Energetic charged particle beams for disablement of mines

LLNL has an ongoing program of weapons disablement using energetic charged particle beams; this program combines theoretical and experimental expertise in accelerators, high-energy and nuclear physics, plasma physics and hydrodynamics to simulate/measure effects of electron and proton beams on weapons. This paper reviews work by LLNL, LANL and NSWC on detonating sensitive and insensitive high explosives and land mines using high-current electron beams. Computer simulations are given. 20--160 MeV electron beams incident on wet/dry soils are being studied, along with electron beam propagation in air. Compact high current, high energy accelerators are being developed for mine clearing. Countermine missions of interest are discussed. 25 refs., 9 figs.