Two Nevada National Security Sites (NNSS) teams were presented with 2025 Defense Programs Awards of Excellence (DPAE) at a ceremony on Oct. 15 at the NNSS. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Executive Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs David Hoagland presented the DPAE to NNSS Master Technologist Robert Smalley, representing the Time-Resolved-Radiance Diagnostics Team. The team is being recognized for its “successful execution and measurement of the time-resolved radiance temperature diagnostic in the Nob Hill Experiment,” marking the “observation of physical phenomena never previously observed in a subcritical experiment.”
Additionally, the MEDUSA/CETO Platform Development team, which included several NNSS employees, received a DPAE. An innovative diagnostic capability, the MEDUSA/CETO platform significantly enhances the ability to measure and understand ejecta under weapons-relevant conditions.
“Advanced diagnostics is in our DNA,” said NNSS President Roger Rocha. “Our support of the weapons laboratories and the work that we provide continues to be the foundation of the NNSS.”
Established in 1982, the Defense Programs Award of Excellence (DPAE) recognizes individuals or teams “who made significant achievements in increased quality, productivity, cost-savings, creativity, or enhanced security” in support of NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program. Hoagland described the efforts, contributions and accomplishments of this year’s recipients as “unique, extensive and extraordinary” to the Defense Programs mission.
Smalley and the Time-Resolved-Radiance Diagnostics Team’s experiment, for example, gathered temperature data that is vital to inform computer models that will ultimately support certification of the stockpile.
“This new diagnostic is emblematic of the incredible work that happens at the NNSS as the thought leader of diagnostics across the board,” Hoagland added. “It’s very gratifying to hold up this one example; but to me, it’s symbolic of everything else that happens at the NNSS, harnessing science, harnessing diagnostics, harnessing facilities [and] construction, and bringing that back to national leaders to say there’s no lack of confidence in reliability, credibility and effectiveness of our weapons.”
