Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico Facilities and Safety Information Document [NOTE: Volume II, Chapter 12]
Operations in Tech Area IV commenced in 1980 with the construction of Buildings 980 and 981 and the Electron Beam Fusion Accelerator, which at the time was a major facility in SNL's Inertial Confinement Fusion Program. The Electron Beam Fusion Accelerator was a third-generation fusion accelerator that followed Proto I and Proto II, which were operated in Tech Area V. Another accelerator, the Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator I, was constructed in Tech Area IV because there was not enough room in Tech Area V, a highly restricted area that contains SNL's reactor facilities. In the early 1980s, more fusion-related facilities were constructed in Tech Area IV. Building 983 was built to house a fourth-generation fusion accelerator, the Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator II, now called Z Machine, and Buildings 960 and 961 were built to house office space, electrical and mechanical laboratories, and highbay space for pulsed power research and development. In the mid 1980s, Building 970 was constructed to house the Simulation Technology Laboratory. The main facility in the Simulation Technology Laboratory is the High-Energy Radiation Megavolt Electron Source (HERMES) III, a third-generation gamma ray accelerator that is used primarily for the simulation of gamma rays produced by nuclear weapons. The previous generations, HERMES I and HERMES II, had been located in Tech Area V. In the late 1980s, Proto II was moved from Tech Area V to the Simulation Technology Laboratory and modified to function as an x-ray simulation accelerator, and construction of Buildings 962 and 963 began. These buildings comprised the Strategic Defense Facility, which was initially intended to support the nation's Strategic Defense Initiative or ''Star Wars'' program. It was to house a variety of pulsed power-related facilities to conduct research in such areas as directed-energy weapons (electron beams, lasers, and microwaves) and an earth-to-orbit launcher. With the reduction of the Strategic Defense Initiative budget in the early 1990s, however, many of these programs were discontinued and some, such as the High Power Microwave Laboratory and the Repetitive Pulsed Power Laboratory, were established. By 1990, all the Tech Area V accelerators had either been moved to Tech Area IV or decommissioned, and Tech Area IV had become the center for SNL's pulsed power sciences activities. The early 1990s saw an infusion of programs into Tech Area IV that support DOE goals in defense, industrial competitiveness, and the environment. A computer sciences group moved into Building 980, and a group that prepares rocket payloads for flight tests moved into one of the highbays in Building 963. A robotics group moved into Building 966, and a number of diverse groups occupy office and laboratory space in Building 962.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 777072
- Report Number(s):
- SAND99-2126/2; TRN: US0101850
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Aug 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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