Los Alamos National Laboratory to get new supercomputer to manage nuclear stockpile

Los Alamos National Laboratory is getting a next-generation supercomputer to help maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear weapons.

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced Thursday that it is contracting with Cray Inc. to help develop the supercomputer, called Trinity.

Trinity will be used by Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories and will be housed at Los Alamos' Metropolis Computing Center. Officials say Trinity will be sized to run the largest and most demanding simulations of stockpile stewardship, assuring the safety, security, and effectiveness of the country's nuclear stockpile without underground testing.

Scheduled for delivery starting in mid-2015, Trinity will have at least eight times greater applications performance than Cielo, the current NNSA supercomputer at Los Alamos.