Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Image:llnl 01.jpg
Motto "Science in the national interest"
Established 1952 by the University of California
Research Type National security, nuclear science
Budget US$1.6 billion
Director George H. Miller
Staff 6,800
Location Livermore, California
Campus 3.2 km² (800 acres)
Operating Agency Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
Website www.llnl.gov

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory, managed and operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS), a limited liability partnership between Bechtel National, the University of California, BWX Technologies, Washington Group International, and Battelle Memorial Institute. The Texas A&M University System is also an affiliated member of LLNS. Until September 30, 2007 LLNL was directly managed and operated solely by the University of California.

Contents

[edit] Background

Aerial view of the lab and surrounding area, facing NW.
Aerial view of the lab and surrounding area, facing NW.

Along with Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, LLNL is one of the two United States laboratories whose founding mission was the science and physics underlying the design of nuclear weapons.

LLNL is self-described as "a premier research and development institution for science and technology applied to national security."[1] It is responsible for ensuring that the nation’s nuclear weapons remain "safe, secure, and reliable" through application of advances in science, engineering, and technology. The laboratory also applies its special expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities to preventing the proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction, and to bolstering homeland security. Those capabilities are also utilized in programs in non-defense areas such as basic science, energy, environmental science, and biosciences.

LLNL is home to many of the most powerful computer systems in the world, according to the TOP500 list, including Blue Gene/L, the world's fastest computer as of 2005. Since 1978 the laboratory has received a total of 113 prestigious R&D 100 Awards, including seven in 2006, the most for any institution.[2] The awards are given annually by the editors of R&D Magazine to the most innovative ideas of the year.

LLNL's main facility is located on a one mile² (2.6 km²) site at the eastern outskirts of Livermore, California. Site 300, a 28.3 km² (11 m²) remote explosive/experiment testing site, is situated about 24 km (15 mi) to the southeast. Lawrence Livermore has an annual budget of about US$1.6 billion and a staff of over 6,800 employees (as of 2008). Additionally, there are approximately 100 DOE employees stationed at the laboratory to provide federal oversight of LLNL's work for the DOE.

[edit] Origins

The main site, at the location of a former World War II Naval Training Station, was originally used to house projects of the University of California Radiation Laboratory which were too large for its location in the Berkeley Hills above the University of California, Berkeley campus. In 1949, Edward Teller suggested to Ernest Lawrence, head of the Berkeley lab, now known as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), that a second weapons lab be created as "competition" with the lab which sprung up to create the first nuclear weapon, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Teller's advocacy for the lab was also in response to his frustrations with the low priority he felt his idea of a hydrogen bomb was getting at Los Alamos. In 1951, Teller formally appealed to the Atomic Energy Commission for the creation of the laboratory, and in September 1952 the lab was formally founded as the Livermore branch of the University of California Radiation Laboratory (Lawrence's lab in Berkeley). Despite Teller's original motivation, however, the hydrogen bomb was invented and designed at Los Alamos.

Thirty-two-year-old Herbert York was appointed the first director of the Lab. York set out to develop the Lab's program and created four main elements: Project Sherwood (the Magnetic Fusion Program), diagnostic weapon experiments (both for Los Alamos and Livermore), the design of thermonuclear weapons, and a basic physics program. The first two facilities were a building to house the latest electronic computer, a UNIVAC I, and a technology building with a large central bay for lifting heavy equipment. It its early years, Livermore attempted to distinguish itself by investigating radical weapons designs that had not been proven; as a result, its first three nuclear tests were unsuccessful fizzles, much to the amusement of their new "rivals" at Los Alamos.

In 1958, after the death of Ernest O. Lawrence, the lab was renamed Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. It would later be renamed to its current name of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1979. Throughout the Cold War, Lawrence Livermore competed with Los Alamos to design the nation's nuclear arsenal, as well as perform other science and technology related tasks (some classified, some not). Warheads designed at Livermore include the Mk 27, the W38, the W45, the W56, the W62, the W70, the B83, and the W84, and the W87. Of these, four are currently in the U.S. "enduring stockpile".[3][4][5] In the early 1990s their weapons work shifted into stockpile stewardship. In March 2007, a Livermore weapons design was chosen for the Reliable Replacement Warhead.[6]

Historically the two national laboratories in Berkeley and Livermore named after Ernest O. Lawrence, have had very close relationships on research projects, business operations, and staff. In fact, LLNL was not officially severed administratively from LBNL until the early 1970s. To this day, in official planning documents and records, LBNL is designated as "Site 100", LLNL as "Site 200", and LLNL's experimental testing area located near Tracy, California as "Site 300".

