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Advanced Simulation and Computing

Nuclear weapon simulation and computing

Ensuring the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile

The Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program supports the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Defense Programs by developing simulation capabilities and deploying computing platforms to analyze and predict the performance, safety, and reliability of nuclear weapons and to certify their functionality in the absence of nuclear testing. The ability to model the extraordinary complexity of nuclear weapons systems is an essential element of the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP).

The ASC Program at Los Alamos delivers leading-edge computer systems, sophisticated physics and engineering codes, physical data, and uniquely qualified staff to support the science-based SSP. ASC tools enable nuclear weapons scientists and engineers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the weapons lifecycle—design, development, production, certification, life extension, retirement, and dismantlement—and take on the most challenging simulation problems of today and tomorrow.

Los Alamos works in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories to share long-distance computing capabilities so that SSP staff have access to the largest systems at any of the labs. ASC also collaborates with universities to advance the state-of-the-art in computational physics, including providing university students with access to ASC supercomputers.

Program elements

Integrated Codes

Integrated Codes (IC) contain the mathematical descriptions of the physical processes relating to nuclear weapon systems and describe what the nation knows about how nuclear weapons function.

Physics and Engineering Models

The Physics and Engineering Models (PEM) subprogram provides the models and databases used in simulations supporting the U.S. stockpile.

Verification and Validation

The Verification and Validation (V&V) subprogram provides evidence that the models in the codes produce mathematically credible answers that reflect physical reality.

Computational Systems and Software Environments

The Computational Systems and Software Environments (CSSE) subprogram builds integrated, balanced, and scalable computational capabilities to meet the predictive simulation requirements of the NNSA.

Facility Operations and User Support

The Facility Operations and User Support (FOUS) subprogram provides two critical enablers for the effective use of ASC tri-lab computing resources: 1) physical facility and operational support for reliable, cross-lab production computing and storage environments, and 2) a suite of user services.

Computing News

All News
2025-07-24Computing

Los Alamos team finds a new path toward quantum machine learning

Gaussian had until now escaped use in the quantum computing realm

2025-06-04Computing

Understanding quantum computing's most troubling problem

In new paper, Los Alamos scientists collect and review years of work on barren plateaus, a mathematical dead end that has plagued variational quantum computing

2025-05-28Computing

A new problem that only quantum computing can solve

A recent paper introduced a quantum algorithm to simulate optical networks, proving that only a quantum computer can solve such a complex problem

Artificial Intelligence News Stories

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2025-06-03Artificial Intelligence

Los Alamos contributes to unprecedented dataset to train AI models

Meta leads molecular simulations dataset effort using Lab software and tools

2025-04-23Artificial Intelligence

Laboratory researchers converge to test and train scientific AI models

1000 Scientist AI Jam Session brings scientists together with leading-edge AI tools

2025-03-05Artificial Intelligence

New AI defense method shields models from adversarial attacks

Fusion of techniques drives robust accuracy in neural network models

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