From the gadfly activist group, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), comes word of a December 16, 2009 test of a Large Bore Powder Gun (LBPG) at Technical Area 15 of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  The test went awry and the Shock & Detonation Physics Group “heard a loud unusual noise” and observed the doors being “propelled off the facility.”  Initial reports estimated the damage to be on the order of $3 million.  Parts of the LBPG cannon were “found outside the building.” 

As POGO notes, LANL has a long history of technical problems and management issues.  POGO’s comment on the latest incident?  “… our past investigations have been concerned about security threats to the nuclear labs coming from outsiders.”

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) issued a statement (reported on Wired.com) that flatly refuted the POGO report, saying, “Despite claims to the contrary, the only thing ‘demolished’ in this case was POGO’s credibility … and [this] is the sort of irresponsible hyperbole we’ve come to expect from this group.”  The NNSA stated that the LBPG test was part of a “standard proof test for a catch tank in the target chamber … [and] these types of experiments are routine and responsible.”  According to the NNSA statement, the LBPG tests are “used to conduct measurements of material properties at pressures needed for understanding nuclear weapons performance.” 

Despite the denial, the POGO reporter stood by his original story, noting, “The explosion blew the doors off the building, separated the shielding of two walls, and caused significant facility structural damage.”  The POGO site contains a link to the LANL Occurrence Report (found here).  The Occurrence Report does not discuss why the LBPG was being utilized nor does it discuss any root cause analysis regarding why such a “routine” test could have failed so catastrophically.

We accept that there is a bona fide need to use LBPG “cannons” in the testing of material properties.  We look forward, however, to learning how one could fail in such a way as to blow the doors off a presumably robust facility.

More interesting, at least to us, is the role played by the NNSA in linking the Department of Energy with the Department of Defense.  As the NNSA website (link above) tells us—

One of the primary missions of NNSA is to maintain and enhance the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. NNSA, through its Office of Defense Programs, ensures that the U.S. nuclear arsenal meets the country’s national security requirements and continues to serve its essential deterrence role. In partnership with the Department of Defense, NNSA’s Defense Programs provides the research, development, secure transportation, and production activities necessary to support the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile…. Today, NNSA uses and oversees a wide-range of breakthrough science experiments, engineering audits and high-tech computer simulations, including extensive laboratory and flight tests of warhead components and subsystems, to keep the existing warheads reliable, secure and safe. Every year, the Secretary of Energy is able to certify the reliability of the stockpile without conducting an underground nuclear test.

The NNSA manages eight sites in the Nuclear Weapons Complex.  The eight sites include the Los Alamos, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.  In addition, there are sites in Kansas City, and Amarillo (Texas). There is a test site outside of Las Vegas, and a production site near Augusta, Georgia dedicated to extracting Tritium (³H) Gas for use in nuclear weapons.  Finally, the Y-12 “National Security Complex” in Oakridge, Tennessee is the nation’s “only source of enriched uranium” for use in weapons and by the U.S. Navy.

We find it interesting that the ostensibly civilian Department of Energy has such an important role in maintaining the nation’s strategic defense.  Perhaps the linkage (or confusion?) between civilian and military uses of nuclear energy traces its roots back to 1946, when President Truman transferred control of “atomic energy” from military to civilian hands.  Truman established the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to essentially control all facets of nuclear production, including managing the National Laboratories.  Critics have written, “the AEC had become an oligarchy controlling all facets of the military and civilian sides of nuclear energy, promoting them and at the same time attempting to regulate them, and it had fallen down on the regulatory side ... a growing legion of critics saw too many inbuilt conflicts of interest."  In 1974 the AEC was disestablished and replaced with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).  According to the NRC website, its only interest is in the commercial uses of nuclear power; military production and sustainment is handled by the NNSA within the Department of Energy.  Use of nuclear weapons is (of course) under the control of the Department of Defense and the National Command Authority.

So we’ve meandered from Large Bore Powder Guns to nuclear weapons.  We’ve learned that, even in a secured bunker inside a weapon testing site, explosive mishaps can occur.  We’re very happy that such mishaps occur with LBPGs and not with nuclear weapons.