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About the Cover Since its inception in 1952, the Laboratory has transformed from a deactivated U.S. Naval Air Station to a campus-like setting (top) with outstanding research facilities through U.S. government investments in our important missions and the efforts of generations of exceptional people dedicated to national service. This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the government. Neither the United States government nor Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, About the Laboratory nor any of their employees makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was founded in 1952 to enhance process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to the security of the United States by advancing nuclear weapons science and any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise technology and ensuring a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent. With does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States a talented and dedicated workforce and world-class research capabilities, the government or Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. The views and opinions of authors expressed Laboratory strengthens national security with a tradition of science and technology herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. innovation—anticipating, developing, and delivering solutions for the nation’s most challenging problems. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in part under Contract W-7405-Eng-48 and in part under Contract DE-AC52- The Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS), 07NA27344. for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous

LLNL-AR-738608 agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). LLNS is a limited liability company managed by Bechtel National, Inc.; the University of ; BWXT Government Group, Inc.; and the URS Division of AECOM. Battelle Memorial Institute also participates in LLNS as a teaming subcontractor. Cutting-edge science is enhanced through the expertise of the and its 10 campuses and LLNS’ affiliation with the Texas A&M University system. CONTENTS PREFACE

1 Preface For 65 years, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been making history and making 86 The Nineties 2 The Fifties 88 1990 CAMS 4 1952 The Lab Opens 90 1991 Iraq Inspections a difference. The outstanding efforts by a dedicated work force have led to many remarkable 6 1953 Ruth 92 1992 Setting Model Standards 8 1954 The IBM 701 94 1993 Dynamic Underground Stripping accomplishments. Creative individuals and interdisciplinary teams at the Laboratory have 0 1 1955 Nuclear Propulsion 96 1994 Clementine 2 1 1956 Polaris 98 1995 sought breakthrough advances to strengthen national security and to help meet other enduring 4 1 1957 Rainier 100 1996 Guide Star 6 1 1958 Test Moratorium 102 1997 NIF Groundbreaking national needs. 8 1 1959 E. O. Lawrence Awards Created 104 1998 Multiscale Materials Modeling 106 1999 R&D 100 Awards 20 The Sixties 22 1960 Linacs for Hydrotesting 108 The Aughts The Laboratory’s rich history includes many interwoven stories—from the first nuclear test failure 24 1961 Project Sherwood 110 2000 Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative 26 1962 112 2001 Biodetectors Respond to accomplishments meeting today’s challenges. Many stories are tied to Livermore’s national 28 1963 Biomedical Research 114 2002 Celebrating and Breaking Ground 30 1964 Department of Applied Science 116 2003 First Principles Codes security mission, which has evolved to include ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of the 32 1965 Z Division 118 2004 Portable Radiation Detectors 34 1966 Nuclear Effects 120 2005 Extrasolar Planets nation’s nuclear weapons without conducting nuclear tests and preventing the proliferation and 36 1967 Gasbuggy 122 2006 Aging 38 1968 Royston Plan 124 2007 Climate Change and Its Impacts 40 1969 First CDC 7600 126 2008 RSTT use of weapons of mass destruction. Throughout its history and in its wide range of research 128 2009 NIF Dedication 42 The Seventies activities, Livermore has achieved breakthroughs in applied and basic science, remarkable feats of 44 1970 First MIRV Warheads 130 The Tens 46 1971 Cannikin 132 2010 BLU-129/B engineering, and extraordinary advances in experimental and computational capabilities. 48 1972 Ozone Depletion Calculations 134 2011 LLMDA 50 1973 U-AVLIS Program Begins 136 2012 Livermorium 52 1974 and ICF 138 2013 Self-Heating From the many stories to tell, one has been selected for each year of the Laboratory’s history. 54 1975 W79 Development 140 2014 Additive Manufacturing 56 1976 Enhanced Safety 142 2015 Neural Implants 58 1977 144 2016 -4 LEP Together, these stories give a sense of the Laboratory—its lasting focus on important missions, 60 1978 Operation Morning Light 146 2017 62 1979 Tracking Three Mile Island dedication to scientific and technical excellence, and drive to make the world more secure and a 148 Acknowledgments 64 The Eighties better place to live. 66 1980 Spent Fuel Test–Climax 68 1981 LODTM Groundbreaking 70 1982 DYNA3D The twentieth-century stories are now twice told. A first edition of this collection was issued in 72 1983 Laughlin Nobel Work 4 7 1984 76 1985 Bunker 801 2002, at the time of the Laboratory’s fiftieth anniversary. Nearly a generation has passed since 78 1986 80 1987 Human Genome Project then, and more recent remarkable stories have been added. 82 1988 Joint Verification Experiment 84 1989 Computing in Parallel The was raging, and on August 29, 1949, the detonated its first atomic bomb— much sooner than expected by Western experts. Less than a year later, Communist North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel to invade the Republic of Korea. National security was at stake. The urgent need to accelerate the nation’s H-bomb program led Ernest O. Lawrence and to argue for the creation of a second laboratory to augment the efforts of Los Alamos. On September 2, 1952, a branch of The Fifties A “new ideas” laboratory the University of California’s Radiation Laboratory opened in Livermore, California.

