Introduction

Technical Area 18 (TA-18), located at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in

New Mexico, is the nation's only facility capable of performing general-purpose

nuclear materials handling for a variety of experiments, measurements and training. As one of the

major training facilities for DOE personnel, TA-18's principal operation is to conduct research in the

design, development, construction, and application of experiments on nuclear criticality. It houses the

western hemisphere's largest collection of machines for conducting experiments to validate safety

evaluations and establish limits for operations that involve nuclear materials. The facility supports

important defense, nuclear safety and national security missions.

In December 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy

(DOE) announced its decision to relocate TA-18 mission

and testing equipment to the Device Assembly Facility

(DAF) at the Nevada Test Site. This will enable the

National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to

quickly establish critical national security missions in

Nevada while consolidating special nuclear materials in a

newer, more secure facility. Accordingly, the western section of the DAF is now designated as the Criticality

Experiments Facility (CEF). 

Background

The CEF Project involves the planning, designing, and

execution of retrofitting the DAF and reconfiguration of

the machine controls system to successfully relocate the

TA-18 mission. NNSA is responsible for ensuring the

safety and reliability of the existing nuclear weapons stockpile and supporting programs that reduce

global nuclear proliferation. These mission responsibilities are accomplished through the use of a

DOE core team of highly trained nuclear experts. The operations at TA-18 enabled DOE personnel to

gain knowledge and expertise in advanced nuclear technologies that support the following areas:

Nuclear materials management and criticality safety

Emergency response in support of counterterrorism activities

Nuclear Nonproliferation in support of domestic and international programs to control excess

nuclear materials

Criticality experiments in support of Stockpile Stewardship and other programs. 

Training activities to develop and maintain capabilities and expertise within the national nuclear

materials handling community.

The CEF Project

Relocation of the TA-18 missions and necessary support logistics to the DAF is a complex retrofit

project. The project is divided among National Security Technologies LLC, LANL, and Lawrence

Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as the execution entities and is integrated by the Central

Project Office (CPO). The CPO Project Manager is responsible to NNSA for all project execution, integration, and reporting. The CEF Project scope includes the successful completion of all design/engineering, construction, machine relocation, control system installation, acceptance testing, and successful completion of operational readiness reviews for four criticality assemblies: Godiva, Planet,

Flattop, and Comet. Godiva is a burst machine; Planet and Comet are vertical lift tables; and Flattop

is a fast neutron benchmarked assembly. 

Technical Area 18 at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Criticality experiments

Safety is paramount when nuclear materials

are involved. Conducting criticality safety

evaluations for process operations requires

use of a credible experimental database.

The Stockpile Stewardship management

mission involves working with nuclear

materials in different concentrations and

contexts than in the past. As a result, the

existing database of knowledge is no longer

adequate for conducting the evaluations or

defining limits of safe handling. Today,

knowledge developed from criticality

experiments is essential to testing and

qualifying new calculations by expanding on

existing data. It is also necessary for

qualifying and testing such equipment as

criticality alarms and nuclear accident dosimeters (or radiation devices).

Emergency response

Combining their expertise and nuclear material inventory, the facility's staff is able to create realistic target

devices used to develop, test and validate emergency response equipment, methods and diagnostic

procedures. To train emergency response teams on weapons that might be used by terrorists, facsimiles

of U.S. weapons and theoretical foreign designs are supplied for instructional use. Over 400 professionals

train at the facility annually. 

Nonproliferation, safeguards and arms control

Part of the CEF mission is to provide the technology that enables the nation to respond to the threat of

nuclear weapons proliferation. These technologies provide the verification of declarations made by other

nations concerning their nuclear weapons. Another key to countering the proliferation of nuclear weapons

and terrorism is in developing and evaluating equipment for and training of law enforcement and first

responder teams. Training objectives often require the use of a range of actual nuclear materials all in

one location. 

The Planet is one of four criticality assemblies.

For more information, contact:

U.S. Department of Energy

National Nuclear Security Administration

Nevada Site Office

Office of Public Affairs

P.O. Box 98518

Las Vegas, NV 89193-8518

phone: 702-295-3521

fax: 702-295-0154

email: nevada@nv.doe.gov

http://www.nv.doe.gov

DOE/NV - - 1063

June 2005