of the curve in Figure 5, which shows the Hugoniot of aluminum. Shocking Matter Oscillator The basic science of nuclear Vastly higher pressures, hundreds of detonations begins with megabars, characterize high-energy- learning how matter 4.0-cm diameter density regimes, where scientists formerly 46.0-cm diameter Splitter acquired data only through nuclear tests. Path equalization Data points at the upper end of the curve 9.2-cm diameter in Figure 5 come, with large uncertainties, from openly published work based on Spatial filters the Soviet underground nuclear test program. Because of insufficient Amplifiers experimental data, scientists must 15.0-cm diameter 31.5-cm diameter Isolators interpolate the intermediate portion of Space for added amplifiers the curve and extrapolate to pressures beyond the data. Tuning mirrors At multi-megabar pressures, neighboring atoms are packed so tightly 20.8-cm diameter as to disrupt each other’s outermost electron shells. The resulting ionization Figure 4. Artist’s rendering of the outside of the Nova target chamber, where the ten laser beams caused by pressure absorbs large amounts converge to heat and shock a tiny hohlraum. Note the two human figures at work on the platform. Figure 2. Arrangement of major optical components in a representative Nova beam line. of energy and makes the material more The entire structure is three stories high, and the spherical target chamber is 4.5 meters (15 feet) in Note provision of space for added amplifiers to increase beam power at low cost. compressible. Various theories predict diameter. different curves, as Figure 6 illustrates

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 8 Nova Laser Experiments Nova Laser Experiments 9

Density, grams per cubic centimeter for aluminum. Potentially, powerful Diagnostic instruments record the time decompresses does the foil melt, and incompressible. But weapon physics 4 6810 12 14 lasers can provide experimental data to it takes the shock wave to break through only then does Rayleigh–Taylor must deal with the compressible flows 4 10 fill in the curve, not only for aluminum the opposite faces of the steps, thereby instability appear to develop normally. that exist under conditions of high but for many other materials. determining the shock speed in both In other words, the strength of the energy-density. Understanding the Mitchell and Nellis For each point on the Hugoniot, materials. Comparing the test sample with compressed metal stabilizes the effects of compressibility and radiation Al’tshuler et al. 103 scientists must measure two quantities. the known standard yields information interface. These experiments are directly flow on hydrodynamic mixing is Kormer et al. One is usually the speed of the shock in on the equation of state of the sample. relevant to primaries, where materials crucial. Compressibility alters density, Volkov et al. the material. Another can be the speed Uncertainties in important details can retain strength throughout much of the affecting the evolution of perturbations Ragan to which the shocked material has been complicate interpretation of the results explosion. and the behavior of mixing. 102 Vladimirov et al. accelerated, the so-called particle speed. of equation-of-state experiments. Was In the familiar low-energy-density A recent Nova experiment has Table To measure shock-wave and particle an absolutely planar shock delivered to world, most fluid flows behave as if investigated turbulent mixing caused speeds, scientists use a technique called the target? Could electrons or radiation 10 x-ray backlighting. A shock can be driven from the hohlraum have affected the Figure 7. Initial results from an Interface Pressure, megabars into a material with a laser. A beam of target before the shock arrived? Despite Piston Shock front x rays generated by a second laser with such challenges, lasers offer the only experiment using the Nova laser to well-known and closely controlled path currently available for such measure the equation of state of a

1 characteristics illuminates the target from investigations at pressures greater than Position plastic. The time-resolved one- the side. Material changes caused by the 10 megabars, where many theoretical dimensional image shows the interface shock wave absorb the x-ray backlight uncertainties linger. between a plastic piston (doped with bromine to make it opaque to the x-ray 10Ð1 differently as it passes through the target. 1 2345 Captured on film, these differences Turbulent Fluid Movement backlighter) and the undoped plastic sample being compressed . Note the Compression provide the data required to compute In contrast to the smooth, orderly Time shock front moving ahead in the plastic. Figure 5. Comparison of experimental and theoretical shock Hugoniots of points on the Hugoniot. behavior of fluids in laminar flow—as aluminum. The data points at the upper, highest pressure portion of the graph To measure the principal Hugoniot, visible in a candle flame—rapidly moving come from experiments conducted in Soviet nuclear weapons tests and reported in the target material at standard temperature fluids tend to become turbulent, the kind the open literature. and pressure is struck with single shocks of chaotic, disordered state of flow seen of different strength. Measuring the in rocket exhausts. Turbulence in swiftly thermodynamic states created when flowing fluids promotes their mixing, single shock waves pass through the such as where fluids of different density Figure 6. Calculations of the 104 target material gives scientists a set of border each other. Hohlraum principal Hugoniot of data points that lie on the principal Scientists study three types of TFQC aluminum using a variety of Hugoniot, which they can then plot. turbulent mixing observed in nuclear SCES theoretical methods, plotted Figure 7 illustrates a recent Nova weapons: acceleration-induced, when a SCF for high pressure and experiment to measure thermodynamic lighter fluid pushes against a denser compression, where the HFS 103 states. The target had two parts: a flat, fluid (known as the Rayleigh–Taylor various models exhibit ACTEX very thin plastic “piston” and a wafer of instability); shock-induced, when a shock differences: Thomas–Fermi INFERNO the compound under study. Laser- wave passes through the fluid interface model with quantum SCES' generated x rays launched a strong shock, (Richtmyer–Meshkov instability); and Plastic section corrections (TFQC), semi- several tens of megabars, into the piston, shear-induced, when two fluids in contact classical equation of state sending a shock wave through the wafer. are moving relative to each other (Kelvin– 2 (SCES), self-consistent field Pressure, megabars 10 Another measurement technique, Helmholtz instability). Turbulent mixing Backlighter Spatial (SCF), Hartree–Fock–Slater impedance matching or shock breakout, is a factor in understanding the operation foil fiducial (HFS), ionization equilibrium Low-density grid relies on comparing shock velocities in of both the primaries and secondaries of foam cylinder plasma (ACTEX), INFERNO, a reference material of known nuclear weapons. and another version of the characteristics (often aluminum) with Experiments on Nova have begun to Experimental semi-classical equation of those in a test sample. Laser-generated measure the growth of Rayleigh–Taylor package state (SCES'). 10 3456x rays or a laser-accelerated flyer plate instability in solids. Mounted in a Compression shocks the target, which comprises hohlraum, a foil of copper or molybdenum Figure 8. Cutaway view of the hohlraum and attached experimental package for precisely measured thicknesses (called is compressed and shocked while measuring shock-induced mixing. Within the beryllium shock tube is the plastic steps) of the test sample alongside maintained below its melting point. section with machined sawtoothed perturbations and the low-density foam reference material. Only after the drive ceases and the metal cylinder. Behind the experimental package is the backlighter foil.

