One in a Million, Given the Accident: Assuring Nuclear Weapon Safety (Sandia, 2014)

Sandia report SAND2014-16545J, by Jason Weaver, is a twelve-page journal paper on how the nuclear weapons complex tries to assure that a weapon operates when needed and never when unintended. The abstract names its methods: testing, modeling, analysis and design features. The opening states that no accidental or unauthorized nuclear detonation has occurred since the introduction of nuclear weapons, and the same abstract adds that there have been numerous accidents and close calls.

The introduction concedes that designing a safe nuclear weapon seems at first a bit of an oxymoron. The requirement it sets out holds from assembly to retirement and across varied scenarios, which makes safety a matter of continuing analysis rather than a feature built in at the factory.

The abstract closes by looking forward: it examines how the present maturity of nuclear safety can strengthen security and other areas, and how increased coordination can improve safety and reduce long-term cost.