ADAPT Campaign; 90-Day Study Report
Washington DC: National Nuclear Security Administration, 2002. Contemporary Xerox-style copy. Staplebound. [4], 18, [18 pages of Risk & Opportunity Assessment], 19-21 pages Fold-outs. This 90=day study was commissioned at the request of NA-12 senior management, with the express purpose of finding weaknesses in the current ADAPT Campaign-level management and administrative processes and developing fixes, alternatives, and/or instituting new processes. The study was facilitated by experts from Westinghouse Savannah River Corp. and used their approach to systems engineering. The core members of the analysis team consisted of the seven ADAPT site manages and three MTE (Major Technical Effort) managers. The team was lead by the NA-12 Campaign Manager in collaboration with the NA-11 and NA-12 HQ ADAPT leads. The team developed a new vision for ADAPT with the future of the Nuclear Weapons Complex (NWC) in mind. Supporting the vision was a set of eleven goals that were intended to support a balance between short-term vs. long-term development needs, efficient processes and procedures vs. effective stewardship and optimization of limited funds, site-unique capability improvement vs. increased multi-site cooperation and collaboration; and improved communication of priorities, problems, expectations, and requirements both from and to designers, weapons program managers, other campaigns, and senior management. One of NNSA’s core missions is to ensure the United States maintains a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear stockpile through the application of unparalleled science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing. The Office of Defense Programs carries out NNSA’s mission to maintain and modernize the nuclear stockpile through the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program. The Stockpile Stewardship Program enables NNSA to extend the lifespan and ensure the continued safety, reliability, and effectiveness of weapons that have reached the end of their original design life through life extension programs. These life extensions address aging and performance issues, enhance safety features, and improve security.
As with any complex mechanical system, components in nuclear weapons degrade over time, even when kept in storage. A life extension program comprehensively analyzes all of a weapon’s components and determines whether to reuse, refurbish or replace them to extend the service life of the weapon. When planning life extension programs, NNSA must develop specific solutions to extend the lifetime of each weapon type because each is unique. Life extension programs also require NNSA to certify the weapon’s protected period, its new lifetime, for 20 to 30 years. By extending the time that a weapon can safely and reliably remain in the stockpile, NNSA is able to maintain a credible nuclear deterrent without producing new weapons or conducting underground nuclear explosive tests.
NNSA also conducts alterations of weapons at the system, sub-system, or component level to make sure the weapons is safe, secure, and effective. An alteration is a limited scope change that affects assembly, tests, maintenance, and/or storage of weapons. An alteration may address identified defects and component obsolescence, however it does not change a weapon’s operational capabilities. Condition: Good.
Keywords: ADAPT, Advanced Design and Production Technologies, Nuclear Weapons, Weapon Design, Weapon Manufacturing, Risk Assessment, Technology Development, Process Improvement
[Book #80753]
Price: $75.00