High Point-density Shell Measurement on CMM Proof of Concept; LA-UR-07-7446

38 pages. Illustrations. References, This was prepared for Donald G. Hnath, Project Leader, Program Management and Production Planning. Los Alamos National Laboratory's mission is to solve national security challenges through scientific excellence. The laboratory's strategic plan reflects U.S. priorities spanning nuclear security, intelligence, defense, emergency response, nonproliferation, counterterrorism, energy security, emerging threats, and environmental management. This strategy is aligned with priorities set by the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and national strategy guidance documents, such as the Nuclear Posture Review, the National Security Strategy, and the Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future Los Alamos is the senior laboratory in the DOE system, and executes work in all areas of the DOE mission: national security, science, energy, and environmental management. The laboratory also performs work for the Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among others. Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos or LANL for short) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory initially organized during World War II for the design of nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. It is located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico in the southwestern United States. Los Alamos was selected as the top secret location for bomb design in late 1942, and officially commissioned the next year. At the time it was known as Project Y, one of a series of laboratories located across the United States given letter names to maintain their secrecy. Los Alamos was the centre for design and overall coordination, while the other labs, today known as Oak Ridge and Argonne, concentrated on the production of uranium and plutonium bomb fuels. Los Alamos was the heart of the project, collecting together some of the world's most famous scientists, among them numerous Nobel Prize winners. The site was known variously as Project Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory through this period. The lab's existence was announced to the world in the post-WWII era, when it became known universally as Los Alamos. In 1952, the Department of Energy formed a second design lab under the direction of the University of California, becoming the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Since that date the two labs have competed on a wide variety of bomb designs. With the ending of the cold war, both labs turned their focus increasingly to civilian missions. Today, Los Alamos is one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world. It conducts multidisciplinary research in fields such as national security, space exploration, nuclear fusion, renewable energy, medicine, nanotechnology, and supercomputing. The town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, directly north of the lab, grew extensively through this period.