Despite worries within the nuclear security enterprise of “massive uncertainties” in its delivery date, the Scorpius x-ray imager might actually be ready later this decade, a spokesperson for the Sandia National Laboratories said last week.
“The deterministic date…is to have Scorpius operational before the end of calendar 2027, with subcritical experiments to start in calendar 2028,” a spokesperson for the labs wrote in an email to the Exchange Monitor on Thursday.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), however, has baked years more margin than that into Scorpius’ schedule. In March, as part of its fiscal year 2024 budget request, the agency said the expanded underground complex at the Nevada National Security Site that will host Scorpius will not be ready until 2030. The expected bill for these upgrades, including Scorpius, is about $1.8 billion, according to the NNSA’s budget request.
In February, an official with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the lead lab on the massive x-ray imager that will replace the current Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test facility, said Scorpius could be delayed by materials shortages that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scorpius will record subcritical nuclear-materials tests using x-ray imagery. The images of these subcritical tests, which involve reaching the edge of nuclear criticality by blowing up a small piece of plutonium, will help NNSA determine how plutonium in existing nuclear weapons is aging and whether those weapons have retained their designed destructive power.
Sandia is designing some of the components for Scorpius, including its electron beam injector.
