The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently awarded the Defense Programs Award of Excellence to the Nevada National Security Sites’ (NNSS) ZEUS Testbed Optical Diagnostic Build Team.
Established in 1982, the Defense Programs Award of Excellence honors individuals and teams for their significant achievements in quality, productivity, cost savings, safety, or creativity in support of NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program.
The Z-Pinch Experimental Underground System (ZEUS) Testbed is a new testbed under construction in the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation (PULSE) facility at the NNSS that will provide new capability in interrogating subcritical experiments. The primary diagnostic measures dynamic neutronic characteristics and is complimented by a suite of optical diagnostics that include Multiplexed Photon Doppler Velocimetry (MPDV) and broadband laser ranging with normal PDV. These optical diagnostics measure velocity and positional data that will be correlated to the neutron measurements.
“Across the NNSA enterprise, the federal and contractor teams are doing great things for our country and its defense,” said NNSA Interim Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Research, Development, Test & Evaluation Dr. David LaGraffe in presenting the award. “I had the opportunity to review many of the packages submitted for the award nominations – and I am simply amazed. Having done some technical work myself, I can appreciate the craftsmanship and technical skill that is needed to complete this project.”
Fabrication of any one of these systems is a large undertaking. Each diagnostic system is comprised of hundreds of individual components that were procured and managed. The designs for the MPDV were updated with extensive documentation, and several thousand hours were spent to fabricate each system.
“It was a pleasure working on this project team with so many talented people,” said Senior Principal Engineer and Team Lead Joshua Friedman. “When you put together this many intelligent and hardworking individuals, great work gets done.”
