Site 300's New Contained Firing Facility

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is preparing to construct a Contained Firing Facility to provide containment for much of Site 300's high-explosives testing, which is now done in the open air. This new facility, in the final design stage, is scheduled to be completed and operational in 2000. The facility incorporates numerous features to enable continued stockpile-stewardship-related tests while ensuring the health and safety of workers and protecting the outside environment. The firing chamber will be a rectangular, conventionally reinforced concrete structure. To assure that the design adequately addresses the effects of blasting in the firing chamber, Laboratory engineers and scientists have performed a series of tests, including several with a one-quarter-scale model of the firing chamber.

Feature Article

Computational Electromagnetics: Codes and Capabilities

The computational electronics and electromagnetics thrust area has a very direct mission: give researchers the best electromagnetic modeling tools available. Livermore's EM experts study and model wave phenomena covering almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The focal point for Livermore's electronics and EM computer modeling activities is the computational electronics and electromagnetics thrust area.
This thrust area has created a variety of production computer codes such as BEEMER, SPHERE2, AMOS, TSAR, and NEC-4. For example, they are using their expertise and codes to support development of an advanced accelerator, which will help assure the safety and reliability of the nation's stockpiled nuclear weapons. They also support the Department of Defense in assessing EM vulnerabilities in conventional military systems.

Research Highlights

Ergonomics Research: Impact on Injuries

The Linear Electric Motor: Instability at 1,000 g's

and LLNL Disclaimers

UCRL-52000