Sandia National Laboratories
Encyclopedia
The Sandia National Laboratories, managed and operated by the Sandia Corporation (a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation), are two major United States Department of Energy
research and development national laboratories
.
Their primary mission is to develop, engineer, and test the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapon
s. The primary campus is located on Kirtland Air Force Base
in Albuquerque, New Mexico
and the other is in Livermore, California
, next to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
. Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration
laboratory.
It is Sandia's mission to maintain the reliability and surety of nuclear weapon systems, conduct research and development in arms control
and nonproliferation technologies, and investigate methods for the disposal of the United States' nuclear weapons program's hazardous waste
. Other missions include research and development in energy and environmental programs, as well as the surety of critical national infrastructures. In addition, Sandia is home to a wide variety of research including computational biology
, mathematics
(through its Computer Science Research Institute), materials science
, alternative energy
, psychology
, MEMS
, and cognitive science
initiatives. Sandia formerly hosted ASCI Red
, one of the world's fastest supercomputer
s until its recent decommission, and now hosts ASCI Red Storm
, originally known as Thor's Hammer. Sandia is also home to the Z Machine
. The Z Machine is the largest X-ray
generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature
and pressure
. It is operated by Sandia National Laboratories to gather data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons.
Sandia National Laboratories' roots go back to World War II
and the Manhattan Project
. Prior to the United States formally entering the war, the U.S. Army leased land near Albuquerque, New Mexico airport known as Oxnard Field, to service transient Army and U.S. Navy aircraft. In January 1941 construction began on the Albuquerque Army Air Base, leading to establishment of the Bombardier School-Army Advanced Flying School near the end of the year. Soon thereafter it was renamed Kirtland Field, after early Army military pilot Colonel Roy S. Kirtland, and in mid-1942 the Army acquired Oxnard Field. During the war years facilities were expanded further and Kirtland Field served as a major Army Air Forces training installation.
In the months leading up to successful detonation of the first atomic bomb, the Trinity Project, and delivery of the first airborne atomic weapon, the Alberta Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Director of Los Alamos Laboratory
, and his technical advisor, Hartly Rowe, began looking for a new site convenient to Los Alamos for the continuation of weapons development especially its non-nuclear aspects. They felt a separate division would be best to perform these functions. Kirtland had fulfilled Los Alamos' transportation needs for both the Trinity and Alberta projects, thus, Oxnard Field was transferred from the jurisdiction of the Army Air Corps to the U.S. Army Service Forces Chief of Engineer District, and thereafter, assigned to the Manhattan Engineer District. In July 1945, the forerunner of Sandia Laboratory, known as 'Z' Division, was established at Oxnard Field to handle future weapons development, testing, and bomb assembly for the Manhattan Engineer District. The District- directive calling for establishing a secure area and construction of 'Z' Division facilities referred to this as 'Sandia Base
' – apparently the first official recognition of the 'Sandia' name.
Sandia Laboratory was operated by the University of California
until 1949, when President Harry S. Truman
asked Western Electric
, a subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), to assume the operation as an 'opportunity to render an exceptional service in the national interest.' Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Corporation, managed and operated the laboratory until October 1993. The United States Congress
designated Sandia Laboratories as a National laboratory in 1979. Today, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, and includes government-owned facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico
(SNL/NM); Livermore, California
(SNL/CA); Tonopah, Nevada
; and Kauai, Hawaii. SNL/NM is headquarters and the largest laboratory, employing more than 6,600 employees, while SNL/CA is a smaller laboratory, with about 850 employees. Tonopah and Kauai are occupied on a 'campaign' basis, as test schedules dictate.
. Mr. Carpenter had reported to his supervisors that hundreds of military installations and defense contractors' networks were compromised and sensitive information was being stolen including hundreds of sensitive Lockheed
documents on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
project. When his supervisors told him to drop the investigation and do nothing with the information, he went to intelligence officials in the United States Army
and later the Federal Bureau of Investigation
to address the national security breaches. When Sandia managers discovered his actions months later, they revoked his security clearance
and fired him.
TA-I operations are dedicated primarily to three activities the design, research, and development of weapon
systems; limited production of weapon system components; and energy programs. TA-I facilities include the main library
and offices, laboratories
, and shops used by administrative and technical staff.