Livermore’s first director, Herbert F. York, and a remarkable group of young scientists set out to be a “new ideas” laboratory. They were committed to pursuing innovative solutions to the nation’s pressing needs to advance nuclear weapons science and technology. The Laboratory’s first nuclear experiments were failures. But later in the decade, Livermore New scientists made a major breakthrough—the design Leadership of a megaton-class warhead for ballistic missiles that could be launched from submarines. Herbert F. York Edward Teller (1952 • 1958) (1958 • 1960)

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 2 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 3 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1952 The Lab Opens Team Science in the National Interest

The Livermore branch of the University of of large domestic deposits of ore, California Radiation Laboratory (UCRL) and the “Rad Lab” took sole possession of at Berkeley opened for operation on the square-mile site. September 2, 1952, at a deactivated Naval Air Station. The infirmary at Working conditions at the Rad Lab were the old air station had been used by primitive. The staff were housed in old a group of UCRL to help wooden buildings with poor heating and Two of the Laboratory’s first major Los Alamos with diagnostics for the no air conditioning. Initially, they had fewer facilities for nuclear research were George thermonuclear test fielded at telephones than promised, no post office the 90-inch cyclotron (far left), which Enewetak Atoll (Central Pacific) in May box for mail delivery, and, according to operated from 1954 to 1971, and the 1951. The site also was being used by the minutes of an early administrative Livermore Pool- Type Reactor (left), California Research and Development, meeting, “The desk lamp situation is very which was used for experiments from When the Laboratory a subsidiary of Standard Oil, to build the bad.” The infirmary building was in the 1957 to 1980. opened in 1952, the old Materials Testing Accelerator (MTA), a best shape, so Herbert F. York, the first Navy infirmary served as pilot for a larger accelerator to produce director, and an opening-day staff of 75 Establishment of the Laboratory was the administration building, and plutonium for weapons. located there. York’s office was in the x-ray triggered by the detonation of the first and it housed Livermore’s Conceived by Ernest O. Lawrence, room—it was shielded, and he could Russian atom bomb in 1949, which first computer. founder of UCRL, the MTA project was carry on classified discussions without alarmed some American scientists abandoned in 1954 after the discovery being overheard. who feared a quick Soviet advance to the next step, the bomb. Edward Teller and Lawrence, both very concerned, met on October 7, 1949, at Los Alamos to discuss the crisis. The ensuing actions taken by key figures in Washington led to the creation of the Laboratory at Livermore to more rapidly advance nuclear weapons science and technology. Activities began with a sketchy mission statement and a commitment by York and his team to be a “new ideas” laboratory.

York, then 32 years old, was singled out by Lawrence to head the new laboratory. He had co-led the team that worked on Livermore’s first director, Herbert F. York (right), confers with founders Ernest O. Lawrence diagnostics for the George event. York (left) and Edward Teller (center). faced two principal challenges: planning the Laboratory’s research program and on connections with Berkeley. By the end In this approach, experts in various recruiting the first employees. His plan of 1952, the staff had grown to 300, by relevant disciplines assemble as a had four main elements: development the end of the first year of operation to team and work together to understand of diagnostics for weapons experiments 1,000, and within just five years to 3,100. and solve complex problems. This (for both Los Alamos and Livermore), way of structuring and organizing the design of thermonuclear weapons, Following the lead of his mentor, York research and development enables the Project Sherwood (a magnetic fusion established a matrix organization Laboratory to better reach its mission- energy program), and a basic physics for the Laboratory, a distinguishing directed technological goals. And the program. Staff recruitment relied heavily feature of Livermore still in use today. rest is history.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 4 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 5 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1953 Ruth Pushing the Frontiers of Nuclear Design

Ruth, the Laboratory’s first nuclear test, explored a new design approach and provided information about certain thermonuclear reactions. The experiment, and the test that followed (named Ray), exemplified Livermore’s commitment to be a “new ideas” laboratory and, in the words of Edward Teller, to “plan and explore all kinds of new developments in the field of bomb physics.”

