Learning the business

No one goes to school to learn how to make a nuclear weapon. That’s largely because nuclear weapons science is incredibly complex and highly classified.

But at an institution like Los Alamos National Laboratory—one of three national laboratories responsible for designing and maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons—a subset of employees must have the knowledge to execute the Lab’s national security mission.

That’s why, in 1996, Los Alamos established the Theoretical Institute for Thermonuclear and Nuclear Studies (TITANS). Often referred to as a graduate program in nuclear weapons, TITANS is a three-year course in which 10 to 15 students from the Lab’s Theoretical Design and Computational Physics divisions spend up to 20 hours a week advancing their knowledge and familiarity with the science and tools necessary for maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Physicists Joyce Guzik, Roy Baty, and Eric Nelson preside over TITANS as deans and explain that the first part of the program involves helping students assess what they know and don't know.

“A goal of TITANS is to get people on a more level footing,” Guzik says. “We have people who come in as engineers, materials scientists, chemists, and many kinds of physicists. Some are very specialized with a narrow focus, and others have broad educations.”

Baty agrees. “Nobody comes in with a background that crosses all the disciplines of weapons physics,” he says. But at Los Alamos, TITANS students have access to information, tools, and senior employees, all of which help complete the big picture.

A large portion of TITANS is dedicated to understanding the complex physics codes that allow scientists to model and simulate how a nuclear weapon ages, detonates, or behaves in certain conditions. Guzik explains that students should understand how changing input variables can change the resulting simulations. “We want them to realize that just from thinking, you can almost figure out the answer before starting the simulation,” she says. “Once you get an answer, how do you know it is right? How do you analyze it? How do you compare it with a back of the envelope calculation? So often, we run the simulation and assume it is right, but it may not be.”

In the final year of TITANS, students focus on applying what they’ve learned. Students select a current or potential future problem facing a weapons system, and they then have a year to write a thesis paper on the topic. At the end of the year, the students defend their ideas in front of a panel that passes or fails them.

Baty stresses the importance of graduates believing in the value of their work. “It is about confidence,” he says. “The whole point is we’re trying not to ever use nuclear weapons—but they have to work. And in order to know they work, you have to trust the people. The people are the ultimate thing that has to be credible.” ★

Article by Ian Laird, National Security Science magazine writer