TA-II is a 45 acre (180,000 m²) facility that was established in 1948 for the assembly of chemical high explosive
main charges
for nuclear weapons and later for production scale assembly of nuclear weapons. Activities in TA-II include the decontamination
, decommissioning
, and remediation of facilities and landfills used in past research and development activities. Remediation of the Classified Waste Landfill which started in March 1998, neared completion in FY2000. A testing facility, the Explosive Component Facility, integrates many of the previous TA-II test activities as well as some testing activities previously performed in other remote test areas. The Access Delay Technology Test Facility is also located in TA-II.
TA-III is adjacent to and south of TA-V [both are approximately seven miles (11 km) south of TA-I]. TA-III facilities include extensive design-test facilities such as rocket sled
tracks, centrifuge
s and a radiant heat
facility. Other facilities in TA-III include a paper destructor, the Melting and Solidification Laboratory and the Radioactive and Mixed Waste Management Facility (RMWMF). RMWMF serves as central processing facility for packaging and storage of low-level and mixed waste. The remediation of the Chemical Waste Landfill, which started in September 1998, is an ongoing activity in TA-III.
TA-IV, located approximately 1/2 mile (1 km) south of TA-I, consists of several inertial-confinement fusion
research and pulsed power research facilities, including the High Energy Radiation Megavolt Electron Source (Hermes-III), the Z Facility
, the Short Pulsed High Intensity Nanosecond X-Radiator (SPHINX) Facility, and the Saturn Accelerator. TA-IV also hosts some computer science and cognition research.
TA-V contains two research reactor facilities, an intense gamma
irradiation facility (using cobalt-60
and caesium-137
sources), and the Hot Cell
Facility.
SNL/NM also has test areas outside of the five technical areas listed above. These test areas, collectively known as Coyote Test Field, are located southeast of TA-III and/or in the canyons on the west side of the Manzanita Mountains. Facilities in the Coyote Canyon Test Field include the Solar Tower Facility (34.9623 N , 106.5097 W), the Lurance Canyon Burn Site and the Aerial Cable Facility.
library of mathematical and statistical routines, written in FORTRAN77.
Today, Sandia National Laboratories is home to several open source
software projects:
In addition, Sandia National Laboratories collaborates with Kitware, Inc. in developing the Visualization Toolkit
(VTK), a cross-platform graphics and visualization software suite. This collaboration has focused on enhancing the information visualization capabilities of VTK, and has in turn fed back into other projects such as ParaView and Titan.
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
research and development national laboratories
United States Department of Energy National Laboratories
The United States Department of Energy National Laboratories and Technology Centers are a system of facilities and laboratories overseen by the United States Department of Energy for the purpose of advancing science and helping promote the economic and defensive national interests of the United...
.
Their primary mission is to develop, engineer, and test the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s. The primary campus is located on Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland...
in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
and the other is in Livermore, California
Livermore, California
Livermore is a city in Alameda County. The population as of 2010 was 80,968. Livermore is located on the eastern edge of California's San Francisco Bay Area....
, next to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , just outside Livermore, California, is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center founded by the University of California in 1952...
. Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration
National Nuclear Security Administration
The United States National Nuclear Security Administration is part of the United States Department of Energy. It works to improve national security through the military application of nuclear energy...
laboratory.
It is Sandia's mission to maintain the reliability and surety of nuclear weapon systems, conduct research and development in arms control
Arms control
Arms control is an umbrella term for restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation, and usage of weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction...
and nonproliferation technologies, and investigate methods for the disposal of the United States' nuclear weapons program's hazardous waste
Hazardous waste
A hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. According to the U.S. environmental laws hazardous wastes fall into two major categories: characteristic wastes and listed wastes.Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known...
. Other missions include research and development in energy and environmental programs, as well as the surety of critical national infrastructures. In addition, Sandia is home to a wide variety of research including computational biology
Computational biology
Computational biology involves the development and application of data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques to the study of biological, behavioral, and social systems...
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
(through its Computer Science Research Institute), materials science
Materials science
Materials science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates...
, alternative energy
Alternative energy
Alternative energy is an umbrella term that refers to any source of usable energy intended to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced fuels....
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, MEMS
Microelectromechanical systems
Microelectromechanical systems is the technology of very small mechanical devices driven by electricity; it merges at the nano-scale into nanoelectromechanical systems and nanotechnology...
