Since 1992, DOE and its National Laboratories have pursued - in accordance with national policy - a suite of initiatives to preserve the United States' ability to maintain and certify nuclear weapons. Weapons refurbishment's, scheduled to begin in 2007, present an opportunity to build on the benefits of these investments to directly revolutionize the safety, security, and reliability of the United States' nuclear weapon stockpile.

The initiatives of the Department of Energy's Office of Defense Programs are designed to "ensure the safety, security, reliability, and performance of nuclear weapons without underground testing." To accomplish its goal of maintaining a viable nuclear deterrent, DOE established the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) to provide the infrastructure and intellectual capability to maintain and certify weapons in the nuclear stockpile. An integral component of the SSP is the introduction of advanced technologies to the weapons stockpile during refurbishment operations.

Weapons refurbishment's replace aging, outdated technologies with newly-developed, state-of-the-art components, allowing DOE to continually improve the safety, security and reliability of the Nation's enduring stockpile. Refurbishment's are scheduled infrequently, perhaps once every 10 or 15 years - thus, there is considerable pressure to develop new technologies in time to take advantage of these windows of opportunity. New technologies, such as integrated microsystems, are a compelling solution to ensure a modern nuclear deterrent.

Sandia technician Stephanie Reel is shown with one of the metal deposition systems in the Microelectronics Development Laboratory, an existing facility that will be a part of the proposed MESA Complex.

The Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA) Project is a proposed new, state-of-the-art facility at Sandia National Laboratories that will provide the capabilities essential to maintain a safe, secure, and reliable stockpile. MESA will create a computationally-intensive environment for the design, integration, prototype fabrication, and qualification of integrated microsystems into weapon components, subsystems, and systems for the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile.

MESA is designed to accelerate the science and application of microsystem technologies. These small, highly integrated and low-power mechanisms are created using integrated circuit fabrication technology that allows for the combination of diverse functions on a single computer chip. Integrated microsystems may include any combination of:

• Sensors (i.e., chemical sensors that can detect compounds in air and water or physical sensors that can detect movement, acceleration, and position);
• Miniature communications (these can transmit data using either radio frequencies of optical transmission technologies, among others);
• MicroElectronics (i.e., computer chips for on-board processing);
• MicroMechanical Systems (i.e., microactuators constructed from metal or ceramics);
• MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) (i.e., gears and actions arms fabricated from silicon compounds).

The high functionality of integrated microsystems will enable new capabilities and applications that will revolutionize the nature of America's nuclear stockpile, increasing its safety, security and reliability. Integrated microsystems will streamline the number of weapon components, reduce production and maintenance costs, and minimize the number of fault points in the weapons system.

Sandia's role in maintaining the safety, security, reliability, and operability of the nuclear stockpile demands that the Laboratory create the MESA complex to develop, qualify, and incorporate microsystems into nuclear weapons. To achieve its mission, MESA must bring to bear a diverse array of human talent from around the nuclear weapons complex in the fields of:

• Microsystems technology development;
• Computational and engineering sciences and analysis; and
• Weapon design, system integration and certification.

Integrating the best and brightest minds from across the weapons complex with the products of other DOE initiatives, including the computational and simulation products of the Joint Computational Engineering Laboratory (JCEL); the computing power and codes of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI); and the communications infrastructure under development at the Distributed Information Systems Laboratory (DISL), MESA will create a single, state-of-the-art facility to enhance and continue vital national security work.

The MESA complex will be the cornerstone of an "integrated campus complex." Upon completion, MESA will be a key element of the scientific and technological heart of Sandia. These world-class facilities will help Sandia and DOE attract and retain the Nation's best minds - a crucial component for the development of future weapons safety, security, and reliability options. MESA is designed to meet the requalification and reconditioning demands set forth by the DoD and DOE and enables Sandia to remain on the cutting edge of technology. The coupling of microsystem components with the most advanced design and simulation tools has clear and important benefits in enabling the Nation to meet the challenges of maintaining and improving the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.