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In each form, its atoms occupy a very different volume than the preceding one. Unusually, as it warms up, plutonium changes through six solid forms before it melts. Another is that plutonium is a weird metal, unlike any other element. One is that it’s extremely hard to simulate plasmas.

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“The models they use to predict weapons’ behavior are not fully predictive,” says Atzeni. The UK’s Orion laser produces 5 kilojoules of energy China’s SG-III laser, 180 kilojoules.īut the US and other countries following this approach still needed to physically test some nuclear materials, with lasers, to ensure their models and simulations matched reality and that their nukes were holding up. France meanwhile has its Laser Mégajoule, with 80 beams currently delivering 350 kilojoules, though it aims to have 176 beams delivering 1.3 megajoules by 2026. But concentrating this energy onto a tiny area can create very high temperatures and pressures. Looked at in one way, a megajoule is not an enormous amount-it’s equivalent to 240 food calories, similar to a light meal. Its 192 separate beams combine to deliver 1.8 megajoules of energy. The United States has its National Ignition Facility (NIF), currently the world’s most energetic laser system. Until now, Russia has been unique among the best-established nuclear powers in not having a high-energy laser. “It’s a substantial investment by the Russians in their nuclear weapons,” says Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear nonproliferation researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California. Laser experiments allow testing without letting a nuke off. With an old warhead, they can checkthat it still works as intended.

By creating explosions in small samples of material-either research samples or tiny amounts from existing nuclear weapons-scientists can then calculate how a full-blown bomb is likely to perform. Scientists can use them to simulate what happens when a nuclear warhead detonates. High-energy lasers can concentrate energy on groups of atoms, increasing temperature and pressure to start nuclear reactions. Inside a huge facility, 10 stories high and covering the area of two football fields, they are building what’s officially known as UFL-2M-or, as the Russian media has dubbed it, the “Tsar Laser.” If completed, it will be the highest-energy laser in the world.

In the closed town of Sarov, roughly 350 kilometers east of Moscow, scientists are busy working on a project to help keep Russia’s nuclear weapons operational long into the future.

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