Cutting-Edge Environmental Modeling

Terascale computing has come to simulations of the natural environment, bringing with it multidimensional, time-seqenced models that take a fraction of the time that similar but less complex simulations once took. The computing know-how that arrived at Livermore with the Department of Energy's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative-an important component of the Laboratory's mission to assure the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent-has spread throughout the Laboratory. Now it is being applied to advanced models of groundwater, earthquakes, the atmosphere, and global climate change. With these models, scientists can better understand, predict, and safeguard our ever-changing environment.

Protons Reveal the Inside Story

In the absence of nuclear testing, advanced radiography is the most important experimental tool available to help maintain the nation's aging nuclear stockpile. A team of Lawrence Livermore scientists has been investigating whether beams of high-energy protons focused with magnetic lenses can be used as an advanced radiography probe. Over the past five years, the scientists have conducted a series of tests at Los Alamos and Brookhaven national laboratories. The tests have centered on basic proton science as well as proton radiography's ability to image and distinguish materials in both static and explosive situations. The researchers have gained confidence that proton radiography offers significant advantages over current x-ray technology. Because of its strong attributes, proton radiography is a leading candidate for the proposed Advanced Hydrotest Facility (AHF). The AHF would be able to image the detonation of a mock nuclear device at multiple vantage points and at various times to form a three-dimensional movie.

Research Highlights

Matter That Matters

New Imaging Technique Gets under the Skin. . . Deep

and LLNL Disclaimers

UCRL-52000