, and cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
initiatives. Sandia formerly hosted ASCI Red
ASCI Red
ASCI Red was the first computer built under the Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative . ASCI Red was built by Intel and installed at Sandia in late 1996. The design was based on the Intel Paragon computer...
, one of the world's fastest supercomputer
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
s until its recent decommission, and now hosts ASCI Red Storm
Red Storm (computing)
Red Storm is a supercomputer architecture designed for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Advanced Simulation and Computing Program. Cray, Inc developed it based on the contracted architectural specifications provided by Sandia National Laboratories...
, originally known as Thor's Hammer. Sandia is also home to the Z Machine
Z machine
The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. Operated by Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons...
. The Z Machine is the largest X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
and pressure
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...
. It is operated by Sandia National Laboratories to gather data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons.
Lab history
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
. Prior to the United States formally entering the war, the U.S. Army leased land near Albuquerque, New Mexico airport known as Oxnard Field, to service transient Army and U.S. Navy aircraft. In January 1941 construction began on the Albuquerque Army Air Base, leading to establishment of the Bombardier School-Army Advanced Flying School near the end of the year. Soon thereafter it was renamed Kirtland Field, after early Army military pilot Colonel Roy S. Kirtland, and in mid-1942 the Army acquired Oxnard Field. During the war years facilities were expanded further and Kirtland Field served as a major Army Air Forces training installation.
In the months leading up to successful detonation of the first atomic bomb, the Trinity Project, and delivery of the first airborne atomic weapon, the Alberta Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Director of Los Alamos Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
, and his technical advisor, Hartly Rowe, began looking for a new site convenient to Los Alamos for the continuation of weapons development especially its non-nuclear aspects. They felt a separate division would be best to perform these functions. Kirtland had fulfilled Los Alamos' transportation needs for both the Trinity and Alberta projects, thus, Oxnard Field was transferred from the jurisdiction of the Army Air Corps to the U.S. Army Service Forces Chief of Engineer District, and thereafter, assigned to the Manhattan Engineer District. In July 1945, the forerunner of Sandia Laboratory, known as 'Z' Division, was established at Oxnard Field to handle future weapons development, testing, and bomb assembly for the Manhattan Engineer District. The District- directive calling for establishing a secure area and construction of 'Z' Division facilities referred to this as 'Sandia Base
Sandia Base
Sandia Base was, from 1946 to 1971, the principal nuclear weapons installation of the United States Department of Defense. It was located on the southeastern edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico...
' – apparently the first official recognition of the 'Sandia' name.
Sandia Laboratory was operated by the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
until 1949, when President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
asked Western Electric
Western Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
, a subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), to assume the operation as an 'opportunity to render an exceptional service in the national interest.' Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Corporation, managed and operated the laboratory until October 1993. The United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
designated Sandia Laboratories as a National laboratory in 1979. Today, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, and includes government-owned facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
(SNL/NM); Livermore, California
Livermore, California
Livermore is a city in Alameda County. The population as of 2010 was 80,968. Livermore is located on the eastern edge of California's San Francisco Bay Area....
(SNL/CA); Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah is a census-designated place located in and the county seat of Nye County, Nevada. It is located at the junction of U.S. Routes 6 and 95 approximately mid-way between Las Vegas and Reno....
; and Kauai, Hawaii. SNL/NM is headquarters and the largest laboratory, employing more than 6,600 employees, while SNL/CA is a smaller laboratory, with about 850 employees. Tonopah and Kauai are occupied on a 'campaign' basis, as test schedules dictate.
Legal issues
On February 13, 2007 a New Mexico State Court found Sandia Corporation liable for $4.7 million in damages for the firing of a former network security analyst, Shawn CarpenterShawn Carpenter
Shawn Carpenter is an American Navy veteran and whistleblower who tracked down a Chinese cyberespionage ring that is code-named Titan Rain by the FBI...
. Mr. Carpenter had reported to his supervisors that hundreds of military installations and defense contractors' networks were compromised and sensitive information was being stolen including hundreds of sensitive Lockheed
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
documents on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a NASA multipurpose spacecraft designed to conduct reconnaissance and Exploration of Mars from orbit...
project. When his supervisors told him to drop the investigation and do nothing with the information, he went to intelligence officials in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and later the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
to address the national security breaches. When Sandia managers discovered his actions months later, they revoked his security clearance
Security clearance
A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information, i.e., state secrets, or to restricted areas after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal...
and fired him.
