JASON LEP Meeting 1/12/09

McLean, VA: JASON (Mitre Corporation), 2009. Presumed First Edition, First rendition thus--informal copy. CD. Very good. JASON is an independent group of scientists which advises the United States government on matters of science and technology. The group was first created as a way to get a younger generation of scientists-that is, not the older Los Alamos and MIT Radiation Laboratory alumni-involved in advising the government. It was established in 1960 and has somewhere between 30 and 60 members. Its work first gained public notoriety as the source of the Vietnam War's McNamara Line electronic barrier. Most of its research is military-focused. For administrative purposes, JASON's activities are run through the MITRE Corporation, a non-profit corporation in McLean, Virginia, which operates seven Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) for the Federal Government of the United States. JASON typically performs most of its work during an annual summer study. Its sponsors include the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the U.S. Intelligence Community. This CD has an attendee list with 16 names, an action item sheet (blank), a Draft JASON LEP Charter, the JASON Study Agenda, the Tasking Agreement, and an opening Powerpoint presentation by Maurice Pitt of the National Nuclear Security Administration. This effort was estimated to cost in excess of one million dollars. It focused on the Life Extension Program within the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program for United States nuclear weapons. The Stockpile Stewardship Program enables NNSA to extend the lifespan and ensure the continued safety, reliability, and effectiveness of weapons that have reached the end of their original design life through life extension programs. These life extensions address aging and performance issues, enhance safety features, and improve security. As with any complex mechanical system, components in nuclear weapons degrade over time, even when kept in storage. A life extension program comprehensively analyzes all of a weapon's components and determines whether to reuse, refurbish or replace them to extend the service life of the weapon. Life extension programs also require NNSA to certify the weapon's protected period, its new lifetime, for 20 to 30 years.