This project documents and analyzes the adaptation of America's two nuclear weapons laboratories to the end of the Cold War. By 1996, it became clear that, despite the nuclear test ban treaty, both laboratories would retain their primary focus on weapons science. Conversion was a largely stillborn project because of little enthusiasm for it in Congress and in the executive branch, and because the organizational culture of the laboratories obstructed conversion. The laboratories are reorganizing their way of doing weapons science around a group of new technologies that simulate aspects of nuclear weapons testing. Collectively, these technologies make up the Science Based Stockpile Stewardship program. The effectiveness and significance of these technologies is fundamentally contested by different political actors. This project argues that it is in the nature of such simulation technologies that they are `hyper-constructible.` The proposed project spans six months, including an interview component and a writing component. The book will further our understanding of the effects of military funding on scientific institutions, of the difficulties in converting such institutions to civilian purposes, and it will suggest a less literal approach than that of most arms control analysts to understanding the significance of the Science Based Stockpile Stewardship Program.
