Annual Review Rates NMT Division as "Outstanding/Excellent"

Division Commended for the Quality of Science and Its Vital Role in National Security

Nuclear Materials and Technology (NMT) Division has earned an outstanding/excellent rating in this year's annual division review. The final report commends the division for the quality of its science and notes the importance of maintaining and strengthening that science to support NMT¹s role in national security.

The division review, held in early May, was the first in two years; last year's was canceled because of the Cerro Grande Fire. The review covered the period July 1, 1998, through June 30, 2000. This year's review concentrated on weapons surveillance and stewardship, enhanced surveillance, components manufacturing, and dynamic testing.

Anthony Rollett (far left), chairman of this year's Nuclear Materials and Technology (NMT) Division external review committee, shakes hands with K.C. Kim at the end of a day's briefings. Kim is NMT Division chief scientist and coordinator of this year's division review. To Rollett's left are Rohinton Bhada, committee member, and Lamar Miller, who served as an observer on the committee. Allen Hartford, director of the Lab's Science and Technology Base Programs (STB), is partially hidden behind Kim.

"Many instances of outstanding performance were evident and the quality of the science and engineering had improved significantly compared to previous reviews," review committee members said in the report. "The overriding theme that emerged during the review is that future success in stockpile stewardship depends on the successful integration of research and manufacturing."

"It was evident that the division continues to perform work of vital importance to the U.S. nuclear defense program, especially with respect to the manufacture of pits," the report continued. "As the nation's only functional research and development facility for actinides that can handle pits, the division also supports a wide variety of other programs such as fuels and heat sources. Strong performance was noted in many areas."

The report cited NMT Division's wide range of activities, from fundamental research in plutonium to the actual fabrication of pits. "This integration of science and manufacturing, if well implemented, has the potential to be a model for the future activities of the Los Alamos National Laboratory..."

The annual division review is a requirement of the University of California's contract with the Department of Energy. Under terms of the agreement, the Science and Technology Panel of the UC President's Council on the National Laboratories is responsible for assessing the quality of the science and technology programs at Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley, and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories.

At Los Alamos, director-appointed external committees, made up of experts in the various disciplines from the national laboratories, academia, and industry, review each technical division. The committees review about one-third or more of the divisions' programmatic activities each year, and all science and technology activities must be covered within a three-year cycle. Review committees base their evaluations on four criteria: quality of science, relevance to national needs and agency missions, performance in the technical development and operation of major research facilities, and programmatic performance and planning.

After the division reviews are completed at the end of May, the individual division reports are rolled up into a Laboratory-wide report called the Science and Technology Assessment, which is sent to the UC president's office at the end of August.

Review committee members and Los Alamos and NMT Division management attended an executive opening session May 8. Bill Press, Los Alamos deputy director for Science, Technology, and Programs, described for the review committee the Lab's vision, mission, and strategic business direction. He also discussed 10 top-level institutional goals for fiscal years 2001 and 2002, including the W88 pit production/certification goal, which applies directly to NMT Division's mission. The executive session gives Lab management the opportunity to provide some guidance to the review committee members as to what the Laboratory expects from them.

Carolyn Mangeng, deputy associate director for nuclear weapons, opened the first general session with a discussion of the Laboratory's weapons programs. She stressed the need to balance high-visibility programs, like pit production and certification, with the need to maintain the science base to attract new people and projects.

Mangeng mentioned several major successes in the stockpile stewardship program, including better characterizing of the aging of components in nuclear weapons; effectively using the Lab's Blue Mountain supercomputer for parallel processing; and obtaining new information from experiments on the dynamic properties of nuclear materials.

"Replicating Rocky Flats pits-a major component of NMT's stockpile stewardship program-is a challenge for the Laboratory and stockpile stewardship," said Mangeng. "There are many unknowns and it could prove to be a lot more difficult than first thought."

"It's simply not possible to reproduce the manufacturing methods used at Rocky Flats, nor do we want to because of environmental and other considerations," said Mangeng. "To come up with new methods that will result in an identical pit, to certify that the pits are identical, and to do this without nuclear testing will require technical know-how and research, support from across the Laboratory, and sustained funding from DOE."

NMT Division Leader Tim George followed Mangeng at the podium. "It's not a year I would have chosen to take over the division," he said, referring to several major contamination and security incidents that occurred in the division and at the Lab during 2000.

One incident, said George, proved to be a testament to the commitment of the people in NMT Division: their response to the Cerro Grande Fire. Division employees had NMT back up and running within two weeks of the Labwide closure and managed to maintain the time schedule set for pit production. In fact, the first pit produced following the fire was made on schedule, just weeks after the Plutonium Facility reopened, and a second pit was produced soon after.

George also discussed the important role Los Alamos has in the DOE complex because NMT Division maintains the nation's only remaining facility capable of handling all isotopes and chemical forms of plutonium, tritium, and other actinides. He also said that while a top priority of the division is the pilot production capability of pits, stockpile surveillance and enhanced surveillance may be the NMT mission most critical to national security.

Echoing Mangeng, George said that fulfilling the roles placed on NMT Division by the DOE and Washington will take additional support and funding. The review committee's report commended George for his "high quality and accomplishments... He has demonstrated his grasp of an exceptionally challenging job in a short period."

During the review, NMT Division's goals were laid out for the committee: stockpile management­pit manufacturing, stockpile stewardship­pit surveillance, environmental stewardship, nuclear materials disposition, energy and advanced fuels, and nuclear materials processing.

"Although these goals are realistic," said the report, LANL and the DOE will not meet them without a major commitment of resources with support form the University of California. With the selection of LANL as the site for pit manufacture and surveillance for the U.S., it is extremely important that the NMT Division be provided with the facilities and resources to carry out the requisite actinide research, development, and manufacturing activities with compliance and safety."

The sessions continued through May 9 and included overviews on facility operations and the regulatory environment, NMT programs in general, the pit manufacturing project, weapons surveillance, emerging programs, components manufacturing, dynamic testing, the Seaborg Institute, other science highlights, and a report by the Science Leadership committee.

Technical presentation topics included last summer's international Plutonium Futures conference in Santa Fe, ion channel membranes for selective separation of actinide metal ions, plutonium electronic structure, and mechanical modeling for aged plutonium.

A video conference was held the afternoon of May 9 between the committee and top Lab management located in Los Alamos and DOE Defense Programs (DP) staff located in Washington, D.C. May 10 was devoted to private meetings between staff and the Division Review Committee, an executive outbrief session, and a closeout meeting open to NMT employees. The review wrapped up on May 11.

Anthony Rollett served as chairman of this year's review committee. Rollett is former deputy leader of Los Alamos's Materials Science and Technology (MST) Division. He currently is a member of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Other members of the review committee included Richard Bartsch, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University; Rohinton Bhada, professor emeritus, retired, New Mexico State University; Darleane Hoffman, former leader of Los Alamos's Isotope and Nuclear Chemistry (INC) Division and currently a member of the Heavy Element Nuclear Radiochemistry Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and William Weston, Boeing Co., Rocketdyne Division. Susan Wood, vice president and director, Savannah River Technology Center, was unable to attend the review.

Participating as observers were former committee chair Ned Wogman, senior manager for national security, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Lamar Miller, Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida.

NMT Division is in the process of recruiting several new members for the committee and hopes to have them on board in time for next year's division review.

Meredith S. Coonley

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