Los Alamos National Laboratory Collaboration for Explosives Detection

Expertise & Facilities

Our full spectrum of end-to-end integrated capabilities in explosives make Los Alamos the ideal place to develop, characterize, and test all types of explosives and explosives threat scenarios.

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Award-winning scientists, state-of-the-art facilities

LACED is built upon Los Alamos’ unparalleled explosives detection capabilities derived from the expertise of award-winning scientists and state-of-the-art facilities. LACED is made up of 57 scientific experts across 18 divisions at Los Alamos. Spanning 11 unique fields of expertise, these scientists have published over 100 explosives detection-related publications.

Expertise

The following are just some of Los Alamos’ areas of expertise related to explosives:

  • open-air and confined firing sites (with many types of diagnostic capabilities)
  • gas and powder guns in research related to the study of material behavior
  • diagnostic tools that include flash x-ray, high-speed cameras, interferometric techniques, and pyrometry
  • research- and pilot-plant scale formulation, powder production, pressing, crystallization, and detonator R&D
  • synthetic and analytical chemistry
  • testing of mechanical properties
  • thermal response, microstructural characterization, and shock and nonshock initiation
  • proton radiography

Facilities

Los Alamos has a number of facilities that support work related to explosives: