DTRIAC celebrates 50th anniversary

  • Published
  • By Patricia Chavez
  • DTRA Public Affairs
Kirtland Air Force Base --  Would you believe that the largest collection of historical nuclear-related information is housed at Kirtland Air Force Base?

Indeed it is. The Defense Threat Reduction Information Analysis Center is the Department of Defense official repository for all scientific and technical data pertaining to nuclear weapons. It is one of the first and the largest of DOD's 19 Information Analysis Centers and has been serving the nation for five decades.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency celebrated the Defense Threat Reduction Information Analysis Center's 50th anniversary with a cake-cutting ceremony and a ribbon-cutting for their newly -renovated warehouse July 21. The DTRIAC repository holds nearly 230,000 documents, 10 million linear feet of film and two million photos, and is designed to store collections on nuclear weapons and radiological effects, providing an accessible library of information.

"It is wonderful to be here today to recognize the outstanding work of the DTRIAC," said Kenneth Myers, DTRA Director, during a 50th anniversary celebration held at the DTRA headquarters at Ft Belvoir, Va. "It has built important partnerships across the community as a result of its outstanding work and service. The Air Force Institute of Technology, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, the National Defense University and national labs have all benefited from the work of DTRIAC and are better able to execute their missions as a result of the Center."

Myers also lauded the work done by DTRIAC staff who aggressively sought orphaned collections of information on weapons effects, making it easily accessible by consolidating and cataloging information such as the semi-truck-sized loads of documents from the Air Force Weapons Lab and the Nevada Test Site.

Past data helps predict future performance
DTRIAC supports all of the Agency's mission areas. It maintains and expands the DTRA Scientific and Technical Information collection, responds to hundreds of technical inquiries annually, provides remote access to the digital collection through the Scientific and Technical Information Archival Retrieval System, and mans the Agency's STI Support Center.

"Today, the DTRIAC has a focused initiative in place to preserve and digitize the backlog of approximately 10 million feet of film and approximately 230,000 documents," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Craig Hess, DTRIAC program manager. "A vast amount of digitized data is already available via STARS, and new system enhancements will soon make research efforts even easier for customers."

The enormity of the DTRA mission, the DTRIAC collection, and the existence of other relevant non-DTRIAC resources often require significant technical and subject-matter expertise to perform the required research and analysis support. The DTRIAC team is comprised of both domain experts and information specialists who can effectively and efficiently research and analyze weapons of mass destruction data to support specific user needs.

"The staff prides themselves on superior customer service, and as they have been for the last 50 years, stand ready to continue to support the ever-evolving needs of the research development community and the warfighter," said Hess.

Given its history, DTRIAC is uniquely poised as a growing data center for information on other threats, such as radiological weapons ("dirty bombs"), high-yield explosives, and related phenomenology associated with chemical or biological threats.

As new CBRNE threats continue to emerge with terrorists inventing new means to accomplish their mission, DTRIAC continues to provide both information and technical analysis support across the full spectrum of all CBRNE threats. This support is often fulfilled through cooperative efforts with other agencies and IACs, such as CBRNIAC, to service the needs of the threat- reduction community as a whole.

DTRIAC's history throughout five decades
What is now the DTRIAC began in July 1961 as the Data Center for the Defense Atomic Support Agency, an early predecessor of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. As a result of the 1958 moratorium on nuclear weapon testing, knowledgeable nuclear researchers began leaving the field. Thus, DTRIAC (the former DASA Data Center) was established to collect early test results and provide access to and analysis of these data by experts.

The DTRIAC's major interest in the 1960's was the effects of high altitude nuclear bursts on telecommunications. In the 1970s, the DTRIAC developed increased interest in X-ray and electromagnetic pulse effects and considered blast and ground shock associated with low-altitude and surface detonations. The DTRIAC supported DTRA's interest in simulation activities and testing, and began publishing technical handbooks to provide weapons effects information in an authoritative form.

The DTRIAC continued with its traditional emphasis in the 1980's, but began to branch out into other areas: Strategic Defense Initiative research, policy analysis, and tactical nuclear warfare, as well as non-nuclear areas. It also began to conduct research related to treaty verification. During this period, the media collection increased significantly, consisting of still photos, motion picture films and videotapes from both atmospheric and underground nuclear tests and simulation programs. These media continue to provide a documentary record of experiment setup, execution, and post-test analysis. They also provide record of explosion phenomena that can affect military concepts and construction of physical structures.

The technical area task work increased significantly throughout the 1990's, and the collection holdings expanded as the staff began to search out and obtain "orphaned" nuclear and radiological data collections. During this period, a significant decision was made to develop, operate and maintain an electronic database -- the Data Archival and Retrieval Enhancement system--which contained all of the DTRIAC's digitized scientific and technical information. The DTRIAC was the first DoD IAC to embark on this capability, which provided data at approved users' desktops, greatly increasing the value and utility of the DTRIAC to the government and the scientific community. DARE was upgraded and replaced with STARS in 2007.