Associated Press
LOS ALAMOS — Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have successfully completed a series of experiments to help ensure the reliability of aging W76 nuclear warheads.
The experiment at the northern New Mexico lab's Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility on Wednesday used the world's most powerful flash X-ray machine, according to the lab.
Working on the same principle as a dental X-ray, the lab's machine can see what happens during an explosion of the non-nuclear parts of a warhead.
The X-ray image and other data collected during the series of tests will be used to improve computer models of weapons explosions, which replaced underground nuclear tests after they were banned in 1992.
"Now the (computer) model is much more important,'' lab spokesman Jim Danneskiold said Friday. "We spend much more time to put more and more data into the model.''
In the next few months, Los Alamos researchers will compare the image and data with the computer models to refine them so they accurately reflect weapon behavior.
The W76 is carried on Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles. There are about 2,700 W76s in the U.S. nuclear arsenal — more than any other nuclear weapon.
Late next year, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to begin manufacturing some W76 components based on the data collected in this series of experiments, the release said.
The lab's test facility will be the primary experimental site for certifying the nuclear stockpile in the next decade, the lab said.
As the stockpile ages, the Energy Department started programs at Los Alamos and other labs to determine the effects of time and changing maintenance on different weapons.
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