2012 SARA Students Technical Report

Abstract

The Service Academy Research Associates (SARA) program provides an opportunity for Midshipmen and Cadets from US Service Academies to participate in research at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and Sandia National Laboratory for several weeks during the summer as part of their summer training assignments. During the summer of 2012, three Midshipmen were assigned to work with the XCP Division at LANL for approximately 5-6 weeks. As one of the nation's top national security science laboratories, LANL stretches across 36 square miles, has over 2,100 facilities, and employs over 9,000 individuals including a significant number of students and postdocs. LANL's mission is to 'apply science and technology to: ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the US nuclear deterrent, reduce global threats, and solve other emerging national security challenges.' While LANL officially operates under the US Department of Energy (DoE), fulfilling this mission requires mutual cooperation with the US Department of Defense (DoD) as well. LANL's high concentration of knowledge and experience provides interns a chance to perform research in many disciplines, and its connection with the DoD in both operation and personnel gives SARA students insight to career possibilities both during and after military service. SARA students have plenty of opportunity to enjoy hiking, camping, the Los Alamos YMCA, and many other outdoor activities in New Mexico while staying at the Buffalo Thunder Resort, located 20 miles east of the lab. XCP Division is the Computational Physics division of LANL's Weapons Department. Working with XCP Division requires individuals to be Q cleared by the DoE. This means it is significantly more convenient for SARA students to be assigned to XCP Division than their civilian counterparts as the DoD CNWDI clearance held by SARA students is easily transferred to the lab prior to the students arriving at the start of the summer. SARA students working with XCP Division were given a comprehensive introduction into nuclear engineering and physics, nuclear weapons, and radiation transport and detection via texts and lectures at various classification levels. Students also attended tours of several prominent facilities at LANL including TA-41 Ice House, TA-55 PF-4 plutonium facility, the Nicholas C. Metropolis Center for Modeling and Simulation, also known as the Secure Computing Center (SCC), and the Dual-Axis Radiological Hydro Test (DARHT) facility; in addition, SARA students accompanied by LANL staff traveled to Minot AFB in North Dakota for tours of the 5th Bomb Wing and 91st Missile Wing facilities. Students participated in a week long class on the Monte Carlo N Particle (MCNP) code to supplement their understanding of radiation transport simulations. SARA students were then tasked with using this knowledge to model radiation detectors and use MCNP to compare their models to experimental data and previously accepted models.