To check that atomic weapons work, scientists run simulations of explosions using high-energy lasers—and Russia is building the strongest one of all:
In town of Sarov, roughly 350 kilometers east of Moscow, scientists are busy working on a project to help keep Russia's nuclear weapons operational long into the future. Inside a huge facility, 10 storeys high and covering the area of two football fields, they are building what's officially known as UFL-2M—or, as the Russian media has dubbed it, the "Tsar Laser." If completed, it will be the highest-energy laser in the world.
High-energy lasers can concentrate energy on groups of atoms, increasing temperature and pressure to start nuclear reactions. Scientists can use them to simulate what happens when a nuclear warhead detonates. By creating explosions in small samples of material—either research samples or tiny amounts from existing nuclear weapons—scientists can then calculate how a full-blown bomb is likely to perform. With an old warhead, they can check that it still works as intended. Laser experiments allow testing without letting a nuke off. "It's a substantial investment by the Russians in their nuclear weapons," says Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear non-proliferation researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California.
Until now, Russia has been unique among the best-established nuclear powers in not having a high-energy laser. The United States has its National Ignition Facility (NIF), currently the world's most energetic laser system. Its 192 separate beams combine to deliver 1.8 megajoules of energy. Looked at in one way, a megajoule is not an enormous amount—it's equivalent to 240 food calories, similar to a light meal. But concentrating this energy onto a tiny area can create very high temperatures and pressures. France meanwhile has its Laser Mégajoule, with 80 beams currently delivering 350 kilojoules, though it aims to have 176 beams delivering 1.3 megajoules by 2026. The UK's Orion laser produces 5 kilojoules of energy; China's SG-III laser, 180 kilojoules.
If completed the Tsar Laser will surpass them all. Like the NIF, it's due to have 192 beams, but with a higher combined output of 2.8 megajoules. Currently, though, only its first stage has launched. At a Russian Academy of Sciences meeting in December 2022, an official revealed that the laser boasts 64 beams in its current state. Their total output is 128 kilojoules, 6 percent of the planned final capability. The next step would be testing them, the official said.
[...] In experiments, these lasers blast their target materials into a high-energy state of matter known as plasma. In gases, solids, and liquids, electrons are usually locked tight to their atoms' nuclei, but in plasma they roam freely. The plasmas throw out electromagnetic radiation, such as flashes of light and x-rays, and particles like electrons and neutrons. The lasers therefore also need detection equipment that can record when and where these events happen. These measurements then allow scientists to extrapolate how a full warhead might behave.
[...] Researchers have used lasers in nuclear weapons testing since at least the 1970s. At first they combined them with underground tests of actual weapons, using data from both to build theoretical models of how plasma behaves. But after the US stopped live-testing nuclear weapons in 1992 while seeking agreement on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, it switched to "science-based stockpile stewardship"—namely, using supercomputer simulations of warheads detonating to assess their safety and reliability.
But the US and other countries following this approach still needed to physically test some nuclear materials, with lasers, to ensure their models and simulations matched reality and that their nukes were holding up. And they still need to do this today.
[...] But Tikhonchuk [emeritus professor at the Center for Intense Lasers and Applications at the University of Bordeaux, France] believes that Russia will struggle now because it has lost much of the expertise needed, with scientists moving overseas. He notes that the Tsar Laser's beam arrays are very large, at 40 centimeters across, which poses a significant challenge for making their lenses. The larger the lens, the greater the chance there will be a defect in it. Defects can concentrate energy, heating up and damaging or destroying the lenses.
The fact that Russia is developing the Tsar Laser indicates it wants to maintain its nuclear stockpile, says Lewis. "It's a sign that they plan for these things to be around for a long time, which is not great." But if the laser is completed, he sees a sliver of hope in Russia's move. "I'm quite worried that the US, Russia, and China are going to resume explosive testing." The Tsar Laser investment might instead show that Russia thinks it already has enough data from explosive nuclear tests, he says.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 15 2023, @12:54AM (1 child)
n/t
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 15 2023, @07:02PM
meanwhile the usa is powering up a giant laser to test its gigantic laser to shoot down nukes
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Wednesday March 15 2023, @01:01AM
China and Russia got WMD?
INVADE!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Barenflimski on Wednesday March 15 2023, @02:12AM
Any country with a big laser program has to be respected. Test shit with it too? Pro's. Always fun to fuse Uranium. Sure we've got a big one too, but now theirs is bigger, and like Freddie Mercury said, "Bigger is better."
I can't even bring myself to share when the last time it was that my engineers tested anything.
