Explosive Alliances: Nuclear Weapons Simulation Research at American Universities; A Report on the Department of Energy's Academic Strategic Alliances Program

[4], viii, [1], 87, [1] pages. (Complete--pages individually checked). Footnotes. Illustrations. This was part of the Nuclear Weapons Databook produced by the NRDC Nuclear Program. The Academic Strategic Alliances Program was the predecessor of today's Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program which was established to support state-of-the-art research at U.S. academic institutions in areas of fundamental physical science and technology of relevance to the SSP mission. The SSAA Program provides the research experience necessary to maintain a cadre of trained scientists at U.S. universities to meet the nation's current and future SSP needs, with a focus on those areas not supported by other federal agencies. It supports the DOE/NNSA's priorities both to address the workforce specific needs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and to support the next generation of professionals who will meet those needs. The Defense Programs' Office of Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation within the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), directs research and development activities to maintain the safety, security, and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. This nuclear deterrent remains a vital part of our national security infrastructure. It maintains strategic stability, deters potential adversaries, and reassures our allies and partners of our security commitments. National Policy required NNSA and its weapons laboratories to institute the science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) to ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the stockpile, while allowing the country to pursue a variety of nonproliferation and disarmament goals. The SSP combines sophisticated experiments, highly accurate physics modeling, and improved computational power to simulate and predict nuclear weapon performance over a wide range of conditions and scenarios. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. …