Computer simulates full nuclear blast. (Physics).The U.S. government proudly announced on March 7 that it has for the first time detonated a thermonuclear ther·mo·nu·cle·ar adj. 1. Of, relating to, or derived from the fusion of atomic nuclei at high temperatures: thermonuclear reactions. 2. weapon--in a complete, three-dimensional computer simulation, that is. Two year ago, researchers working for Lawrence Livermore Lawrence Livermore may refer to:
adj. Of immense size, volume, or capacity; gigantic. See Synonyms at enormous. gargantuan Adjective huge or enormous [after Gargantua, a giant in Rabelais' fusion explosion that the first blast triggers. The complete simulation represents a milestone for a program established in 1995 for sustaining the nation's stockpile of war-heads without actually detonating det·o·nate intr. & tr.v. det·o·nat·ed, det·o·nat·ing, det·o·nates To explode or cause to explode. [Latin d nuclear bombs. This so-called stockpile-stewardship program has driven rapid development of supercomputers that can carry out realistic simulations of these extremely complex processes (SN: 8/25/01, p. 118). The programs number-crunching hardware includes Livermore lab's so-called White machine--now the world's fastest supercomputer at 12.3 trillion operations per second--which ran the unprecedented 3-D simulation. In February, the National Nuclear Security Administration announced that the stockpile-stewardship program's goals were being expanded to include something even more real--the design of new warheads. Such activity had been suspended for nearly a decade. --P.W. |
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