(Score: 5, Funny) by EJ on Wednesday March 15 2023, @02:55AM
I'm not so concerned about the laser as the size of the shark they're going to mount it on.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday March 15 2023, @03:06AM (5 children)
Or that Russia doesn't dare give China pretext to more easily modernize its nuclear weapons with explosive testing. Both the US and Russia presently have a testing advantage because they were able to do a lot more explosive testing before treaties shut that down.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday March 15 2023, @11:10AM (2 children)
> some critical logistics failures
May be that they were the result of Western actions. The Western media gets stuff spoon fed from the Western military, which obviously has an agenda.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 15 2023, @12:42PM
That wasn't really it, according to most available reports.
One of the biggest logistics problems in the Russian military has been corruption. As in, the army that exists on paper and the army that exists in reality bear little resemblance to each other, because so much of the equipment has been sold off to the black market or eBay or even scrap metal dealers for booze money. So when their higher-ups say "fire that artillery on that point over there", the unit has to say "Yes, we'll fire that artillery piece, which we definitely have and definitely works." and then mime actually doing the attacking.
It's getting so bad that apparently the infantry don't even have grenades, which has been basic infantry equipment for well over a century at this point.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 15 2023, @04:36PM
Ah yes, the peculiar and selective hypercompetence of the West. It mysteriously only appears when explaining mundane failures of other countries.
Is the fact that Ukraine and Russia are still at war a bit of spoon fed propaganda that isn't really true?
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 15 2023, @01:52PM (1 child)
Bingo. Perhaps Russia was invaded after all?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 15 2023, @04:02PM
Not even wrong. It's quite easy to verify that Russia hasn't been invaded - nobody has troops there and there's little to no fighting on Russian soil. And unless you assert otherwise, we don't even have anyone claiming that Russia has been invaded. I think there's an obvious explanation here. Putin's reality deflection field met some reality that it couldn't deflect. He was told that the armed forces were fully capable of carrying out a quick victory in Ukraine and it didn't turn out so.
Funny how normal human weaknesses somehow can't possibly be happening when it comes to Russia.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MIRV888 on Wednesday March 15 2023, @08:12AM (5 children)
Putin is trying to redirect domestic public attention. Russia's poor showing invading Ukraine has let the world know that Russia is not a ground war threat. Unfortunately if even 5% of their nukes work we're still f*cked. Nukes are all Putin's got left. The jumbo laser is a white elephant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 15 2023, @01:58PM
He has them on hyper-speed unstoppable missiles of designs carefully tested in Ukraine. The whole US navy is a bunch of swimming ducks at this point.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 15 2023, @04:21PM
But not very fucked. And keep in mind that US/UK/French nukes likely work a lot better than their Russian counterparts right now. If Russia starts anything, it'll get a lot worse than it gives. That's a significant deterrence from using nuclear weapons.
Then he doesn't have much.
I think the object lesson here is that nuclear weapons need maintenance like any other military gear and a huge, specialized integrity - you can't afford to get sloppy with them. Being militaristic doesn't mean that you did the due diligence. My bet is that the US will have its own problems with its nukes within a few decades due to similar issues.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 15 2023, @04:26PM (2 children)
It's not all he has left, unfortunately: The other tack he has is covert actions. For example, maybe funding one of an enemy nation's political parties or candidates in exchange for them cutting off military assistance to Ukraine. Or buying relevant classified information off of a politician with a long history of financial problems.
But you're right that highly public fancy military gizmos can keep an otherwise awful and oppressive government in power. The North Korean regime has made that extremely clear.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 15 2023, @07:23PM (1 child)
I think one positive is that these authoritarian rulers have to do it openly now. They can't put on a ballerina show with rows of shiny happy faces, and point to it saying "Look the people love this system and are the most productive and happy in the world!". Even internally now it's like, nah this is bullshit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 15 2023, @07:26PM
In the West: nOboDy wAntS to WoRk?!
In Russia: nOboDy WaNts to FiGht?!
(Score: 2) by aim on Wednesday March 15 2023, @01:25PM (1 child)
I wouldn't be so sure they're having serious difficulties with 40cm lenses. Russian LZOS is known for high-end telescopes (manufactured / sold by APM). APM has 28cm lenses in their online shop (>100kEUR apiece), and you'll find 51cm LZOS lenses too - a size that'd already be quite something for a mirror.
I've been wondering about APM's ability to still sell LZOS glass, apparently this wasn't covered by the sanctions installed over the war in Ukraine.
(Score: 2) by corey on Wednesday March 15 2023, @10:37PM
Yeah my thoughts while reading the summary were around, how are they getting the parts? I thought they were all sanctioned up, especially in semiconductors. I’m sure they can’t run this thing on analog electronics.