LLNL Building 191 - High Explosives Application Facility

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Building 191, the High Explosives Application Facility (HEAF), is located in the northwest quadrant of the Livermore Site. The building is 120,116 gross square feet and includes 13,000 square feet of office space. R&D activities at HEAF include studying intentional detonations, synthesizing and formulating materials, testing material properties and characterization, studying the physics of initiation, developing diagnostic methods and equipment, and conducting detonator surveillance. This facility was constructed to provide LLNL with a centralized high explosives research facility with modern diagnostic and testing equipment. Building 191 is currently LLNL’s center for the study of chemical high explosives and their application to conventional explosive and nuclear device systems.

Hazardous materials in Building 191 are used in high explosive synthesis and formulation, high explosive properties characterization, shock-loading experiments, detonation experiments, and various support shop operations. Hazard sources associated with HEAF operations include high- voltage power; toxic, reactive, flammable, and corrosive materials; asphyxiants; thermal flux; gravity-mass sources; lasers; ionizing and non-ionizing radiation; cryogenics; and compressed gases.

The main radiological hazards are associated with the x-ray machine and x-ray-computed tomography used to radiograph components and assemblies. These machines are heavily shielded with concrete to minimize radiation exposure. The other sources of radiation are the flash x-ray generators, which are used as diagnostic tools in some of the firing tanks. Detonation experiments are conducted in firing tanks that provide protection to the facility and personnel. One of the firing tanks was designed to be used for experiments using hazardous materials such as depleted uranium when the associated washdown system is completed and installed.