Weaponeers Seek Models

doi:10.1126/science.312.5774.675d

American Association for Cancer Research

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ScienceScope

Modeling the behavior of nuclear bombs is getting tougher as stockpiled weapons age, so the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is refocusing toward prediction an existing program that funds academic computer scientists. Five universities currently run NNSA-sponsored modeling centers that do nonclassified work in areas including rocket behavior and exploding stars. Program head Dimitri Kusnezov says the academics have helped root NNSA in good science as well as top computing. But old bomb tests are becoming less and less relevant to aging weapons, he says, making prediction more important. Now he wants to recompete the contracts, emphasizing prediction of complex systems. "We can ask much more complex questions today," he says.