History of nuclear testing discussed at talk Friday

Part of Lab's classified colloquium series

A longtime Los Alamos nuclear weapon scientist will examine the status and history of nuclear testing during a Classified Director's Colloquium on Friday at the Laboratory.

Robert Brownlee, currently an affiliate in the Dynamic Experimentation (DX) Division, will speak on "Test Readiness and the Obligations of a Nuclear Stockpile" at 1:10 p.m., Friday in the Administration Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3.

All attendees must hold "Q" clearances and have sigmas 1-10 assigned by line management. To register for the colloquium and others in the classified colloquium series, write to the Security Help Desk at security@lanl.gov by electronic mail and include name, Z number, group, e-mail address and phone number. Registration information also is available at http://stbblue.lanl.gov/colloquium online.

"The suspension of nuclear weapon testing that began in 1992 holds some important parallels to the Eisenhower moratorium of November 1958 to September 1961 for those who must maintain the arsenal in the absence of any yield-producing experiments," Brownlee said.

Subsequent to the moratorium, the United States entered into the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, but Congress mandated that the national laboratories maintain the capability to resume testing in the atmosphere and other environments prohibited by the treaty. Brownlee, who served as scientific adviser for the nuclear test readiness program from 1972 to 1992, said that maintaining readiness during that period in the absence of actual activities presented profound challenges.

"I hope in this talk to provide a short history of atmospheric nuclear testing, review key moments in nuclear history and draw some contrasts and parallels between the circumstances of weapons scientists during this earlier period and those we are experiencing today," Brownlee said.

Brownlee joined the Laboratory's Field Test (J) Division in 1955 and took part in atmospheric nuclear tests at Eniwetok and Bikini in the Pacific, and was test director for a number of missile and nuclear tests in the Pacific and Alaska and later nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. He served in a variety of management jobs, including assistant leader of the former J Division and leader of the former Basic and Applied Geosciences (G) Division.

Much of his career was spent as a scientific adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission, The Energy Research and Development Administration, and the Department of Energy for the conduct of underground nuclear tests, and as a member and later scientific deputy commander of joint task forces for the conduct of atmospheric tests. Brownlee was a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations for the U.S. Geothermal Energy Program.

He is currently chairman of DOE's Containment Evaluation Panel, on which he has served for many years.

Brownlee's work and research interests have taken him to more than 90 countries on every continent, including solar eclipse expeditions in Mexico, Canada, South America, and Africa and a journey 12,000 feet below the surface of the Earth to a South African gold mine to investigate "rock bursts." He is a member of the American Astronomical Society, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, International Astronomical Union and the Royal Astronomical Society.

He holds a doctoral degree in astronomy and astrophysics from Indiana University, a master's in astronomy from the University of Kansas and a bachelor of science in mathematics and physics from Sterling College, Kansas.

The goal for the director's classified colloquium series is to disseminate important and interesting information on classified scientific topics to Los Alamos technical staff. The talks are planned to help inform a wide audience of Los Alamos' major classified scientific research and to stimulate discussions within an appropriate, secure environment, ultimately leading to future ideas and initiatives that will advance classified programs.

Transportation is available by calling 7-TAXI (7-8294) and indicating that you are attending the classified colloquium.

--Jim Danneskiold

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