Verification is the process of ensuring that we have solved a problem accurately. Validation is the process of ensuring that we have solved the right problems. The goal of both verification and validation is to reduce the total uncertainty associated with weapons calculations for a given stream of resources, both talent and money. Sandia must predict weapon behavior in accidents and abnormal environments and assure weapon safety. Extending Today's Base with Advances in Science and Computing for Future Codes.
Codes require inputs, particularly inputs on the properties of the materials used in the problems.
Properties such as the equation of state, strength characteristics, chemical reactions rates, neutron cross sections, and optical opacities are required for many types of calculations. Advances in theoretical and applied physics and chemistry coupled with enhanced computational capability are enabling calculation of many of these material properties in regimes that are inaccessible experimentally. The overall quality of the performance or safety calculations depends strongly on the quality of these inputs. Failure to devote adequate effort to these areas could render irrelevant much of the work on new codes. While providing necessary inputs to codes that contribute directly to our understanding of performance, reliability, and safety, these research programs are also voracious consumers of computer cycles, cycles that are required if they are to provide the inputs.