installed a fast-acting valve to withstand high
pressure, and shock at the Mercury site.
Device Engineering-
temperatures,
Livermore
Device Engineering provided mechanical enginering
support
both A and B Physics Divisions for developing nuclear devices.
to
Several of the experimental assemblies were designed and detonated at Site 300 to obtain hydodynamic data and to study the
device performance.
Device Engineering also adapted various
special materials, including high explosives, fissionable and
fusionable nuclear materials, and unique metals and plastic-metal
compounds and their properties, to meet specific device designs.
Ultimately, these design assemblies were detonated at the Atomic
Energy Commission’s proving grounds.
Device Engineering participated extensively in several fullscale nuclear tests operations, including Plumbbob and Hardtack
II at the NTS, Hardtack I at the PPG, specialized Plowshare
research, Operation 58A at Nevada involving nuclear safety experiments, and the 1962 Danny Boy shot, a low-yield cratering experiment conducted by the Department of Defense at NTS.
Engineering
also introduced two new methods of device placement--balloon and
underground-~ in the Plumbbob series.
In support
built mechanical,
of Plowshare,
electrical,
study shock waves and effects
sion
Device Engineering designed and
and chemical explosive systems to
in various
rock media.
The divi-
measured ground shock pressure and shock wave velocity for
several
nuclear events
at NTS.
Weapons Engineering- Livermore
The function of Weapons Engineering was to link the devices
designed by A and B Physics Divisions to the final weapons and
tailor weapons to the requirements of particular aircraft, mis-
Siles,
and warhead design~
The design,
development,
and perfor-
mance of nuclear weapons rested with the AEC weapons laboratories-~- Los Alamos and UCRL-Livermore, and supporting Sandia operations in Albuquerque and Livermore.
When the Department of
Defense,
with the concurrence of the AEC,
assigned responsibli-
ties for warheads to the Livermore Laboratory, Weapons Engineering Division organized a project engineering team.
LRL A and B
Physics Divisions and Sandia Corporation Livermore Laboratory
established working groups to coordinated the efforts of the two
laboratories.
At Site 300, Device and Weapons programs conducted highexplosive experiments and tests.
Diagnostic information obtained
from the explosions included pin technique (using electrical pins
and special oscilloscopes),
smear cameras),
and
fast photographs
(using framing and
linear accelerator methods.