Sandia lab's Z Machine helps safeguard stockpile

Posted at: 10/13/2009 10:15 AM
By: The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Sandia National Laboratories' Z Machine conducted 51 test shots in the last three months toward the goal of safeguarding the nation's nuclear stockpile.

The National Nuclear Security Administration says the test shots more than doubled that of the same period the previous year.

Information from Z Machine firings are used to help supercomputer simulations of the effect of nuclear weapons.

NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino says the Z Machine is an integral part of maintaining a safe and reliable stockpile without nuclear testing.  It's also used in other research.

Sandia says it has created temperature and pressures that allowed astronomers to better estimate aspects of the core of Jupiter, the surface of Neptune and X-ray patterns around black holes.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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