LLNL Building 131 - Weapons Engineering

 lab, production, nuclear weapons/warheads storage

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The Building 131 complex is a large office and laboratory facility housing both the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Divisions. The shops and laboratories have supported weapons testing and assembly as well as microelectronic and microfabrication work. In addition, the facility has a high bay containing a large laboratory and shop operation as well as a Materials Management Vault that has stored controlled materials to support the weapons testing program.
The use of radiation sources has been limited primarily to the high bay area, and sealed sources or
radioactive material in solid form has been used. Small antistatic blowers containing sealed sources have been used in the microfabrication laboratories. Use of a hood or glovebox enclosure has been required for operations that could potentially expose workers. Nondestructive use of depleted uranium was reported in the documentation.

Building 131, the Engineering Facility, has 287,192-gross-square-feet comprised of an office wing and a high bay. The office wing contains approximately 500 offices and 5 shops and laboratory spaces. The high bay includes 34 industrial shops or laboratories and 13 offices. The high bay is equipped with 20-ton cranes, an environmental test facility, low humidity laboratories, laboratories equipped with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA)-filtered hoods or gloveboxes for doing work with radioactive and hazardous materials, a conventional machine shop for working nonhazardous and nonradioactive materials, and a materials management vault and other locations for storage of controlled items. Building 131 primarily supports the nuclear weapons program with fabrication, inspection, assembly, testing, storage, and specialized machining functions.

Building 131 also houses laboratories and equipment to support the W80 Life Extension Program. Activities for this program include assembly/disassembly of test units, environmental testing of components and sub-assemblies, and visual/dimensional inspections, among other tasks.