The Crestone Project team produced this visualization from a simulation done by Randy Kanzleiter of Thermonuclear Applications (X-2) in support of hydrodynamic validation experiments performed at the Shiva Star facility at Kirtland Air Force Base. Bob Greene of High-Performance Computing Environments (CCN-8) used EnSight Visualization software to generate the image, which shows an adaptive mesh (lower center region) in a single plane, and pressure variations in the imploding shock wave, with lower pressures in blue and higher ranges in red.

Los Alamos, Livermore teams complete first 3-D simulations of a nuclear weapon

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday issued a news release about the first full-system three-dimensional simulations of a nuclear weapon explosion, a significant achievement for Los Alamos and Science Applications International Corp.

The leader of Los Alamos' Crestone Project team is Bob Weaver of Thermonuclear Applications (X-2). Senior code architect of the Crestone Project is Michael Gittings of SAIC and X-2. Bob Boland of SAIC oversaw the day-to-day running of the simulation, essentially a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job for more than seven months. Other team members include Rob Oakes and John Fowler of Computational Science Methods (X-8), Rich Holmes of X-2, and Robert J. Kares of Plasma Physics (X-1), Ray Alcouffe and Scott Turner, both of Transport Methods (CCS-4), Robert K. Greene of High-Performance Computing Environments (CCN-8), Tom Betlach, David L. Harris and Michael Clover, all of SAIC, and Patrick Fay of Intel Corp.

To read the NNSA release, click here. (Adobe Acrobat required)

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