[edit] Sponsors

LLNL's funding comes from the DOE Office of Defense Programs for nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship activities. Funds to support LLNL's national security and homeland security work also comes from the DOE Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, the Homeland Security, various Defense Department sponsors, and other federal agencies.

LLNL also receives funding to perform work for other DOE programs, principally the Offices of Science, Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, and Nuclear Energy. Non-DOE sponsors include NASA, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), National Institutes of Health, and United States Environmental Protection Agency, California State agencies, and private industry.


[edit] Non-weapons projects

A current project is the "small, sealed, transportable, autonomous reactor" or "SSTAR". It is designed to be a "world" nuclear reactor, that can give countries with smaller or less-well-developed electricity grids a self-contained reactor that would operate for 30 years without refueling and then be retrieved - thus preventing the host nation from accessing any plutonium created as a by-product of the nuclear reaction.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a partner in the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) located in Walnut Creek, California. JGI was founded in 1997 to unite the expertise and resources in genome mapping, DNA sequencing, technology development, and information sciences pioneered at the three genome centers at UC's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has worked out several energy technologies in the field of coal gasification, oil shale retorting, geothermal energy, advanced battery research, solar energy, and fusion energy. Main oil shale processing technologies worked out by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are LLNL HRS (hot-recycled-solid), LLNL RISE and LLNL radiofrequency technologies.

LLNL has been the leader in licensing and royalty income among the Department of Energy's national laboratories. During FY 2006 the Lab's Industrial Partnerships & Commercialization Office (IPAC) reported that LLNL received US$6.4 million in licensing revenue, of which US$6.1 million was from royalties. This was the highest among the DOE funded national laboratories.

Also, during FY 2006, LLNL had 158 invention disclosures, filed 72 patent applications and received 72 patents.

Most licensing income comes from the sale of products based on Lab technologies and licensed by IPAC. LLNL's cumulative licensing revenue for 1996 to 2006 was US$40 million - the most in the DOE sponsored national laboratory system. The bulk of the net proceeds were distributed back to the Lab's directorates, with most of the remainder going to the inventors and a smaller amount going to the institution covering some administrative costs, technology maturation and other technology transfer-related activities.

IPAC licenses LLNL technology to industry to enhance U.S. economic competitiveness in world markets, promote economic development both locally and throughout the United States, and to help improve the quality of life for all Americans.

[edit] Key facilities

  • Alameda County Regional Emergency Communications Center (ACRECC): LLNL is home to the main fire and emergency medical service dispatch center for Alameda County. The state-of-the art emergency communication center is located inside a secure area of the Laboratory. ACRECC dispatches for over 41 fire stations in 6 agencies in the County. ACRECC handles more than 75 000 calls annually in the cities of Alameda, Castro Valley, Dublin, Fremont, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Sunol, and Union City, the Parks Reserve Forces Training Area (United States Army), unincorporated areas, and both LBNL and LLNL. ACRECC also performs emergency medical dispatch and ambulance transport coordination, and coordinates Mutual Aid requests for the entire county. Funding for ACRECC is paid by each member agencies and is based on their individual usage rates. In 2003 the ACRECC dispatch center underwent a US$1.2 million renovation, adding state-of-the-art computer-aided dispatch stations, lighting, computers, and radio systems. It is currently staffed by 25 dispatchers and supervisors.

[edit] Fire service

On October 1, 2007 the Alameda County Fire Department (ACFD) began providing fire, medical and hazardous material emergency services to the Laboratory. Alameda County hired all 41 LLNL fire department personnel, who remained assigned to fire stations at the main Laboratory site as well as Site 300.

The contract allowed the Laboratory fire department to continue providing services it provided as a University of California public fire department, but which could no longer be provided under LLNS, a private entity. Laboratory fire department staffing levels, security clearance requirements, response schedules, and training requirements did not change. Working through Alameda County, LLNL continues to manage the Alameda County Regional Communication Center.

With the addition of LLNL, the ACFD consists of 26 fire companies and 21 fire stations that serve the unincorporated areas of Alameda County, the City of San Leandro, the City of Dublin and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).


[edit] Computers

The IBM 704 mainframe computer
The IBM 704 mainframe computer

The first computer the laboratory possessed was a UNIVAC I, ordered in July through September 1952 and delivered in April 1953. The June 2006 release of the 27th TOP500 list of the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world, has LLNL computers in the #1 (BlueGene/L) and #3 (ASC Purple) spots. A total of 12 LLNL computer systems appeared in the June 2006 TOP500 list, tying the number at Sandia National Laboratories for the most at any one site.

