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Review of the DOE National Security Labs' Use of Archival Nuclear Test Data Letter Report (QMU Phase II) (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Letter Report
Pages 1-10

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From page 1...
... Kusnezov, In 2006, the U.S. Congress and the National Nuclear Security Administration of the Department of Energy asked the National Academy of Sciences to carry out an evaluation of the quantification of margins and uncertainties framework used by the national security laboratories in support of their nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship activities.
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From page 2...
... This letter report presents the results of the study committee's analysis based on those two meetings. The report begins with a short background section followed by the findings, recommendations, and analysis.
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From page 3...
... Archiving these data by scanning the original records, converting to a digital format, and cataloging the digital records has been an ongoing and critical activity of the national security labs over the last few decades. This letter report presents an evaluation of the efforts by LANL and LLNL to make use of the archival data in applying the QMU framework to the assessment and certification of the weapons stockpile.
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From page 4...
... 1 lt should also be noted that the archived data analysis process is helping with the knowledge transfer between designers with test experiences and our 21st Century designers. Finding l-a: The design labs rely heavily on archived data from nuclear tests in their assessment of margins and uncertainties.
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From page 5...
... All this re-analysis has led to new baseline computational models for the stockpile weapons along with improved metrics or identifying performance margins and uncertainties. There is considerable collaboration between LANL and LLNL on developing re-analysis tools as well on other aspects of using the archival UGT data.
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From page 6...
... It was clear to the panel that all the scientists who gave presentations recognize the value of the archived data and are utilizing them well. As noted by LLNL, "Many Weapons Program personnel now expect information to be available online, are willing to put some effort into that process, and some have even stepped up to champion ongoing funding." Finding 2-a: Given finite resources, NNSA and the labs must balance investments in archived data with investment in other essential areas.
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From page 7...
... Nevertheless, it is the committee's judgment that the balance currently being struck by the labs -- given the current budget realities -- appears to be about right. 4 Recommendation 2 5 : The current funding balance between the larger weapons 4 Another issue that has been raised is the balance struck by the Labs between analyses of older tests with less sophisticated diagnostics that nevertheless may have focused on resolving specific physics issues and the analyses of more recent tests of devices similar to those in the stockpile that featured more sophisticated diagnostics.
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From page 8...
... Among them are differing security procedures and need-to-know philosophies within the various complex entities; increased vulnerability as a result of more extensive connectivity; and greater resource requirements to support requests from different parts of the complex. Nevertheless, between LANL and LLNL at least, the championing of greater cooperation for data exchange has resulted in a substantial volume of data and analyses transferred between labs and a dramatic drop in response time for fulfilling requests between the labs.
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From page 9...
... Because of the high value of the digital archived data and the large investment in ongoing re-analysis of these data (and therefore the high value of the resulting derivative data) , it is essential that there be secure backups of both; preferably at a geographic location well separated from individual labs.
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From page 10...
... lf the next generation of designers goes on as they do now, not setting down in a suitable scientific paper the knowledge they have gained from a scientific project, but being content just to generate information, their contributions are seriously incomplete and the technical validity and integrity of the "stewardship" could be seriously compromised. The goals of QMU are best met within the traditional scientific process in which results are not just catalogued in a database, but exposed to serious peer review by the scientific community.
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Key Terms

  • archived data
  • data archiving
  • ugt data
  • data exchange
  • nuclear tests

  • derivative data
  • stockpile weapons
  • national nuclear
  • nuclear stockpile
  • nuclear security

  • weapons stockpile
  • stockpile stewardship
  • weapons program
  • labs rely
  • security administration

  • underground tests
  • uncertainties methodology
  • ongoing work
  • inertial confinement
  • software tools

  • sophisticated diagnostics
  • confinement fusion
  • critical data
  • secure data
  • document data

  • data backup
  • original data
  • radiochemistry data
  • test data
  • organize data


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