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 10 Nova Laser Experiments Nova Laser Experiments 11

by shock-induced Richtmyer–Meshkov Within the tube nearest the hohlraum plastic. Upon crossing the sawtooth- large. The complicated interaction of laser with results obtained using a new In one type of experiment, a thin instabilities in an environment of high was a plastic section, beyond which shaped interface between plastic and radiation with these complex ions makes opacity code. opaque foil replaces part of the hohlraum energy-density. The experimental was a cylinder of low-density foam. foam, the shock induced a mixing flow opacity hard to calculate and forces wall. Laser-generated x rays inside the package comprised a beryllium tube Rapidly heated to very high (Figure 9a). Experimental results agreed scientists to rely on approximations. Other Nova Experiments hohlraum blow off the foil’s inside mounted perpendicularly to the side of temperature by the focused laser beams, well both with simulations and a To test such approximations, they have Opacity alone will not suffice to surface, driving a shock back into the foil. a standard Nova hohlraum (Figure 8). the hohlraum launched a shock into the theoretical model (Figure 9b). conducted experiments on many different calculate radiative processes in a weapon. The shock traverses the foil and breaks Figure 10 compares three-dimensional materials at various temperatures and Scientists also require detailed physical out its back surface. An ultraviolet surface plots created from data from a densities. Comparing these data with models of heat transport and must telescope, coupled with an optical streak (a) recent Nova experiment with a three- code calculations can then improve understand interactions between radiation camera, is focused on the foil’s back side 180 1.5 dimensional simulation of the event both physical models and computer and matter. Radiative heat and particle to measure the time of shock breakout, created by the HYDRA three-dimensional simulations of opacity. transport experiments truly of value to from which the temperature inside the simulation code.4 Both representations Because opacity varies rapidly with weapon scientists working on stockpile hohlraum can be inferred. 160 show a broad bubble surrounding sample conditions, experiments demand stewardship demand more laser energy The radiation field inside the narrow spikes, a shape characteristic of accurate measurement not only of opacity than Nova can furnish. Preliminary hohlraum also drives a radiative heat the nonlinear phase of the Rayleigh– but also of temperature and density. experiments on Nova, however, have wave through the shocked foil material. 120 Taylor instability. The HYDRA Scientists can obtain such highly precise helped develop research techniques and The breakout of this heat wave on the simulation reproduces not only the measurements only if the sample’s increase understanding of the basic foil’s back side is recorded by a streak overall magnitude of the perturbation, temperature and density are spatially physics in this area. camera. By using different types and 80 but essentially all of the details of the uniform. Over the past several years, shape, and demonstrates the Laboratory’s they have devised techniques for doing (a) Nova data unique ability to accurately model in so within laser-produced plasmas. In a Saddle point

Radial position, micrometers three dimensions nonlinear aspects of typical experiment, an opacity sample 40 high-energy-density experiments. doped with a tracer material with a low Bubble Other Nova experiments are under atomic number (e.g., aluminum) is Figure 10. Comparison way, and still others are planned. Nova- sandwiched between layers of plastic of (a) the three- 0 0 525 575 625 675 class lasers can routinely achieve extreme and put into a hohlraum. Laser-generated dimensional surface Axial position, micrometers accelerations, pressures of hundreds of x rays heat and ionize the sample. plot of data from a (b) megabars, rapid growth of turbulence, Constrained by the plastic, the sample Nova experiment 120 great compression, and high levels of expands uniformly and so maintains a 4.3 nanoseconds after CALE data radiation flow and ionization. Powerful constant density. shock delivery with Nova data lasers can, within certain limits, produce X-ray backlighting, basically similar (b) a three-dimensional 80 Logarithmic fit energy-densities that approximate a very- to backlighting techniques described simulation of theat small-scale nuclear detonation. earlier, probes the target to provide the event using the HYDRA Spikes 40 required measurements. Two x-ray computer code shows Opacity and X-Ray Transport backlight sources are used. X rays from an excellent correlation Materials vary in the degree to which one backlighter pass through the sample (b) HYDRA simulation between experimental 0 they absorb and re-emit radiation of given to an x-ray spectrometer, which measures data and code Mix width, micrometers wavelengths under given conditions, the transmitted spectrum to give the calculation. directly affecting the passage of radiation opacity. An experimental setup is Ð40 0510 15 through them. The material’s opacity is shown schematically in Figure 11. The Time, nanoseconds defined as the measure of how easily it spectrometer also records the absorption can transmit radiation. Because x rays spectrum of the tracer material. From the Figure 9. (a) Mixing flow showing density and material contours 7.5 nanoseconds transport much of the energy in a nuclear degree of tracer ionization, the sample’s after shock delivery, as modeled by the two-dimensional CALE computer code. weapon, weapon physics is concerned temperature can be determined to better (The bar to the right is the logarithm of density.) (b) The width of the mixing particularly with opacities at x-ray than 5% accuracy. The other backlighter region evolves logarithmically with time. The circles represent measured widths wavelengths. illuminates the sample from the side, from Nova experiments; the triangles represent data points calculated using the In the high-temperature plasmas allowing the width of the expanding CALE code. Good agreement between experimental data and numerical created by nuclear detonation, atoms sample to be measured and its density simulation promotes confidence in the code. become highly ionized and the number of to be computed. Figure 12 compares possible atomic transitions grows very opacity data obtained with the Nova

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 12 Nova Laser Experiments Nova Laser Experiments 13

thicknesses of foils, scientists can supported by the weapons program aim diagnosing an actual detonation. With laboratories to continue improving 1.2 attempt to understand the different at developing diagnostic techniques. that option gone, however, the ability to codes through enhanced knowledge of Experimental data 1.0 effects of opacity, temperature drive, Still others are directed toward enhanced calculate the effects of each detail, some such basic processes as equations of Prediction and radiative heat transport. understanding of basic science. not calculated at all in the past, assumes state, mixing, and radiation opacity. 0.8 In a similar type of experiment, a One set of experiments that began as major importance. Doing so requires In coming years, Nova will 0.6 thick sample of low-density foam basic scientific inquiry resulted in a very new computer codes, which must then continue to demonstrate, as it has for 0.4 replaces the thin foil. At low enough useful diagnostic tool—x-ray lasers. be verified by experiment. more than a decade, that in studying Transmission densities, the heat front will precede the Intense brightness, narrow bandwidth, Useful though Nova has been, it lacks the physics of nuclear detonation, 0.2 shock front, permitting scientists to small source size, and short pulses give the power to meet the future data needs powerful lasers can, at least in part, 0 study heat transport through unshocked x-ray lasers many advantages over of nuclear weapons scientists. Its energy provide code validation data formerly 2,100 2,2002,300 2,400 2,500 2,600 2,700 2,800 material. This type of experiment also conventional x-ray illumination devices comes up short in some aspect of every derived from underground nuclear tests. Photon energy, electron-volts allows viewing the sample from the side; as imaging systems for experiments not research area. In equation-of-state —Bart Hacker Figure 12. Experimental opacity data compared with calculations. The solid line shows measured x-ray backlighting techniques allow the only in physics, but also in inertial experiments, Nova cannot reach high x-ray transmission through a niobium sample. The dashed line shows the similar results calculated shock position through the sample to be confinement fusion and biomedicine. enough pressures. In hydrodynamic using an opacity code recently developed at Livermore. Good agreement with experimental data measured as a function of time. This instability experiments, it cannot follow Key Words: equation of state, Hugoniot, bolsters confidence in the opacity calculations and their underlying theory. technique gives a great deal more The Value of NIF instabilities long enough. In x-ray opacity hydrodynamic instability, National Ignition Facility (NIF), Nova laser, opacity, radiative information than the simple shock Over a decade of operation has proved experiments, it cannot attain high enough heat transfer, Stockpile Stewardship and breakout experiment. the Nova laser’s value in studying weapon temperatures. In radiative heat transport Management Program, weapons physics. Not all physics experiments fall neatly physics. Nova experiments have already experiments, it falls short in temperature About the Scientists into the categories of radiation and helped improve computer codes through and cannot drive the radiation far enough. References hydrodynamics. Some are designed to better knowledge of processes like Overcoming these limits will become 1. The December 1994 issue of Energy & TED PERRY holds a B.S. in mathematics and physics and an be so complex that they must be modeled turbulent mixing and properties like x-ray possible with the National Ignition Facility. Technology Review (UCRL-520000- 94-12, Lawrence Livermore National M.S. in mathematics from Utah State University. He also did with computer codes that take into opacity. In the future, such experimentally Although more powerful lasers like Laboratory, Livermore, California) is graduate work at Princeton University, where he received an account the full range of hydrodynamic based knowledge will matter even more. NIF will open wider vistas on weapon entirely devoted to introducing the M.A. and Ph.D. in physics. He joined Lawrence Livermore and radiative processes that would The ability to tie these experimental data physics, they remain some years away. National Ignition Facility. National Laboratory in 1981, and between 1981 and 1991, he formerly have been involved in a back to the simulation codes is crucial Meanwhile, Nova experiments have 2. For a comparable overview of Nova at worked in the nuclear test program at the Laboratory, performing nuclear test. These so-called integrated for stockpile stewardship. already provided laboratory access to its inception, see the February 1985 issue of Energy & Technology Review experiments on seven underground nuclear tests. In 1991, he experiments are intended to validate the When nuclear testing was an option, physical phenomena once thought (UCRL-52000-85-2, Lawrence became one of the program leaders for weapons physics integrated physical model and to test the scientists’ inability to calculate every obtainable only by full-scale nuclear Livermore National Laboratory, experiments in A Division of the Defense and Nuclear scientist’s ability to model extremely detail precisely hardly mattered. They tests. With field-testing ended, they have Livermore, California). Technologies Directorate. His recent work has focused on complex behavior. Other experiments could determine what happened by enabled scientists from all the weapons 3. E. Michael Campbell et al., “The Evolution of High Energy-Density weapon physics experiments using the Nova laser. He received the Department of Physics: From Nuclear Testing to Energy’s Excellence in Weapons Research Award in 1985 and 1994. Superlasers,” Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Figure 11. Schematic of BRUCE REMINGTON received a B.S. in mathematics from California, UCRL-JC-124258, Rev. 2 point-projection Unattenuated spectrum Absorption (July 1997). This article is scheduled to Northern Michigan University in 1975 and a Ph.D. in physics spectroscopy for opacity To x-ray camera spectrum appear in Laser and Particle Beams from Michigan State University in 1986. He joined the Laboratory measurements. The 15(4) (December 1997). as a postdoctoral associate in 1986 doing nuclear physics research Tamped target with opacity laser-produced 4. M. M. Marinak et al., “Three-Dimensional and became a permanent staff physicist in the Laser Programs sample on the right Single Mode Rayleigh–Taylor backlight x rays are Backlight laser Directorate in 1988. Currently as leader of the hydrodynamics Film Experiments on Nova,” Physical imaged after passing Review Letters 75(20), 3677–3680 group of the Inertial Confinement Fusion Program, he initiates through the target. The (November 1995). and manages direct- and indirect-drive hydrodynamics experiments image is spatially and on the Nova laser related to high- energy-density regimes, spectrally resolved by a compressed solid-state regimes, fluid dynamics, and astrophysics. For further information contact Bragg crystal, while Point source Occluded Ted Perry (510) 423-2065 temporal resolution is of x rays area: ([email protected]) or Bruce Remington provided by backlight Bragg crystal emission (510) 423-2712 ([email protected]). duration. and fog Second x-ray backlight for Hohlraum heated radiographing sample by eight laser beams

