Source Physics Experiments at the Nevada Test Site
Abstract
The U. S. capability to monitor foreign underground nuclear test activities relies heavily on measurement of explosion phenomena, including characteristic seismic, infrasound, radionuclide, and acoustic signals. Despite recent advances in each of these fields, empirical, rather than physics-based, approaches are used to predict and explain observations. Seismologists rely on prior knowledge of the variations of teleseismic and regional seismic parameters such as p- and s-wave arrivals from simple one-dimensional models for the teleseismic case to somewhat more complicated enhanced two-dimensional models for the regional case. Likewise, radionuclide experts rely on empirical results from a handful of limited experiments to determine the radiological source terms present at the surface after an underground test. To make the next step in the advancement of the science of monitoring we need to transform these fields to enable predictive, physics-based modeling and analysis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA569606
Entities
People
- Carolyn E. Seifert
- Charles R. Carrigan
- David Coblentz
- Howard J. Patton
- Jerry J. Sweeney
- John J. Zucca
- Kenneth H. Wohletz
- Tarabay H. Antoun
- Ward L. Hawkins
- Wendee M. Brunish
Organizations
- Los Alamos National Laboratory