Sedan Crater, Nevada Test Site
(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy)

Nuclear Explosive Safety

OMICRON has provided nuclear explosive safety and risk analysis, documentation, and assessment services to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) since 1998.

Our staff have considerable experience in facility and nuclear explosive safety support, including preparing and reviewing safety basis and safety input documentation for nuclear explosive facilities and operations. Types of documents OMICRON has prepared include hazard analysis reports, nuclear explosive hazard assessments, master studies, single integrated input documents, nuclear explosive safety studies, explosive safety manuals, and vulnerability assessments. Our staff members are highly skilled engineers who are capable of developing sophisticated explosion and fire models for explosive response studies. Our capabilities include performing critical equipment evaluations and analyzing structural responses to explosion events.

• Nuclear Explosive Facility Support: OMICRON's staff engineers participated in the development and review of many of DOE’s nuclear facility design and safety Orders, Handbooks, and Guides, including DOE O 452.1, DOE O 452.2, DOE-STD-3009, and DOE-STD-1104.
  
  OMICRON developed the Pantex Nuclear Facility Safety Course, which is now available as a Nuclear Explosive Safety course (NSTE 276).
  
  OMICRON has supported most of the critical production sites and facilities in the DOE complex with safety and risk analyses and documentation, design, and assessments. This includes facilities at (former) Rocky Flats, Y-12, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Pantex, Nevada Test Site (NTS), Hanford, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory..
  
  OMICRON has provided support services to NNSA and DOE Albuquerque Operations Office, including reviews of nuclear explosive facilities’ safety basis documents, assessments of safety and operational programs, and specialized support, such as database development.
• Stockpile Management Activities: Our personnel have supported stockpile maintenance and dismantlement activities for over 14 years. This includes reviewing hazard analysis reports (HARs) and technical safety requirements (TSRs) for weapons operations (e.g., W69, W56, B61, W79), Alts/Mods and limited life component exchange activities (e.g., W76, W88), and developing DOE Orders and Standards, including DOE-STD-3016 and the DOE explosive safety manual (DOE M 440.1). We have supported several stockpile programs with weapons response.
• Weapons Facility Support: We have supported pit manufacturing and certification activities at both (former) Rocky Flats and Technical Area (TA-55) at LANL; canned subassembly (CSA) operations at Y-12; special nuclear material (SNM) recovery and storage operations; subcriticality, nuclear-explosive-like assembly (NELA), and joint test assembly (JTA) testing at many sites.
  
  OMICRON has supported weapons laboratories, the Pantex Plant, and the Device Assembly Facility (DAF) at NTS with activities such as explosive off-gas modeling, weapons responses, fire modeling, characterization of CSA hazardous materials, identification of hazardous components of weapons systems, and hazard characterization of weapons programs. We have supported preparation and review of off-site and on-site transportation activities (e.g., transportation risk assessments). We have also supported enhanced surveillance activities, including safety and risk assessments for hydrodynamic testing, radiography operations, and other activities associated with recertification and requalification of weapons components.