Technical areas
SNL/NM consists of five technical areas (TA) and several additional test areas. Each TA has its own distinctive operations, however the operations of some groups at Sandia may span more than one TA, with one part of a team working on a problem from one angle, and another subset of the same team located in a different building or area working with other specialized equipment. A description of each area is given below.TA-I operations are dedicated primarily to three activities the design, research, and development of weapon
Weapon
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
systems; limited production of weapon system components; and energy programs. TA-I facilities include the main library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
and offices, laboratories
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...
, and shops used by administrative and technical staff.
TA-II is a 45 acre (180,000 m²) facility that was established in 1948 for the assembly of chemical high explosive
Explosive material
An explosive material, also called an explosive, is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure...
main charges
Explosive material
An explosive material, also called an explosive, is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure...
for nuclear weapons and later for production scale assembly of nuclear weapons. Activities in TA-II include the decontamination
Decontamination
Decontamination is the process of cleansing the human body to remove contamination by hazardous materials including chemicals, radioactive substances, and infectious material...
, decommissioning
Nuclear decommissioning
Nuclear decommissioning is the dismantling of a nuclear power plant and decontamination of the site to a state no longer requiring protection from radiation for the general public...
, and remediation of facilities and landfills used in past research and development activities. Remediation of the Classified Waste Landfill which started in March 1998, neared completion in FY2000. A testing facility, the Explosive Component Facility, integrates many of the previous TA-II test activities as well as some testing activities previously performed in other remote test areas. The Access Delay Technology Test Facility is also located in TA-II.
TA-III is adjacent to and south of TA-V [both are approximately seven miles (11 km) south of TA-I]. TA-III facilities include extensive design-test facilities such as rocket sled
Rocket sled
A rocket sled is a test platform that slides along a set of rails, propelled by rockets.As its name implies, a rocket sled does not use wheels. Instead, it has sliding pads, called "slippers", which are curved around the head of the rails to prevent the sled from flying off the track...
tracks, centrifuge
Centrifuge
A centrifuge is a piece of equipment, generally driven by an electric motor , that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis, applying a force perpendicular to the axis...
s and a radiant heat
Heat
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...
facility. Other facilities in TA-III include a paper destructor, the Melting and Solidification Laboratory and the Radioactive and Mixed Waste Management Facility (RMWMF). RMWMF serves as central processing facility for packaging and storage of low-level and mixed waste. The remediation of the Chemical Waste Landfill, which started in September 1998, is an ongoing activity in TA-III.
TA-IV, located approximately 1/2 mile (1 km) south of TA-I, consists of several inertial-confinement fusion
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
research and pulsed power research facilities, including the High Energy Radiation Megavolt Electron Source (Hermes-III), the Z Facility
Z machine
The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. Operated by Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons...
, the Short Pulsed High Intensity Nanosecond X-Radiator (SPHINX) Facility, and the Saturn Accelerator. TA-IV also hosts some computer science and cognition research.
TA-V contains two research reactor facilities, an intense gamma
Gamma ray
Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays and denoted as γ, is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency . Gamma rays are usually naturally produced on Earth by decay of high energy states in atomic nuclei...
irradiation facility (using cobalt-60
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
and caesium-137
Caesium
Caesium or cesium is the chemical element with the symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-gold alkali metal with a melting point of 28 °C , which makes it one of only five elemental metals that are liquid at room temperature...
sources), and the Hot Cell
Hot cell
Shielded nuclear radiation containment chambers are commonly referred to as hot cells. The word "hot" refers to radioactivity.Hot cells are used in both the nuclear-energy and the nuclear-medicines industries....
Facility.
SNL/NM also has test areas outside of the five technical areas listed above. These test areas, collectively known as Coyote Test Field, are located southeast of TA-III and/or in the canyons on the west side of the Manzanita Mountains. Facilities in the Coyote Canyon Test Field include the Solar Tower Facility (34.9623 N , 106.5097 W), the Lurance Canyon Burn Site and the Aerial Cable Facility.
