Two modeling studies were conducted to simulate the effect of fallout shelters on the outcome of a massive countervalue nuclear exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States. One was to determine the number of nuclear weapons required to mount an effective fallout attack against a country with dispersed population; the other was to determine the number of expected US fatalities resulting from a countervalue attack against US urban population centers. The results of these studies indicate that the number of weapons required to mount such an attack depends on the adequacy of the shelter system and that the evacuation of urban populations can substantially reduce expected fatality levels.

During the last quarter of 1982, the Novette laser will become operational at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The primary characteristics of the Novette laser are shown. In many ways, the new laser will serve as a proving ground and test bed for the Nova laser which is also under construction and should be operational in early 1985. Tables provide the Nova operational characteristics. The advent of the two new lasers, Novette and Nova, will make it possible to study many new and exciting aspects of laser-target interactions and of many implosion physics experiments which have previously not been possible. Some of the most interesting and exciting work will be the exploration of the parameters critical to the ignition of a significant thermonuclear burn in the deuterium-tritium fuel in the targets.