So far, Russia’s lack of such lasers has not been a major disadvantage in ensuring weapon functionality. That’s because Russia has committed to continuously rebuilding its plutonium “pits”. The plutonium “pit” is the explosive core found in many nuclear weapons, named for the hard center of the peach-like fruit. If old explosive pits could be easily replaced with new ones, there would be no need to use lasers to see how much they have deteriorated over the years. “The United States will also remanufacture nuclear weapons, except that it does not have the capacity to produce pits in large quantities,” says Lewis. The largest production facility in the United States, located in Rocky He Flats, Colorado, closed in 1992.
Researchers have used lasers to test nuclear weapons since at least the 1970s. First, they combined them with underground tests of real weapons, using data from both to build a theoretical model of how plasma behaved. , and sought agreement on a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the United States switched to “science-based stockpile management.” .
However, the United States and others following this approach will need to physically test some nuclear material using lasers to ensure that the models and simulations match reality and that nuclear weapons are holding up. had. And they still need to do this today.
These systems are not perfect. “The models they use to predict weapon behavior are not perfectly predictable,” he says Atzeni. There are many reasons for this. One is that plasma is very difficult to simulate. The other is that plutonium is a strange metal unlike any other element. Unusually, when plutonium warms up, he transforms into six solid forms before melting. In each form its atoms occupy a very different volume than the previous one.
Nonetheless, aside from actually detonating a bomb, laser testing offers the best way to predict how nuclear weapons will perform. began beaming a thin plutonium target about the size of a poppy seed. This has given scientists a better understanding of what is going on inside weapons than ever before.
Laser experiments can also show how material near the warhead’s radioactive pit degrades and reacts over years of life. Information from experiments will also help clarify how these materials perform at the extreme temperatures and pressures of a nuclear explosion. Such experiments are “essential” for designing and engineering nuclear weapon components, says Vladimir Tikhonchuk, emeritus professor at the Center for Powerful Lasers and Applications at the University of Bordeaux in France.
Tikhonchuk has tracked the progress of the Tsar Laser since it was unveiled at a conference in 2013, the year after it was first announced. The last time he spoke with a scientist from Sarov was in 2019 at a summer school in nearby Nizhny Novgorod. He is skeptical that Russia will complete the laser.
Russia certainly has a scientific pedigree. Tikhonchuk said he has experience as a partner in the construction of large scientific facilities, such as his multi-billion dollar ITER experimental fusion reactor in Cadarache, France. Russia also provided components to two of his facilities in Germany, the European X-ray Free Electron Laser in Hamburg and the Antiproton and Ion Research Facility in Darmstadt. Scientists at Russia’s Institute of Applied Physics have also developed a fast crystal growth technique that will be used in the lenses of the NIF and “in the construction of all large lasers,” Tikhonchuk said.
But Tikhonchuk believes Russia is now struggling because scientists have moved abroad and lost much of the much-needed expertise. He notes that the array of beams in his laser is very large, 40 cm in diameter, and poses a major challenge to the manufacture of lenses. The larger the lens, the more likely the lens is defective. Defects can concentrate energy, heat up and damage or destroy the lens.
The fact that Russia is developing the Tsar Laser shows that it wants to keep its nuclear arsenal, Lewis says. “It’s a sign that they plan to do these things for a long time. It’s not great.” . “I am very concerned that the United States, Russia and China will resume explosive tests.” He says it may indicate that he thinks
WIRED reached out to NIF and Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company ROSATOM, but they declined to comment.