Open source software
In the 1970s, the Sandia, Los Alamos, Air Force Weapons Laboratory Technical Exchange Committee initiated the development of the SLATECSLATEC
SLATEC Common Mathematical Library is a FORTRAN 77 library of over 1400 general purpose mathematical and statistical routines. The code was developed at US Government research laboratories, and is in the public domain....
library of mathematical and statistical routines, written in FORTRAN77.
Today, Sandia National Laboratories is home to several open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software projects:
- The Feature Characterization Library, FCLib, is a library for the identification and manipulation of coherent regions or structures from spatio-temporal data. FCLib focuses on providing data structures that are "feature-aware" and support feature-based analysis. It is written in C and developed under a "BSDBSD licensesBSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses. The original license was used for the Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix-like operating system after which it is named....
-like" license. - LAMMPSLAMMPSLAMMPS is a molecular dynamics program from Sandia National Laboratories.. LAMMPS makes use of MPI for parallel communication and is a free open-source code, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.LAMMPS was originally developed under a Cooperative Research and Development...
(Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator) is a molecular dynamics library that can be used to model parallel atomic/subatomic processes at large scale. It is produced under the GNU General Public LicenseGNU General Public LicenseThe GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
(GPL) and distributed on the Sandia National Laboratories website as well as SourceForgeSourceForgeSourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...
. - The MapReduce-MPI Library is an implementation of MapReduceMapReduceMapReduce is a software framework introduced by Google in 2004 to support distributed computing on large data sets on clusters of computers. Parts of the framework are patented in some countries....
for distributed-memory parallel machines, utilizing the Message Passing InterfaceMessage Passing InterfaceMessage Passing Interface is a standardized and portable message-passing system designed by a group of researchers from academia and industry to function on a wide variety of parallel computers...
(MPI) for communication . It is developed under a modified Berkeley Software Distribution licenseBSD licensesBSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses. The original license was used for the Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix-like operating system after which it is named....
. - The MultiThreaded Graph Library (MTGL) is a collection of graph-based algorithms designed to take advantage of parallel, shared-memory architectures such as the Cray XMT, Symmetric Multiprocessor (SMP) machines, and multi-core workstations. It is developed under a BSD License.
- ParaViewParaViewParaView is an open source, freely available program for parallel, interactive, scientific visualization. It has a client–server architecture to facilitate remote visualization of datasets, and generates level of detail models to maintain interactive framerates for large datasets. It is an...
is a cross-platform application for performing data analysis and visualization. It is a collaborative effort, developed by Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratories, and the United States Army Research Laboratory, and funded by the Advanced Simulation and Computing ProgramAdvanced Simulation and Computing ProgramThe Advanced Simulation and Computing Program is a supercomputing initiative of the United States government, created to help the maintenance of the United States nuclear arsenal after the 1992 moratorium on nuclear testing.Some of the program's supercomputers are on the TOP500...
. It is developed under a BSD license. - Soccoro, a collaborative effort with Wake ForestWake Forest UniversityWake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
and VanderbiltVanderbilt UniversityVanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
Universities, is object-oriented software for performing electronic-structure calculations based on density-functional theory. It utilizes libraries such as MPI, BLASBlasBlas is mainly a Spanish given name and surname, related to Blaise. It may refer to-Places:*Piz Blas, mountain in Switzerland*San Blas , many places - see separate article, also**Cape San Blas Light, lighthouse...
, and LAPACKLAPACK-External links:* : a modern replacement for PLAPACK and ScaLAPACK* on Netlib.org* * * : a modern replacement for LAPACK that is MultiGPU ready* on Sourceforge.net* * optimized LAPACK for Solaris OS on SPARC/x86/x64 and Linux* * *...
and is developed under the GNU General Public License. - The Titan Informatics Toolkit is a collection of cross-platform libraries for ingesting, analyzing, and displaying scientific and informatics data. It is a collaborative effort with Kitware, Inc.KitwareKitware, Inc. is a technology company headquartered in Clifton Park, New York. The company specializes in the research and development of open-source software in the fields of computer vision, medical imaging, visualization, 3D data publishing and technical software development...
, and leverages various open source components such as the Boost Graph Library. It is developed under a New BSD license. - TrilinosTrilinosTrilinos is a collection of open source software libraries, called packages, intended to be used as building blocks for the development of scientific applications...
is an object oriented library for building scalable scientific and engineering applications, with a focus on linear algebra techniques. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public LicenseGNU Lesser General Public LicenseThe GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...
