Sandia's Z Machine: Fastest Gun in the West

Sandia National Labs' Z Machine has accelerated a small plate from zero to 76,000 mph in less than a second. The impact generates shock waves powerful enough to turn solids into liquids, liquids into gases, and gases into plasmas. Researchers hope that Z machine experiments can help provide information about the condition of the U.S. nuclear stockpile - without having to explode a nuclear weapon.