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 14 15

Sharing the Challenges The changes brought about by the end of the Cold War have created a of Nonproliferation surprising turn of events. Once unthinkable collaborations and partnerships to reduce the threat of proliferation are now happening with increasing frequency.

N these post–Cold War days, the found inside, engaged in meetings with One of the many risks introduced by materials in various forms. These principally Russia. The effectiveness effort between the U.S. and Russia. I secret cities that contain Russia’s their Russian counterparts. This change the first event is that of increased materials are highly desirable to and positive reception of Nunn–Lugar Formed as a result of agreements made weapons complex remain closed, still has occurred largely because of the nuclear proliferation if the disposition potential proliferators and terrorists. initiatives led to similar and between Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin surrounded by fences patrolled by convergence of two events: the shift of nuclear weapons technology and They have become more vulnerable to complementary initiatives by the over several summit meetings, the group armed guards. But changes are going from an arms race to arms reduction, materials is not managed carefully. theft or diversion because Russia now Energy and State departments. is chartered with developing mutually on within them. Scientists and and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has, for example, large amounts has fewer resources to apply to Dubbed “defense by other means” acceptable ways to keep fissile materials engineers from Lawrence with its attendant economic upheaval. of surplus weapons-grade nuclear safeguarding its nuclear materials. by former Secretary of Defense William derived from dismantled nuclear weapons Livermore can now be U.S. and Russian scientists and Perry, this policy depends as much on secure, account for and control their engineers are working together to scientific capabilities as on political quantities, and prevent them from ever reduce such risks. expertise. Thus, Lawrence Livermore being used again in nuclear weapons. U.S. policy makers recognize that staff have found themselves traveling Jim Morgan is one of the Livermore Russian nuclear scientists have essential thousands of miles between Livermore scientists working with this group to roles to play in global arms reduction and various parts of the NIS to implement its complex task. He has and nonproliferation causes. Alleviating collaborate with NIS scientists on been involved in discussions about the scientists’ economic hardships and worthwhile, non-weapons-related sharing information on fissile materials. uncertainty would greatly aid the projects as well as to monitor and assist The most difficult negotiations involve stabilization of Russian nuclear the progress of arms reduction. key proposals brought to the table by the weapons complex. To these ends, the U.S.: U.S. Department of Defense has Progress in Arms Reduction • Regular exchanges of detailed formulated a policy to aid Russian The arms reduction taking place in information about weapons and fissile scientists through stimulating the U.S. and Russia is an important step materials stockpiles. commercial economic development in for global nuclear security. Because • Reciprocal inspections at storage the closed cities. One large component verification activities for the strategic facilities to confirm the amounts of of the policy is the Nunn–Lugar arms reduction treaties (START) are and highly enriched Cooperative Threat Reduction bill, concerned with the destruction of removed from weapons. passed in 1991, which initiated weapons launchers and do not deal with • Various arrangements to monitor collaborations between the U.S. and the warheads, the Biden Condition was stockpiles. the newly independent states (NIS), appended to START I during the These have been difficult proposals ratification process to ensure that from the beginning, starting with warheads would be verifiably fundamentally differing views on Livermore technician Lori Switzer dismantled in future arms reduction. information sensitivity. Russia classifies (foreground) works with Russian scientists Developing transparency measures its information differently than the U.S. Dmitri Semonov (left) and Mikhail Chernov to deal with the fissile materials derived In addition, because of former Energy to evaluate candidate neutron and gamma- from dismantled weapons is the task of Secretary Hazel O’Leary’s openness ray measurement techniques for mutual the Safeguards, Transparency, and initiatives, the U.S. has already published reciprocal inspection purposes. Irreversibility Working Group, a joint some general information about U.S.

Science & Technology Review September 1997 16 Nonproliferation Collaborations Nonproliferation Collaborations 17