. - LibVMI is a library for simplifying the reading and writing of memory in running virtual machines, a technique known as virtual machine introspection. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public LicenseGNU Lesser General Public LicenseThe GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...
.
In addition, Sandia National Laboratories collaborates with Kitware, Inc. in developing the Visualization Toolkit
VTK
The Visualization Toolkit is an open-source, freely available software system for 3D computer graphics, image processing and visualization. VTK consists of a C++ class library and several interpreted interface layers including Tcl/Tk, Java, and Python. Kitware, whose team created and continues to...
(VTK), a cross-platform graphics and visualization software suite. This collaboration has focused on enhancing the information visualization capabilities of VTK, and has in turn fed back into other projects such as ParaView and Titan.
See also
- ASCI RedASCI RedASCI Red was the first computer built under the Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative . ASCI Red was built by Intel and installed at Sandia in late 1996. The design was based on the Intel Paragon computer...
- Titan RainTitan RainTitan Rain was the designation given by the federal government of the United States to a series of coordinated attacks on American computer systems since 2003...
- Shawn CarpenterShawn CarpenterShawn Carpenter is an American Navy veteran and whistleblower who tracked down a Chinese cyberespionage ring that is code-named Titan Rain by the FBI...
- Z machineZ machineThe Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. Operated by Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons...
- Red StormRed Storm (computing)Red Storm is a supercomputer architecture designed for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Advanced Simulation and Computing Program. Cray, Inc developed it based on the contracted architectural specifications provided by Sandia National Laboratories...
- Kirtland Air Force BaseKirtland Air Force BaseKirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland...
- National Renewable Energy LaboratoryNational Renewable Energy LaboratoryThe National Renewable Energy Laboratory , located in Golden, Colorado, is the United States' primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility; it is funded through...
- Test Readiness ProgramTest Readiness ProgramThe Test Readiness Program was a United States Government program established in 1963 to maintain the necessary technologies and infrastructure for the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, should the treaty which prohibited such testing be abrogated....
- ParaViewParaViewParaView is an open source, freely available program for parallel, interactive, scientific visualization. It has a client–server architecture to facilitate remote visualization of datasets, and generates level of detail models to maintain interactive framerates for large datasets. It is an...
- VTKVTKThe Visualization Toolkit is an open-source, freely available software system for 3D computer graphics, image processing and visualization. VTK consists of a C++ class library and several interpreted interface layers including Tcl/Tk, Java, and Python. Kitware, whose team created and continues to...
External links
- Sandia National Laboratories
- Sandia National Laboratories on FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- Computerworld article "Reverse Hacker Case Gets Costlier for Sandia Labs"
- San Jose Mercury News article "Ill Lab Workers Fight For Federal Compensation"
- Wired Magazine article "Linkin Park's Mysterious Cyberstalker"
- Slate article "Stalking Linkin Park"
- FedSmith.com article "Linkin Park, Nuclear Research and Obsession"
- The Santa Fe New Mexican article "Judge Upholds $4.3 Million Jury Award to Fired Sandia Lab Analyst"
- ASCI Red
- TIME article "A Security Analyst Wins Big in Court"
- The Santa Fe New Mexican article "Jury Awards Fired Sandia Analyst $4.3 Million"
- HPCwire article "Sandia May Unwittingly Have Sold Supercomputer to China"
- Federal Computer Weekly article "Intercepts: Chinese Checkers"
- Congressional Research Service report "China: Suspected Acquisition of U.S. Nuclear Weapon Secrets"
- Sandia National Laboratory Cooperative Monitoring Center article "Engagement with China"
- NewsMax.com article "Yet Another Lab Scandal"
- US Department of Energy
- United States National Nuclear Security Administration Official Web Site
- US DOE Office of Environmental Management Website
- DOE Laboratory Fact Sheet
- BBC News "Security Overhaul at US Nuclear Labs"
- Fox News "Iowa Republican Demands Tighter Nuclear Lab Security"
- UPI article "Workers Get Bonus After Being Disciplined"
- IndustryWeek article "3D Silicon Photonic Lattice"
- October 6, 2005 The Sante Fe New Mexican article "Sandia Security Managers Recorded Workers' Calls"
- May 17, 2002 New Mexico Business Weekly article "Sandia National Laboratories Says it's Worthless"