Los Alamos National Laboratory , USA

In supersonic missiles where warheads are subjected to aerodynamic heating, conventional explosives cannot be used and thermally stable explosives like TATB, TACOT, HNS and PYX, etc. are necessary for such systems. Some formulations based on these explosives are HNS/Kel-F800 95/5 (developed by Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston, UK) and AFX 521 (PYX/Kel-F800 95/5 — developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA). Their shock sensitivities lie in the region required for boosters. HNS/Teflon explosive charges have also been used for the Apollo 17 seismic experiments [199]. 

At Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, Chavez et al. still continue their work on the development and discovery of new high nitrogen content-HEMs for various applications [281, 285-287] and recently reported the preparation of several novel nitroguanyl-substituted tetrazines including 3,6-bis(nitroguanyl)-l,2,4,5-tetrazine [Structure (2.71)] and bis (triaminoguanidinium) salt [Structure (2.72)] as shown in Figure 2.6. 

Michael H. Holzscheiter, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, mhhQlanl.gov... 

Larsen A. and von Dreele R. B., GSAS - General Structure Analysis System, Tech. Rept. LA-UR-86-748 (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, 1987). 

The authors would like to express their thanks to the following people that have contributed to the work Professor Norman Billingham (University of Sussex, UK), Bernard Mahieu (Universite de Louvain, Belgium) for the Mossbauer spectra, George Havrilla (Los Alamos National Laboratories, USA) for the XRF measurements and Jenny Cunningham (AWE, UK) for the NMR results. 

In subsurface oxic soil near Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, plutonium is relatively mobile and has been transported primarily by colloids in the 25-450 pm size range. Moreover, the association with these colloids is strong and removal of Pu from them is very slow. By contrast, near Sellafield in wet anoxic soil, most of the Pu is quickly immobilized in the sediments although a small fraction remain mobile. Differences in oxidation state (Pu(V) vs. Pu(lV)) as well as in humic content of the soils may explain these differences in mobility. 

Jouet, J.R. and Schuman, A.J. (2006) MlC/Al incidents at Indian head 1998-2005. MIC Safety Meeting, February 13, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA. 

In the 1980s, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), experiments on laser initiation of the DMTM process were carried [204,205]. Judging from the available results, at 450 °C, a pressure of 2.04 atm, and 11% oxygen concentration, only an increase in the rate of the process was achieved, without significant changes in the selectivity of methanol formation and the composition of the products. However, performing a kinetic analysis of the system, the authors concluded that, at elevated temperatures (530—730 °C), a pressure of 60 atm, and a CH4 02 = 2 1 ratio, one can expect a 50% methanol selectivity at a methane conversion of up to 25%. The time scale of the process (3 ms) motivated the use of a reactor with a supersonic nozzle [205]. However, the authors apparently failed in solving the problem of rapid removal of the heat of reaction to maintain isothermal conditions postulated in the analysis. 

Richard L. Martin, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA Hiroko Moriyama, Graduate School of Natural Sciences, Nagoya City University, Japan Steven M. O Malley, Atmospheric and Environmental Research, USA Lin Pan, Physics Department, Cedarville University, USA... 

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