fissile materials stockpiles, which goes confirm crucial verification requirements What the agreement has meant for Monitoring Activities (a) well beyond the type of information the but not revealing so much as to threaten Livermore’s Doug Leich, HEU Describing the monitoring tasks at Russians are willing to share. the security interests of either side. transparency technical leader and a Seversk, Leich says that monitors can The progress of the negotiations has member of the U.S. monitoring team, observe the whole oxidation been slow. The U.S. delegation has Reducing HEU Holdings is several long trips to Russia each procedure, from the beginning when been trying to maintain some momentum Even as the negotiations for year, to the cities of Seversk, the uranium metal is analyzed by in the talks by suggesting negotiating safeguards, transparency, and Zelenogorsk, and Novouralsk portable gamma-ray spectrometry to patterns to keep negotiations moving. irreversibility continue, the U.S. has (Figure 2). At the plant in Seversk, confirm its weapons-grade status, Whatever the course of action, found another way to safeguard some HEU metal is processed into an HEU through its feed into and withdrawal these negotiations will not end when Russian weapons uranium—by buying oxide before being shipped to the from oxidation process equipment, to agreements on information exchanges it. In 1994, the U.S. signed a 20-year, electrochemical plants in Novouralsk the final analysis of the withdrawn and monitoring procedures have been $12-billion deal to purchase 500 metric or Zelenogorsk. In these facilities, the oxides. Leich and the other monitors made. There must also be U.S.–Russian tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) oxide is fluorinated and combined with apply U.S. tags and seals to some agreements on what measuring devices recovered from Russian weapons. The a slightly enriched blending material to containers of the oxides before their and instrumentation are allowable for contract calls for this uranium to be turn it into LEU suitable for making shipment to Novouralsk or deriving specific information during blended down to low-enriched uranium civilian power reactor fuel. Zelenogorsk. reciprocal inspections at nuclear facilities. (LEU) and then shipped to the U.S. In parallel to Morgan’s work in to be used for making commercial negotiations, scientists and engineers at reactor fuel. Livermore are designing special The transparency protocols for the (b) measuring technologies for use inside HEU purchase are those that strive, on To U.S. U.S. and Russian facilities. One the one hand, to confirm for the U.S. candidate device that has been that the shipped material has indeed St. Petersburg demonstrated to Russian scientists is a been derived from Russian weapons portable, battery-operated, germanium material and, on the other hand, to gamma-ray spectrometer. This confirm to Russian satisfaction that the Russia instrument can determine whether LEU is not going to end up in the U.S. LEU plutonium stored inside containers is weapons program. These confirmations LEU consistent with material that may have require access to the uranium been removed from dismantled nuclear processing facilities of both sides. The Novouralsk HEU weapons (Figure 1a). The spectrometer negotiations for such access, normally HEU Zelenogorsk measures the plutonium’s gamma-ray complex and difficult, were made even Seversk intensities in a narrow band of energy more so when they became subsumed (UEIP) HEU LEU (630 to 670 thousand electron-volts) to by a host of other issues surrounding (ECP) reveal whether its ratio of plutonium-240 the deal, including pricing and LEU (SChE) HEU LEU to plutonium-239 is consistent with market competition. HEU oxidation weapons-grade material; it also estimates The final agreement allows Russian Figure 1. (a) Technician Vern Rekow (left) assists Zachary Koenig in what minimum mass of plutonium is monitors access to the U.S. Enrichment setting up a portable, battery-operated germanium gamma-ray Figure 2. The U.S. is permitted to monitor highly necessary to produce the observed Corporation’s Portsmouth Gaseous spectrometer. Koenig, a physicist in the Nonproliferation, Arms Control, enriched uranium (HEU) processing at the three locations intensities (Figure 1b). Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, and and International Security Directorate at Livermore, was instrumental in shown. At the Siberian Chemical Enterprises (SChE) in Seversk, HEU metal is converted to The narrow band of energy measured to the five U.S. fuel fabrication developing this means of determining whether plutonium stored inside HEU oxide and then shipped by train to the Ural Electrochemical Integrated Plant (UEIP) in by the spectrometer intentionally facilities receiving the Russian uranium. containers is consistent with material that may have been plutonium that Novouralsk or the Electrochemical Plant (ECP) in Zelenogorsk, where it is fluorinated and leaves some details of the material In turn, U.S. monitors are allowed has been removed from dismantled nuclear weapons. This spectrometer blended to produce low-enriched uranium (LEU). The LEU is shipped via St. Petersburg to the being measured unknown to satisfy access to the three principal Russian has undergone joint testing with the Russians. (b) Typical results of the U.S., where it is made into commercial nuclear reactor fuel. Russian security concerns and make plants involved in the conversion of spectrometer’s reading. The upper plot is a reconstruction of gamma-ray the spectrometer acceptable to the HEU to LEU. Lawrence Livermore is activity, with dots indicating the measured data. Standardized residuals Russians. Tools used for transparency taking a lead role in support of DOE from the gamma-ray activity are plotted below the reconstruction. measurements must observe a careful program activities related to monitoring balance between yielding enough to activities at those three plants.

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 18 Nonproliferation Collaborations Nonproliferation Collaborations 19

the U.S. Permanent Presence Office The laboratory-to-laboratory model projects are currently in this second the International Science and Technology there, which Lawrence Livermore for doing business has been so successful stage. Center (ISTC) in Moscow and the manages for DOE. At all three plants, that it has been adopted by the Initiatives A typical project—an analysis of Science and Technology Center of U.S. monitors have access to relevant for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) the use of superplastic deformation the Ukraine in Kiev. Established by documentation and accountability program, another source of cooperative technology to make automobile agreements among participating records. work for NIS scientists. Hauber is a wheels—is being performed by a governments, the centers develop and member of the Interlaboratory Advisory consortium made up of Lawrence fund nonproliferation projects whose Toward Peaceful Enterprises Board of the IPP, her primary project Livermore, the All Russian Institute primary objective is to provide peaceful, Lawrence Livermore is currently responsibility. Sponsored and directly of Technical Physics, the (Russian) non-weapons-related opportunities to active in several programs that provide funded by DOE, the IPP program Institute of Metals Superplasticity weapons scientists and engineers from collaborative project opportunities for supports collaborations between NIS Problems, Kaiser Aluminum, and the NIS, particularly those with scientists from the newly independent and DOE national laboratory scientists. Rockwell International. Lawrence knowledge and skill in the development states, principally Russia, Ukraine, The objectives of the IPP, like those of Livermore’s specific role at this of weapons of mass destruction Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The goal of the lab-to-lab program, are to strengthen juncture is to characterize wheel (nuclear, chemical, and biological). these programs is to direct the scientists nonproliferation and keep NIS scientists design and material for compliance Although headquartered in Moscow, toward work that will help develop free- employed in their current institutions, with U.S. Department of Transportation the ISTC is available to other states of market economies in their home states. but unlike the lab-to-lab program, the standards and to determine whether the former Soviet Union—so far, The first of these programs is the focus of IPP-sponsored projects is the wheel will be able to meet U.S. scientists from Russia, Armenia, laboratory-to-laboratory program, which clearly on their commercial potential. requirements (Figure 3). Once the Belarus, Georgia, Kazakstan, and began in 1992 shortly after the directors Although projects must be mutually superplastic technology has been fully Kirgizia have submitted proposals. of the Russian and American nuclear beneficial and not related to weapons, developed, it has potentially many The ISTC is supported by the U.S., the weapons design laboratories exchanged the major emphasis of IPP projects is more uses than for making car wheels. European Union (EU),* Norway, and visits. Supported and monitored but not on promoting economic recovery in the Because it uses nearly all of its starting Japan. The EU, Japan, and U.S. each directly funded by DOE, the lab-to-lab NIS. To that end, a large effort is materials to form the final product, it is place a deputy director at the Center program involves interactions between expended on developing NIS know- a beneficial technology that produces and provide staff support for Center NIS institutes and DOE laboratories for how in the areas of intellectual few industrial waste byproducts. Also, operations such as finance and program the purpose of “encouraging exchanges property rights, entrepreneurship, and because it is a technology previously management. The parties rotate the of information between U.S. and NIS commercialization. To facilitate these used to make weapons components, Center directorship as well as the chair scientists, thereby building confidence collaborations, DOE has simplified the it will be a true swords-to- of its governing board. The current and openness between the two sides,” project review and approval process plowshares project. chairperson of the governing board is according to Janet Hauber, Group Leader and promoted uniform administrative The third stage of IPP projects Ron Lehman, Director of the Center for Figure 3. Principal investigators T. G. Nieh (left) and Donald Lesuer (center) join Bradley Tuvey for Cooperative R&D and facilitator of procedures, such as uniform contracts involves production of the developed Global Security Research at Lawrence of Lawrence Livermore’s Procurement Department in examining samples of the automobile Livermore’s laboratory-to-laboratory and general patents, which make it products in the context of a purely Livermore. wheels made in Russia using a superplastic deformation technology previously used to make efforts. Funding for projects that result easier to protect intellectual property. commercial agreement between the The ISTC sponsors projects focused weapons components. from these collaborations comes from Projects done under the IPP program Russian entity and a U.S. industrial firm. on developing scientific and technical the sponsoring DOE laboratory with are carried out in three stages. In the While the progress of IPP projects solutions for national and international When the containers of oxide arrive and the resulting LEU right out of the the stipulation that the work is neither first stage, the collaborating laboratories is sometimes slow, Hauber is problems, reinforcing the transition to at those sites, monitors first check the process piping and put them through related to weapons development nor and institutes perform a feasibility enthusiastic about the program, a market economy, developing basic tags and seals on them. Then, says Leich, an analysis procedure.” U.S. and Russian enhances weapons capability. study. Since the beginning of the believing that it will be an important science and technology, and promoting “We can request nondestructive assay monitors also have the right to measure Hauber reviews the work between program in 1994, some 200 projects factor in developing strong economies the further integration of NIS scientists of containers of HEU oxide, observe the total flow of uranium at the blending the NIS and U.S. scientists to assess the in technical areas such as materials for the NIS. She says that “we just into the international scientific the feeding of oxide into a process that point. Before the LEU is put on railcars benefits derived by the participants. manufacturing, biotechnology, energy, need to continue this work a little community. Project proposals submitted chemically converts the HEU to a to start its journey to the U.S., the Although DOE is kept informed about and waste management have been longer. The Russians are determined, to the ISTC are evaluated for scientific hexafluoride form, and perform an assay monitors observe the application of lab-to-lab projects, the technical initiated. Projects considered to be and that determination will go a long of the HEU hexafluoride withdrawn Russian and U.S. tags and seals. contacts are made directly by the feasible move into a second stage, one way toward a successful outcome.” from the conversion process. During Monitoring at Seversk and scientists and involve only the in which private industry can participate * The member nations of the European Union are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the blending-down process, we can Zelenogorsk is confined to periodic laboratories and institutes. Thus, through cost-sharing (by matching International Support France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, request random samples of the HEU visits, but monitors have continuous scientific collaborations are both government funding) and by assisting in A third program provides project Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, hexafluorides, the blending materials, access to the Novouralsk plant through informal and easy to initiate. prototype development. A number of opportunities to NIS scientists through Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 20 Nonproliferation Collaborations Nonproliferation Collaborations 21

