Los Alamos, Sandia, NM Tech to team on energetic materials research

Contact: Jim Danneskiold, jdanneskiold@lanl.gov, (505) 667-1640 (03-129)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Sept. 16, 2003 -- To reinvigorate U.S. research and development in explosives — including applications aimed at the terrorist threat — Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology are establishing the Center for Energetic Materials and Energetic Devices, or CEMED.

Officials from the three organizations this week will sign a memorandum of understanding spelling out the scope of the new research Center.

News media representatives are invited to a signing ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, in the Wyndham Albuquerque Hotel ballroom, 2910 Yale Blvd. SE.

Researchers in the technical security community call them "energetic materials and devices." The public calls them explosives and bombs. By any name, there is a growing need for advanced capabilities to identify, evaluate, test and disarm such devices. In recent years, funding for scientific research on energetic materials has declined, and the development of new energetic devices for peaceful and military applications has correspondingly decreased.

Each CEMED partner brings unique capabilities to the table.

Los Alamos brings to the new partnership a long history of developing and characterizing new energetic materials under normal and extreme conditions, using sophisticated experimental diagnostics, precision fabrication facilities and sites for energetic materials studies. Los Alamos' mission of nuclear weapons stewardship includes modeling and simulation of the behavior of energetic materials and the manufacture of high-energy detonators for the U.S. stockpile and other applications.

Sandia for more than 50 years has had as one of its core missions the design and production of advanced energetic devices and subsystems. CEMED projects will offer Sandia and its Regional Alliance for Manufacturing Program partners a chanced to stretch their manufacturing capabilities on high consequence/low volume systems and assemblies.

New Mexico Tech is the only U.S. university to offer degrees in explosives engineering; it conducts research and testing related to energetic materials and explosives for industry and government agencies.

Customers for CEMED will include the U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and Agriculture, as well as other federal and state agencies with an interest in energetic materials and devices.

The Center also will be a resource for U.S. companies that develop, use, and manufacture energetic materials and devices. They include companies from various industry sectors including transportation, mining, oil and gas, automotive, and munitions manufacturers.

Initial projects CEMED is pursuing include developing energetic devices to help fight wild fires for the U.S. Forest Service and experimental tests to determine blast pressure and validate simulation models of building demolitions.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission.

Los Alamos develops and applies science and technology to ensure the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent; reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction, proliferation and terrorism; and solve national problems in defense, energy, environment and infrastructure.

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