Blow Stuff Up, Indoors

marmaluke writes: "Check out this story at Techtv.com. They built an explosion containment facility at Lawrence Livermore Lab that can take a punch and won't wake up the neighbors. They are going to use it for 'assessing the performance of the non-nuclear, or "primary," component in stockpiled nuclear weapons.' I just think it would be cool to have a little room to blow stuff up in! Anyone got any old PCs that you just don't know what to do with?" Also sounds like a good Dr. No / Dr. Evil unseen-extermination chamber.

It seems pretty cool, but...

[greesil]

The place sounds nify, but one has to wonder at the cost effectiveness of this place. I mean sure, the tests aren't subject to the vagaries of weather, but how much did it cost to build?

"Never freighten a little man, he'll kill you" -Lazarus Long

Hmmm...

[Yottabyte84]

Oh, cool, somewhere where I can use my jar of napalm on my C64 without pissing off the neihbors!

hrm

[dbolger]

Hrm...a room that can take severe explosions and not wake up the neighbors? in my house we call that the toilet ;)

I know. I'm sorry.

Re:hrm

[Tackhead]

> Hrm...a room that can take severe explosions and not wake up the neighbors? in my house we call that the toilet ;)

Hmph. In my house it's the bedroom. *rimshot* ;)

Re:hrm

[PD]

Dear [e-mail],

Please have a doctor examine your ears and your nose. We feel that something is seriously wrong with them.

Sincerely,

Your Neighbors

Why?

[maggard]

I mean, aside from the sheer niftyness of it it's not like the US is particularly short of places where one can blow things up, particularly relatively low-yield ordinance like nuclear weaponry triggers. We're not talking the bombs themselves, just the bombs-that-trigger-the-BOMBS.

Wouldn't it have been cheaper just to rent one of those cheap hunter's-hotels out in the middle of nowhere next to some federal lands, truck out the hardware and send the researchers on a field trip every so often?

Heck, there's always the Nevada deserts where the original testing took place above-ground and the later stuff below. It's already got facilities and there's not a lot of call for the area these days.

Re:Why?

[madPatter]

Since I'd imagine blowing things up in the middle of the desert is not particularly good for the desert, there might also be some environmental concern here.

Re:Why?

[cpl almost]

Cause nobody can spy on you inside LANL. Not even with a satelite.

Re:Why?

[bph]

Travel is expensive. This way you can do stuff on site and not wake up the neighbors in the $400,000 houses right next to the lab. This prevents the problem where you forget that one key piece of equipment or that one key person could not make the trip because their kid has a soccer game. The lab is secured, the explosives and all of the scientists are on site, it just make sense. It will no doubt shorten the testing cycle to boot.

That enough reasons for you?

Re:Why?

[maggard]

Travel isn't *that* expensive, particularly out to the places these folks would be going. Regarding the "key person" theory this is basic testing at a Nat'l Lab, either there's backup or J. Shmoe will make it for the good of their career.

As to onsite, I don't want to be around the day something breaks loose. In desert there's no big need for a containment building and no big huhu if one were to fail.

Finally - for those worried about dsert ecology putting a small crater here & there isn't gonna hurt much outside the very local area (explosives in the open don't do all that much damage unless they're specialized for such.) We put holes in the desert every day in places like 29 Palms training artillery, this isn't much different. Heck the roads to/from the sites likely have more significent effect.

Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

Most major weaponry isnt tested in Nevada, but in New Mexico. They have LANL, Sandia, and White Sands Missile Range. The first nuclear weapon was tested smack dab in the middle of that state.

The Lawerence Livermore Activity Center

[Animats]

... for semi-retired physicists, a/k/a the Stockpile Stewardship Program.

The nuclear establishment is dying off. There are few, if any, young bomb designers. This is seen as a problem. And with all the restrictions on testing, it's really tough to design a new thermonuclear weapon and be sure it will work.

So there's a major effort underway to build cool stuff for wannabe bombmakers to play with. This is one of the cheaper items. The National Ignition Facility (a big laser) and the supercomputers for DoE labs are much more expensive.

linux not secure enough? (and NT is???)

[maxphunk]

on the video clip the narator said that the systems controlling the blast chamber were run on windows nt onyl because linux was "not secure enough." were they trying to be funny????

Getting paid to break things

[dbowden]

One of the bonuses of an engineering degree is that sometimes you get paid to break things.

One of my college friends got a job with Detroit Edison [detroitedison.com]when he graduated, and he started out in their destructive testing lab. Basically, his job was to find out what happens to certain materials (like a 2" x 2" x 6 ft long hunk of iron) if exposed to thousands of volts at hundreds of amps.

Some things just vaporized, others would explode, and a few were able to carry the current.

We were always trying to talk him into setting up a tour for us, so we could watch him blow stuff up, but he was never able to... Damn.

Another friend was hired by Ford to do crash testing. We did manage to visit her, and see the test sled, and some of the crashed vehicles, but she couldn't set up a crash for us to watch either. Double Damn.

Oh well - at least I got to hear good stories about it.

In my job, they get mad at me if I blow things up.

Re:Getting paid to break things

[Kingfox]

Hell yeah. Blowing things up can always be a fun job.

A friend of mine works at a nearby arsenal, and every so often has to blow things up under the guise of getting rid of old stockpiles. They've actually got a few rooms like the one described in the article set up. Plenty of ordinances from the fifties or so that are past their expiration date get shoved into such a room, set off, and cleaned up.

While my friend finds his job tedious, it is a great job to impress his nephews. "Uncle Chris blows crap up all day at work!"

More info

[diegoq]

See LLNL's website [llnl.gov] for more details.

Interesting that they've gone for a cheaper, more conventional construction. They used conventional reinforced concrete and a rectangular building, over the more blast-efficient spherical shape using layered concrete. They are using mild steel over armour plate to halve the cost, yet maintain 85% penetration resistance.

Also, the "of the various blast attenuation systems studied, the least expensive one, a rubber doormat-type material, proved to be the only acceptable option."

Now, do they accept on-line ordering?

just use the western US like they used to

[mordorian]

If the blast won't be releasing pollutants they should just use a large open area.

I suppose this is almost a necessity when the blast would be releasing dangerous chemicals.