MINATOM MINATOM Independent merit by the funding parties. Eileen the theft of nuclear materials. Therefore, Several other nuclear facilities located Civilian Complex Defense Complex Civilian Sector Vergino, Lawrence Livermore’s one of the larger U.S. efforts in Russia nearby have close relationships with it, Program Manager for the ISTC, sits on is to provide assistance for improving so it is expected that any security 1.Dmitrovgrad, Scientific Research Institute 12. Arzamas-16/Sarov, All-Russian Scientific 22. Russian Scientific Research CenterÐ Kurchatov of Atomic Reactors (NIIAR) Research Institute of Experimental Physics Institute the U.S. scientific advisory committee the physical protection, control, and improvement techniques developed at (VNIIEF) 23. Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry, Obninsk 2. Elektrostal Production Association and provides technical support to the accounting of Russia’s nuclear materials. Chelyabinsk-70 will ultimately be 13. Krasnoyarsk-26/ 24. Tomsk, Scientific Research Institute of Nuclear Machine Building Plant (POMZ) Zheleznogorsk*, Mining and Physics U.S. State Department, both by finding The DOE Materials Protection, beneficial to these other institutes as well. 3. Obninsk, Physics & Power Engineering Chemical Combine 25. Norilsk, Nikel Plant scientific reviewers for submitted Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) Institute (FEI) 14. Krasnoyarsk-45/ Zelenogorsk, Electrochemical 26. St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics 4. Podolsk, Scientific Production Association Plant 27. Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, Dubna technical proposals and advising them program is a cooperative effort with Security Upgrades Luch 15. Chelyabinsk-65/ Ozersk, Mayak Production 28. Moscow Institute of Physical Engineering (MIFI) on funding decisions. Proposals are Russian institutes and enterprises that Lawrence Livermore’s approach to 5. Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant Association evaluated for technical merit as well as process or store nuclear materials usable upgrading safeguards and security at 6. Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant 16. Chelyabinsk-70/ Snezhinsk, All-Russian Scientific for conformance to ISTC policy. Overall in weapons. Lawrence Livermore is one Russian weapons complexes is to work 7. Sverdlovsk Branch of Scientific Research Research Institute of Technical Physics (VNIITF) Naval Nuclear Fuel Sector and Design Institute of Power Technology 17. Sverdlovsk-44/ Novouralsk, Urals Electrochemical approval is provided by the ISTC of seven DOE national laboratories with Russian colleagues to identify Integrated Plant (NIKIET) 29. Northern Fleet governing board, and final funding involved in the program and is working areas where upgrades are required and 18. Tomsk-7/ 8. Scientific Research and Design Institute Seversk, Siberian Chemical Combine 30. Pacific Fleet decisions are made by the funding party. directly with Russia’s nuclear institutes then rapidly install those upgrades. The of Power Technology (NIKIET) 19. ELERON (Special Scientific and Production State 31. Icebreaker Fleet (Murmansk Shipping Company) U.S. scientists, including those at to provide them with technical support, MPC&A program first installed 9. Khlopin Radium Institute Establishment) 10. Moscow Institute of Theoretical and 20. All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of DOE laboratories, are encouraged to training, funding, and equipment. The safeguards such as barriers, alarms, Experimental Physics Automatics (VNIIA) Non-Russian NIS express support for or, better yet, goal is twofold: enhance Russian physical communications systems, and portal 21. Bochvar All-Russian Scientific Research Institute 11. St. Petersburg Central Design Bureau of and Baltic Sector of Inorganic Materials (VNIINM) collaborate on proposals they find protection and nuclear material accounting monitoring systems. Subsequently, Machine Building 32. Sosny Institute of Nuclear Power Engineering, interesting and significant to their area capabilities and encourage an overall pedestrian and vehicle portals were *Italics indicate new Russian place names. Minsk, Belarus of expertise. A firm commitment by change of philosophy about physical and installed to improve entry and exit 33. Tbilisi, Institute of Physics, Georgia 34. Aktau, BN-350 Breeder Reactor, Kazakstan U.S. collaborators to a project will material protection. The program is systems (Figure 5). Older Russian 35. Almaty, Research Reactor, Kazakstan improve its chances for funding. While intended to foster support from institutes manual systems are being replaced with 2931 36. Semipalatinsk, Complex 21, Kazakstan 37. Ulba Fuel Fabrication Plant, Ust’Kamenogorsk, the U.S. collaborators will not receive and scientists for enhanced security automated control systems that will Murmansk Kazakstan any funding, they will play a key role in concepts and methodologies that will be incorporate nuclear material monitors, 38 9 1126 38. Salispals Institute of Nuclear Physics, Latvia project development and review. U.S. the foundation for enhanced national metal detectors, and ballistically Salaspils 39. Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP), Lithuania 39 St. Petersburg 40. Kharkiv Institute for Physics and Technology collaborators often see the ISTC as a standards throughout the newly hardened booths for the guards. The new Ignalina 2 4 8 1 (KIPT), Ukraine means for leveraging funds and independent states. systems can detect nuclear materials 32 41. Kiev Institute of Nuclear Research (KINR), Ukraine Minsk 101920 25 Dmitrovgrad 42. Sevastopol Naval Institute, Ukraine enabling collaborations between Begun in 1994 with pilot projects at being smuggled out, improve the Kiev 21222728 Norilsk 43. South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant (SUNPP), themselves and NIS scientists on three Russian institutes and modeled, capability to discover anyone trying to 41 Moscow Konstantinovsk, Ukraine Obninsk projects ranging from reactor safety to like the IPP program, after the laboratory- sneak inside, and offer better protection Arzamas 44. Tashkent, Institute of Nuclear Physics, Uzbekistan Konstatinovsk 323 12 6717 treaty verification to environmental to-laboratory program discussed earlier, for guards in the event of an attack. Sevastopol 40 Yekaterinburg assessment and cleanup. the MPC&A program has expanded to Lawrence Livermore is also working 43 42 The Science and Technology Center more than 44 institutes and enterprises to enhance Russian transportation Chelyabinsk 1516 1824 13 14 of Ukraine is modeled after the ISTC. (Figure 4). One or more project teams systems for nuclear materials. The Its main difference is its sponsors, have formed at each institute or enterprise. Automatic Transportation Security 5 Tomsk 33 Krasnoyarsk currently composed of the U.S., Canada, One of the several project teams led by System (ATSS) is an ongoing project to Tbilisi 34 Novosibirsk and Sweden and soon to include the Lawrence Livermore has responsibility use readily available technologies to 36 Aktau 37 EU and Japan. for Chelyabinsk-70. make rail systems more secure. The Semipalatinsk Ust’Kamenogorsk Vladovostok T. R. Koncher, leader of Lawrence three-phase project, scheduled to be 30 Security and Accountability Livermore’s MPC&A work, says, “We completed in the year 2000, covers 35 Russia’s transition toward democracy think of Chelyabinsk-70 as Russia’s some 375 development tasks. The first 44 Almaly has changed its state mechanisms for equivalent to Lawrence Livermore phase, now under way, includes Kirgizistan controlling and securing nuclear because it is their second oldest weapons installing intrusion and environmental materials. Because of the economic and complex, just as we think of Arzamas-16 sensors, security seals, on-train data social changes in Russia, the borders as their Los Alamos.” Chelyabinsk-70, communications and display, voice around weapons complexes are now now called Snezhinsk, is east of the communications, physical barriers, locks, Figure 4. The DOE Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting program currently has projects to improve security and material accountability at more permeable; gaining access to Ural Mountains, approximately active delays such as high-intensity 44 sites in the newly independent states where nuclear materials are processed and stored. One of several projects with which Livermore currently weapons materials has become easier. 1,900 kilometers east of Moscow and explosive sound generators and smoke is involved is at Chelyabinsk-70 (Snezhinsk), number 16 on the map. These factors increase the potential for about 80 kilometers south of Ekaterinburg. generators, and off-train data

