Introduction 

The Big Explosives Experimental Facility (BEEF) is a hydrodynamic testing facility, 

located at the Nevada Test Site, about 95 miles northwest of Las Vegas. BEEF 

provides data, through explosive experiments, to support the Stockpile Stewardship Program, along 

with a variety of new experimental programs that expand the nation's non-nuclear experiment 

capabilities. 

History 

When the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence 

Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) facility in 

Livermore, California, was no longer permitted to 

perform large high explosive experiments at the 

facility due to community encroachment, a new 

site had to be identified. Fortunately, an ideally 

configured location already existed at the 

Nevada Test Site. The existing site consisted of 

two earth-covered, two-foot thick steel reinforced 

concrete bunkers, built to monitor atmospheric 

tests at Yucca Flat in the 1950s. LLNL moved its 

high explosive experiments to the Nevada Test 

The gravel firing table at BEEF. Site and BEEF was established in 1994. 

BEEF is Born 

The facility consists of a control bunker, a camera bunker, a gravel firing table, and associated control 

and diagnostic systems. The facility safely conducts conventional high-explosives experiments using a 

test bed that provides sophisticated diagnostics such as high-speed optics and x-ray radiography on 

the firing table, while operating personnel are present in the bunker. 

Before large conventional high-explosive experiments could be conducted on the site firing table with 

operating personnel present in the control bunker, it had to be certified as safe. To achieve this, 

scientists conducted Popover -- a series of high explosive (up to 7,800 pounds) tests which were 

detonated 27-feet from the bunker's buried outer wall. 

The test data was used to develop an effects profile that defined the relationship of the high-explosive 

charge size and detonation point to blast effects, such as overpressure, bunker wall strain, dynamic 

response (acceleration), and noise amplitude. Together, these results demonstrated that the bunker 

would provide a safe working environment. 

The Big Explosives Experimental Facility plays a significant role in accumulating data to support the 

Stockpile Stewardship Program. Scientists conduct weapons physics experiments, using high 

explosives and pulsed laser power, to study and investigate impacted materials as they are merged 

together by the detonations. 
Additionally, the programs exercise the design 

and experiment skills resident in the primary 

development groups at the national 

laboratories. These will be required for the 

execution of future stewardship and 

management missions. 

As with other Nevada Test Site experiment 

programs, continued operation of BEEF will aid 

in maintaining nuclear test or experiment 

readiness. These activities continue the work 

begun during the nuclear testing era. 

WATUSI is one of the largest activities conducted at 

BEEF by Los Alamos National Laboratory. The 36,600 

pound TNT-equivalent, research and development 

activity was designed to validate low-end detection 

capabilities associated with ground motion and the 

acoustic footprint of an explosives detonation. 

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 - -711 Rev 2 

January 2005