Although Los Alamos National Laboratory is primarily a research and development institution, the Laboratory has always done some manufacturing work. Here are seven products that are made right here at Los Alamos.
Accelerator cells
The Laboratory designed the accelerator cell modules that are key components of the 400-foot-long Scorpius linear accelerator, which will create radiographic images of subcritical plutonium experiments. When completed, Scorpius will be located in a tunnel nearly 1,000 feet underground in the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experiments at the Nevada National Security Site. The first two modules are being built at Los Alamos this year.
Detonators
For a plutonium pit to implode inside a nuclear weapon, the pit must be compressed uniformly by the high explosives that surround it. The high explosives are triggered by small devices called detonators. Since 1989, the detonators for all nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile have been manufactured by Los Alamos.
Explosives
The Laboratory’s High Explosives Science and Technology group develops and manufactures precision high explosives to meet current and future national security needs. This work involves chemical synthesis of new explosives, materials research, performance testing, and related problem-solving. The plastic-bonded explosives developed by this group were the first truly precision explosives controlled down to the micron scale; they can be pressed and machined to the most exacting tolerances. Los Alamos also produces the explosives that are used in detonators.
Heat sources
For more than 50 years, the Laboratory has manufactured heat sources, which are power sources made from plutonium-238. The radioactive isotope generates heat as it decays. This heat is converted to electricity by a generator and can power a device in deep space for a very long time. In addition to powering the Mars rovers, heat sources manufactured at Los Alamos have powered the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn. In 2027, plutonium-238 will power the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
Plutonium pits
A plutonium pit is the core of a nuclear weapon; when compressed by explosives inside a warhead or bomb, a pit generates incredible amounts of energy. Los Alamos is currently developing the processes for manufacturing at least 30 pits per year, starting with pits for the W87-1 warhead. The first stockpile-bound pit is on track to be produced this summer.
Space instruments
The Lab’s Intelligence and Space Research division creates and delivers innovative sensing systems for space-based instrumentation for national security applications. Two examples are ChemCam, which performs rapid chemical and microscopic reconnaissance aboard the Mars Curiosity rover, and SuperCam, which collects geologic data and samples aboard the Mars Perseverance rover.
Targets
At the Laboratory’s Target Fabrication Facility, engineers create one-of-a-kind targets for experiments carried out at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) and other locations. At NIF, a target is bombarded with laser beams, which causes a tiny fuel capsule inside the target to implode and produce fusion—creating more energy than was initially put in by the laser beams. ★