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 22 Nonproliferation Collaborations Nonproliferation Collaborations 23

security infrastructure needs and is one of critical importance to national establish priorities for implementation. and global security. This work draws Figure 6. This prototype gamma- Lawrence Livermore, in conjunction on the expertise of personnel from ray spectrometer can quickly, Figure 5. With the help of Livermore and with Sandia National Laboratories, has directorates throughout Lawrence easily, and nondestructively other DOE laboratories, the Materials been working with Russian institutes to Livermore: Nonproliferation, Arms determine the isotopic signatures Protection, Control, and Accounting program conduct vulnerability analyses. This Control, and International Security as of plutonium and enriched uranium has upgraded the safeguards and security at work, which generally begins with a well as Engineering, Physics and Space using computer codes developed Russian weapons complexes. Shown here training workshop, teaches quantitative Technology, Environmental Programs, at Livermore. are (right) a pedestrian portal monitor and probabilistic risk analysis, the technique Energy Programs, Chemistry and (below) a drive-through vehicle portal monitor. that DOE uses to evaluate protection Materials Science, Computation, and systems for special nuclear materials. Plant Operations. These staff are The focus of these workshops is on involved in the nonproliferation effort using a computer-based analysis tool because their technical expertise allows called ASSESS (Analytical System and them to work directly with scientists Software for Evaluating Safeguards and from Russia and other newly Security) to quantify the detection, independent states in ways that delay, and neutralization probabilities diplomats and politicians could not. of various protection systems. The Their face-to-face interactions are quantitative values depend on the yielding benefits beyond the goals of objectives of the protection system. their various collaborative efforts. As These objectives, in turn, are defined Bill Dunlop, Program Leader, operations. This work through an analysis that asks: What Proliferation Prevention and Arms requires the use of needs protection? What are the Control, notes, “The access that U.S. nondestructive assay consequences of losing the material? and Russian scientists now have to each methods to measure or What possible types of threat does it other’s secure facilities is remarkable. verify nuclear face? What is the maximum level of It would have been unimaginable not About the Team inventories efficiently. acceptable risk for it? The objectives of too long ago. This level of trust results U.S. scientists, for the protection system must be identified from common technical expertise, our Lawrence Livermore personnel who contributed communications and tracking. In instance, are providing a gamma-ray and understood before an evaluation similar background in national security to this article are: (back row, left to right) PAUL parallel to the physical controls, U.S. spectrometer that can measure can be made of its effectiveness. issues, and our mutual respect.” HERMAN, JIM MORGAN, and SCOTT and Russian scientists are developing plutonium isotopes or uranium In addition to the workshops, —Gloria Wilt MCALLISTER; (front row) BILL DUNLOP, safety methodologies—for example, enrichment and thus determine and subsequent vulnerability analyses, EILEEN VERGINO, and DOUG LEICH. (Not procedures for coordinating emergency verify nuclear inventories (Figure 6). performed solely by Russians or jointly Key Words: arms reduction; Chelyabinsk-70; pictured are T. R. KONCHER, DEBBIE BALL, response from a central command post. Lawrence Livermore scientists developed with U.S. scientists, are used to evaluate gamma-ray spectrometer; highly enriched uranium (HEU); Initiatives for Proliferation and JANET HAUBER.) All, except Leich, are Improvements for the ATSS were the codes required to interpret the and prioritize physical and procedural Prevention (IPP); International Science and members of the Proliferation Prevention and designed at Moscow’s Eleron Institute, gamma-ray measurements. The codes security upgrades. The approach of Technology Center (ISTC); laboratory-to- Arms Control Program, which is part of the which is devoted to the development, analyze the complex gamma-ray spectra these analyses differs from the present laboratory program; low-enriched uranium Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and manufacture, and implementation of of plutonium or uranium to determine the Russian approaches, so the rationale of (LEU); Materials Protection, Control, and International Security Directorate. Leich is part security equipment and systems. Actual actinide isotopic distribution for samples the analysis tools must be communicated. Accounting (MPC&A) program; newly independent states (NIS); nuclear of the Fusion Energy and Systems Safety implementation of the improvements will of any physical form, size, shape, or The work also has to do with inculcating nonproliferation; Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Program in the Energy Directorate. be done in conjunction with seven other chemical formula. The system is easy to an MPC&A culture throughout the Threat Reduction bill; safeguards, The work of these scientists and engineers is performed under the auspices of the Russian institutions, which will assure use: it does not require calibration of the Russian institutes, so that both physical transparency, and irreversibility; transparency U.S. Departments of Energy and State and focuses on reducing the risks of nuclear that the system has been incorporated into instrumentation, and its measurement protection to fight off outsider threats measures; verification; vulnerability analysis; proliferation through collaboration and partnership with scientists and engineers in the the Russian transportation infrastructure. and analysis times are short. and resistance to insider threats will Russia. newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. Projects range from negotiating Efforts are also under way to obtain be improved. mutually acceptable ways to monitor arms reduction and the disposition of excess an accurate measure of nuclear material Long-Term Assessments For further information contact nuclear materials to developing technologies to safeguard nuclear materials from theft inventories and to establish procedures In addition to upgrading security Additional Benefits William Dunlop (510) 422-9390 or diversion to promoting commercial, non-weapons applications of nuclear weapons for checking and evaluating material weaknesses, U.S. scientists are helping Lawrence Livermore’s work in the ([email protected]). know-how and technology. balances regularly throughout all Russian scientists assess long-term area of nonproliferation and arms control