On June 22, 2006, University of California researchers at LLNL announced that they had devised a scientific software application that sustained 207.3 trillion operations per second. This was the equivalent of an online game capable of handling 300 million simultaneous players. The record performance was made at LLNL on the IBM Corp's BlueGene/L, the world's fastest supercomputer, which has 131,072 processors. The record was a milestone in the evolution of predictive science, a field in which researchers use supercomputers to answer questions about such subjects as: materials science simulations, global warming, and reactions to natural disasters.

Other computers installed

[edit] Computer software

A great deal of software has been written by LLNL personnel to operate, monitor, and manage the computer systems at LLNL, including operating system extension such as CHAOS (Linux Clustering), resource management packages such as SLURM, and others.[9] The requirement for lab programmers to write the software is due to the unique, one-of-a-kind nature of the systems — this had prevented commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software from being available. It wasn't until the Peloton systems procurements in late 2006 that a commercial resource management package, Moab, was to be used to manage the clusters purchased under the RFP.[10]

[edit] Plutonium research and storage

The lab has approximately 400 kg (880 lbs) of plutonium and is allowed to have up to about 1,400 kg (3,080 lbs).[citation needed] However, it is prohibited from having actual nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices at its sites. Plutonium at the lab is stored in a fortified research facility guarded by a large force of heavily armed and specially trained security police officers. These officers are equipped with vehicle mounted and fixed location M134 Gatling guns that fire 7.62mm bullets from six barrels at up to 4,000 rounds per minute, powerful enough to take down an enemy aircraft or helicopter.[8]

At Livermore and at two facilities in Nevada, the lab uses plutonium for nuclear weapons research. It conducts experiments to learn how plutonium performs as it ages; how it behaves under high pressure, such as with the impact of high explosives; and how to dismantle nuclear weapons safely, without causing contamination.

In early 2006 the United States Department of Energy announced plans to move all the plutonium from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory by 2014, though transfers of the material could start sooner. By 2022, all U.S. work involving plutonium would be consolidated at a single new facility whose location has not been determined.

[edit] Directors

The LLNL Director is appointed by the Board of Governors of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC and reports to the Board. Supporting the LLNL Director is a Deputy Director, a Chief of Staff, and the Laboratory Executive Officer. The current Director is also the President of LLNS LLC.

Also reporting to the Director are several key functional managers - Safeguards & Security, Environment, Safety, Health & Quality, Contract Assurance, Chief Financial Officer, and Laboratory Counsel.

[edit] Organization

  • Director
  • Deputy Director
  • Security Director
  • Environment, Safety, Health & Quality Director
  • Laboratory Legal Counsel
  • Contract Assurance Officer
  • Chief Financial Officer
  • Principal Associate Director for Science & Technology
    • Chemistry, Materials, Earth and Life Science Directorate
    • Computation and Simulations Directorate
    • Engineering Directorate
    • Physical Sciences Directorate
  • Principal Associate Director for Global Security
    • Non-proliferation Program
    • Domestic Security Program
    • Defense Program
    • Intelligence Program
    • Energy & Environmental Security Program
  • Principal Associate Director for Weapons & Complex Integration
    • Primary Nuclear Design Program
    • Secondary Nuclear Design Program
    • Nuclear Weapon Engineering Program
    • Advanced Simulations & Computation Program
  • Principal Associate Director for NIF & Photon Science
    • Inertial Confinement Fusion Energy Program
    • National Ignition Facility Program
    • Target Experimental Systems Program
    • Photon Science and Applications Program
  • Principal Associate Director for Operations & Business
    • Strategic Human Capital Management Directorate
    • Business Directorate
    • Facilities & Infrastructure Directorate
    • Nuclear Operations Directorate

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Missions & Programs. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (13 February 2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
  2. ^ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (10 July 2006). "Laboratory Captures Seven R&D 100 Awards for Industrial Innovations". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
  3. ^ James N. Gibson (14 October 2006). Complete List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons. The Nuclear Weapon Archive. Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
  4. ^ U.S. Nuclear Weapon Enduring Stockpile. The Nuclear Weapon Archive (31 August 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
  5. ^ Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Stewardship. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (13 February 2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
  6. ^ Scott Lindlaw. "Bush Administration Picks Lawrence Livermore Warhead Design", The San Francisco Chronicle, 02 March 2007. Retrieved on 2008-03-19. 
  7. ^ Keay Davidson. "Potent Firepower for Weapons Lab", San Francisco Chronicle, 3 February 2006. Retrieved on 2008-03-19. 
  8. ^ a b Dillon Aero M134 Gatling Gun. Mindfully.org (09 September 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
  9. ^ Linux at Livermore. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Retrieved on 2007-02-28.
  10. ^ Peloton Capability Cluster. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Retrieved on 2007-02-28.

[edit] References

[edit] External links and sources

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