Laboratories Director James S. Peery signed Sandia’s annual nuclear weapons stockpile assessment letter on Sept. 23. Completion of this annual assessment letter is one of the labs director’s principal responsibilities and is required by law.

The annual assessment encompasses the safety, reliability and performance of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile for which Sandia is responsible. The process requires a set of comprehensive expert reviews, both internal and external, for each weapon system.

The letter signing represents the culmination of many months of work engaging every division at Sandia.

The directors of Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories (NNSA’s three nuclear weapons labs) and the commander of U.S. Strategic Command each provide an annual assessment letter to the secretaries of energy and defense and the Nuclear Weapons Council. The letters are then submitted, unaltered, to the president along with the secretaries’ conclusions on the safety, reliability, performance and military effectiveness of the nuclear weapons stockpile.