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 24 Research Highlight Explosive Simulants 25

TamingTaming ExplosivesExplosives confuse glass with explosives. So it’s important (a) Comp C-4 (b) NESTT Comp C-4 forfor TrainingTraining that the ‘odor signature’ of the parent explosive is maintained, and odorless silica was a natural choice for the substrate.” Kury and the team devised a formulation for 0.03 dog training that uses 92% (by weight) fused T looks like a bomb. It even smells like a bomb—enough to as the concentration of the parent explosive (TNT or RDX) is silica of high purity as the substrate, onto which I fool man’s best friend, the pooch who’s trained to sniff out under approximately 8%, the materials remain nonhazardous. 8% TNT is deposited—rather like coating candy 0.02 explosives. But it won’t explode and won’t even burn decently. Kury says an early test was conducted in the Laboratory with an extremely thin layer of sugar. The So who wants a dud like that? Not your average terrorist. Director’s conference room with about a pound of the formulation for the simulated Comp C-4 includes

But the bogus bombs fabricated of nonhazardous explosives for simulated explosive—enough, if it were real, to completely 8% RDX and 76.5% silica, along with the C-4 microvolts Amplitude, 0.01 security training and testing (NESTT) by Lawrence Livermore destroy the room. “The dog hit it immediately,” Kury says. binder system (9.2% dioctal adipate, 2.7% are piquing the interest of scores of organizations responsible “An animal acts differently in different environments. If you can polyisobutylene, and 3.6% oil). for calibrating explosive-detection machines and for training train in real environments, there is a much better probability of The NESTT formulation for instrument testing 0 humans and dogs in detecting explosive devices. In fact, a successful find.” is prepared by dissolving 3.3% polyisobutylene, Ð5,000 0 5,000 Ð5,000 0 5,000 Lawrence Livermore is close to completing a commercial In fact, preliminary results were so successful that larger 8.3% dioctal adipate, and 2.5% oil in pentane. Frequency, secondsÐ1 licensing agreement for NESTT. quantities were prepared for a beta test program, which That solution, along with 7.4% RDX and 78.5% “We started the NESTT project about seven years ago,” says included U.S. and foreign canine units and companies that cyanuric acid, is put in a high-shear mixer. The Figure 1. Nuclear quadrupole resonance spectra for (a) the explosive Comp C-4 and John Kury, the explosives chemist who heads the project. “We manufacture explosive-detection instruments. pentane is removed during mixing, and the (b) NESTT Comp C-4 indicate that the NESTT formulation can be used to calibrate had a fairly narrow need to provide a safe alternative to using resultant putty material is dried in an oven and detection machines. actual explosives in training Livermore’s canine explosives- Getting the Formulation Right molded into 2.5- by 5.0- by 30.5-centimeter bars, detection teams, which have since been disbanded. As word For the canine program, it was nearly identical to the Comp C-4 demolition bars got around about the project, we discovered a much very important that the materials produced by the U.S. Army. This formulation duplicates the the authenticity of the NESTT explosive signature—e.g., the broader need throughout the country.” have no additional odors than those oxygen–nitrogen ratio, effective atomic number, and density dogs were trained on “non-pure” parent explosive. When the Laboratory was training its own found in the parent explosive. “The of the real explosive. Several agencies have used only NESTT materials to train canine teams at the beginning of the decade, method by which dogs detect The materials have been tested in both small-scale laboratory a few new canines. In all of these cases, the canines are able the teams had to use actual explosives and deal explosives is not well understood,” tests and large-scale sensitivity tests, and they did not react in to detect samples of the parent explosives, TNT and C-4, with the inherent dangers. Almost all the training Kury says. “But we do know that either the shock-sensitivity or flammability tests. Similar results reliably. These results, coupled with vapor analysis, verify had to take place at Site 300, the Lab’s explosive they detect them by smell and never were obtained by the Department of Defense when it tested that NESTT materials have authentic odor signatures. test facility, where conditions certainly do not resemble those mixtures of 15% or less of TNT or RDX mixed with sand. While old Fido’s nose can’t be understood with scientific in an office building or airport. A safe substitute would permit precision, the results of detection instruments can. So Kury’s training with a larger amount of material under far more Proof Is in the Tests team sent samples to various organizations to see how the realistic simulations. The NESTT canine test samples are formulated and simulated explosives stack up against the real thing. Using But safety and realism aren’t the only issues. Live explosives packaged carefully to ensure that their odor signatures are nuclear quadrupole resonance, Quantum Magnetics of San demand extra expense and care because they must be stored in identical to those of the parent explosives. Fused silica is also Diego, California, found that the resonance of the nitrogen-14 bunkers or specially designed magazines and transported with used as the packing material for shipping the samples to isotope at 3.41 megahertz for RDX in NESTT was identical to special precautions. NESTT can be transported without any minimize the possibility of contamination by other organic that for RDX in Comp C-4, clearly indicating that the NESTT special precautions other than extensive documentation to compounds. To check the odor signature, Kury and the team material can be used to calibrate detection machines (Figure 1). prove that it is not what dogs and detection machines tell use mass spectrometer analyses to verify that the vapor Both TNT and RDX NESTT materials were tested by guards and police it is. collected from TNT is identical to that from the NESTT TNT. Thermedics Detection Inc. using its EGIS detection system, in The simulated explosives made by Kury’s team include The test program has involved more than 200 handler– which vapor and particulate samples are collected and the stand-ins for TNT and a standard military explosive called canine teams from U.S. and foreign agencies. More than 95% explosives are identified by analysis of selected decomposition Composition C-4 (Comp C-4), which contains RDX. By of the teams report that the canines react to the NESTT products. The system detected the presence of explosive not coating a layer of explosive that is a few micrometers thick on materials in the same manner they do to the parent explosive. only in the NESTT sample itself, but also on the courier’s a nonreactive substance, Kury and his team produce surrogate And the 5% that did not react to the NESTT materials as they hands and the briefcase that was used to transport the sample materials that have many authentic properties of explosives, do to the parent explosive likely did so for reasons other than (Figure 2). The following day, a canine being trained by the including vapor and molecular signatures. However, as long

