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I heard people mumbling about this several jobs ago and just assumed it was HIGHLY CLASSIFIED. Turns out that no, people can talk about it in public. Or at least high-level discussions. Nothing about the specific details. But it seems somewhere between the mid-90s and 2008, the people who knew how to make a material code-named FOGBANK retired and the material was so super-secret, we didn't write down detailed notes. This is a brief blurb from LANL about how they reverse-engineered the FOGBANK process from the information they did have.
How hard would it be to pay a handsome sum to just one guy who was familiar enough to get enough of a clue? I don't know how things are siloed but presumably plenty know what its for we are just missing some crucial steps. Man I'd love to join a team to figure out some small part. You meet the wildest range of people working on such things.

I'm missing what was the way of testing for equivalency. Seems a crucial step in understanding the overall story.

I'm wondering if adding extra checks can hamper future efforts at production, because you are going to nail down your tests today. Then in the future some crucial part of the process is technically impossible due to upstream shortages. You didn't understand your wiggle room when you locked down your tests (potentially).