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 Each month in this space we report on the patents issued to and/or 26 Explosive Simulants Patents the awards received by Laboratory employees. Our goal is to 27 showcase the distinguished scientific and technical achievements of our employees as well as to indicate the scale and scope of the work done at the Laboratory. Patents Connecticut State Police also reacted (a) Courier’s hands (b) Briefcase containing NESTT positively to the then-empty but still- Comp C-4 and NESTT TNT Patent issued to Patent title, number, and date of issue Summary of disclosure 1.0 contaminated briefcase. RDX John C. Whitehead Fluid Driven Reciprocating Apparatus A pair of fluid-driven pump assemblies in a back-to-back configuration to yield a NESTT Comp C-4 was tested on x-ray Joe N. Lucas bi-directional pump. Each pump assembly includes a piston or diaphragm that divides DNT explosive-detection equipment made by 0.8 U.S. Patent 5,616,005 a chamber into a power section and a pumping section. An intake–exhaust valve TNT April 1, 1997 connected to each power section functions to direct fluid, such as compressed air, Invision Technologies Inc. and VIVID into the power section and to exhaust fluid. At least one of the pistons or diaphragms 0.6 is connected by a rod assembly, which is constructed to form a signal valve. The Technologies Inc. Both tests gave positive intake–exhaust valve of one pump assembly is controlled by the position or location results, indicating that NESTT has the same of the piston or diaphragm in the other pump assembly through the operation of the rod assembly signal valve. effective atomic number and density as a real 0.4 Absorption explosive sample. Joe N. Lucas Detection and Isolation of Nucleic Acid A method in which a target nucleic acid sequence is hybridized to first and second Tore Straume Sequences Using Competitive hybridization probes that are complementary to overlapping portions of the target The beta test program demonstrated that the 0.2 Kenneth T. Bogen Hybridization Probes nucleic acid sequence. The first hybridization probe includes a first complexing nonhazardous NESTT materials can benefit agent capable of forming a binding pair with a second complexing agent, and the explosive-detection programs throughout the U.S. Patent 5,616,465 second hybridization probe includes a detectable marker. The first complexing 0 April 1, 1997 agent attached to the first hybridization probe is contacted with a second world. Few companies or agencies have the 02468100246810 complexing agent, which is attached to a solid support such that when the first and second complexing agents are attached, target nucleic acid sequences hybridized ability to use and store realistic quantities of Residence time to the first hybridization probe become immobilized onto the solid support. The explosives. With NESTT, realistic sites and immobilized target nucleic acids are then separated and detected by the scenarios can be used safely and economically Figure 2. Chromatographic analysis (in arbitrary units) of the samples indicate the identification of the detectable marker attached to the second hybridization probe. presence of RDX and TNT not only in the NESTT samples, but also (a) on the hands to train canines that sniff out explosives and Raymond J. Beach Fiber Optic Coupling of a Microlens A system for efficiently coupling the output radiation from a two-dimensional of the courier and (b) on the briefcase used to transport the NESTT materials. William J. Benett Conditioned, Stacked Semiconductor aperture of a semiconductor laser diode array into an optical fiber. The aperture is personnel who operate detection equipment. Steven T. Mills Laser Diode Array formed by stacking laser diode bars. Individual microlenses condition the output —Sam Hunter radiation of the laser diode bars for coupling into the fiber. A simple lens is then U.S. Patent 5,617,492 used to focus this conditioned radiation into the fiber. The focal length of the lens is April 1, 1997 chosen such that the divergence of the laser light after it passes through the lens is Key Words: canine training, nonhazardous not greater than the numerical aperture of the optical fiber. The lens must focus the explosives for security training and testing laser light to a spot size that is less than or equal to the input aperture of the optical (NESTT), simulated explosives. fiber. John F. Holzrichter Method for Identifying Biochemical and A method of operating a scanning probe microscope, such as an atomic force For further information contact Wigbert J. Siekhaus Chemical Reactions and Micromechanical microscope (AFM) or a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), in a stationary mode Processes Using Nanomechanical and on a site where an activity of interest occurs to measure and identify characteristic John Kury (510) 422-6311 ([email protected]). Electronic Signal Identification time-varying micromotions caused by biological, chemical, mechanical, electrical, optical, or physical processes. The tip and cantilever assembly of an AFM is used U.S. Patent 5,620,854 as a micromechanical detector of characteristic micromotions transmitted either April 15, 1997 directly by a site of interest or indirectly through the surrounding medium. Alternatively, the exponential dependence of the tunneling current on the size of the gap in an STM is used to detect micromechanical movement.

Charles E. Hamilton Tunable, Diode Side-Pumped Er:YAG A discrete-element Er:YAG (erbium-doped yttrium–aluminum–garnet) laser side- Laurence H. Furu Laser pumped by a laser diode array which generates a tunable output around 2.94 micrometers. The oscillator is a plano-concave resonator consisting of a U.S. Patent 5,623,510 concave high reflector, a flat output coupler, an Er:YAG crystal, and an intracavity April 22, 1997 etalon tuning element. The oscillator uses total internal reflection in the Er:YAG crystal to allow efficient coupling of the diode emission into the resonating modes of the oscillator. The laser is useful for tuning to an atmospheric window, as a spectroscopic tool, for medical applications, and for industrial effluent monitoring.

Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997 28 The Laboratory in the News Abstracts

(continued from page 2) • Multiscale Electrodynamics (MELD), by a team Programs directorates. This breakthrough in insulator Nova Laser Experiments and Stockpile Sharing the Challenges of Nonproliferation headed by Richard Ratowsky from the Physics and Space technology improves the voltage breakdown performance Stewardship Technology Directorate. This simulation software is a of insulators up to a factor of four, thus opening up Lawrence Livermore scientists have been traveling to breakthrough design tool with the potential to revolutionize possibilities for reducing the size of all high-voltage High-power lasers contribute to the experimental study Russia and other newly independent states of the former the design process for opto-electronic devices and packages. equipment and developing new types of accelerators that of matter under conditions of extremely high energy density, Soviet Union to negotiate and collaborate with their MELD can model widely disparate elements, such as were not possible previously. The new technology should the conditions that exist in the interior of stars and in nuclear counterparts in efforts to promote global nuclear security. semiconductor waveguides, fibers, and lenses, using exactly revolutionize linear accelerators and reduce the size and explosions. Experiments on the Nova laser system have Under the auspices of Nunn–Lugar legislation and the the right method for each and providing a seamless interface cost of x-ray machines, neutron sources, and plasma helped resolve questions in three important areas of basic nonproliferation initiatives of the Departments of Energy between the elements—all accessed intuitively by a human radiation sources. physics: equations of state, hydrodynamic instabilities, and and State, Lawrence Livermore scientists and engineers operator. By reducing fabrication cycles, optimization time, Contact: Ted Wieskamp (510) 422-8612 ([email protected]). opacity. The results of these experiments suggest that high- have helped negotiate transparency measures to confirm and cost, the software offers the potential to increase the U.S. • High-Performance Storage Systems, by Oak Ridge power lasers can play a significant role in a comprehensive, the progress of arms reduction activities, monitored Russian market share in today’s $15-billion annual opto-electronic National Laboratory working with Lawrence Livermore, laboratory-based experimental program to support the processing of weapons materials for conversion to civilian component market. Los Alamos, Sandia, and IBM Global Government Industry Department of Energy’s Stockpile Stewardship and energy production, worked with and guided scientists from Contact: Richard Ratowsky (510) 423-3907 ([email protected]). as participating institutions; Richard Watson of the Management Program. the newly independent states toward non-weapons projects, • Oil Field Tiltmeter, by a team headed by Steven Computation Directorate is Livermore’s primary contact. ■ Contact: and worked with Russian weapons scientists to upgrade Hunter from the Energy Programs Directorate. This This new storage system will enable users to store a Ted Perry (510) 423-2065 ([email protected]) or security and fissile material accountability of fissile material instrument measures minute changes in tilt on two quintillion bytes (an exabyte), which is more than ten Bruce Remington (510) 423-2712 ([email protected]). stored or processed at Russian nuclear facilities. orthogonal axes. An array of these instruments is used to thousand times the capability of today’s supercomputing ■ Contact: monitor oil well hydrofracture—a technique of cracking storage systems, to meet the needs of the Department of William Dunlop (510) 422-9390 ([email protected]). rock in an oil field to increase production—and provides Energy’s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative and valuable information for choosing optimal sites for oil Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program. New wells. Previous technology could monitor hydrofractures software allows huge capacities and transfer rates by using only 6,000 feet deep, but this instrument is capable of a network-centered design. Distributing the storage monitoring in very expensive wells at least 10,000 feet deep. software system and storage devices over a network allows Contact: Steven Hunter (510) 423-2219 ([email protected]). control of the system to be separated from the flow of data. • Ultrahigh Gradient Insulator, by a team, headed These capabilities allow more rapid data transmission and by Steve Sampayan, whose members come from the scalability of performance and capacity, thus removing a Defense and Nuclear Technologies and the Laser bottleneck in data storage, transfer, and retrieval. Contact: Richard Watson (510) 422-9216 ([email protected]).

© 1997. The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. This document has been authored by the The Regents of the University of California under Contract No. W-7405- Eng-48 with the U.S. Government. To request permission to use any material contained in this document, please submit your request in writing to the Technical Information Department, Publication Services Group, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551, or to our electronic mail [email protected] .

This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

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Science & Technology Review September 1997 Science & Technology Review September 1997