The device was mounted on a 300-foot steel tower, and Ruth was fired on March 31, 1953—just six months Banks of after Livermore opened. The test was a oscilloscopes are fizzle. More than half of the tower This research led to some of the used to capture remained standing afterward. Fired on Laboratory’s early weapons-development data at the Nevada April 11, 1953, Ray produced about the assignments, including the for the Test Site during same yield as Ruth. Legend has it that Little John and Terrier tactical missile Ray was mounted on a shorter 100-foot systems and the 155-millimeter in 1955. tower to ensure its complete destruction. howitzer atomic projectile. (Livermore’s first assignment was the W27 warhead, Shown in position inside a barge, one of the Laboratory’s largest In addition to their interest in which was deployed on the U.S. Navy’s designs, the Tewa device, yielded 5 megatons when it was thermonuclear weapons, Livermore shipborne Regulus supersonic cruise detonated near in 1956. scientists focused attention on novel missiles.) A strong continuing interest in small fission weapons designs. This improved designs for tactical systems work would come to fruition in the culminated in the Laboratory’s work on 1950s, in part because of Los Alamos’s the W79 enhanced-radiation attention to meeting the Air Force’s in the 1970s (see Year 1975). An Eyewitness Account of Ruth needs for large H-bombs. The Army was interested in atomic projectiles The role of Livermore as the “new ideas” Wally Decker, who later headed the Mechanical Engineering between 8 and 11 inches in diameter, laboratory also guided the decision Department and finished his long career on the Director’s Office staff, and the Air Force envisioned the need to focus thermonuclear work on the was a young engineer when he witnessed Ruth. According to Decker, for nuclear-tipped antiaircraft missiles. design of small H-bombs. As early as “We got everything ready. We stood with our dark glasses on, Livermore’s main thrust in this area was the Castle test series in 1954, Livermore waiting for the device to go off. When it was fired, all we could see was a a new design concept that combined investigated H-bomb designs smaller in small speck of light on the horizon—no mushroom cloud, no nothing. disparate elements from previous fission size and yield than those designed by weapons designs. Ideas matured for Los Alamos. The first thermonuclear test, “But we didn’t give up. We prepared for another event with a slightly fission weapons with a smaller diameter, Koon, also was a fizzle, yielding only different design. And when we fired the device, it was dismal, too. requiring less nuclear materials and/or 100 kilotons of an expected 1 megaton. an increased yield to weight. Continuing efforts and future successes “After those failures, our fortunes were at low ebb. We always said that led to Livermore’s development of we got a lot of good information from those failures—and we did—but much smaller diameter H-bomb missile you don’t always get to stay around to play your best game. Fortunately, The remains of the Ruth test tower after warheads later in the 1950s, which made we did, and things got better for the Lab.” the first device fielded by the Laboratory the Polaris submarine program possible was detonated in 1953. The test failed. (see Year 1956).

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 6 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 7 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1954 The IBM 701 Delivered in May 1960, the building-size LARC (Livermore Advanced Research Computer) was built by Remington Rand to specifications provided by Speed is the Game the Laboratory.

last vacuum-tube model before magnetic core and transistor memory. With the change in technology to transistors, computer speed and storage capacity have rapidly advanced in accordance with a phenomenon dubbed “Moore’s Law,” formulated in 1965 by Gordon Moore, founder of Intel Corporation. The law has accurately described the trend that every 18 months technology advances have doubled the number of transistors that could be put on a computer chip. Whether the law will continue to hold is uncertain; one possibility is the use of extreme ultraviolet lithography (see Year 1999).

Through the 1980s, Moore’s Law drove processor speed but not fast enough The Origin of FORTRAN to meet the supercomputing needs for science-based stockpile stewardship. The Univac-1 was a simple computer to program in machine language; DOE launched the Advanced Simulation however, the IBM 701 was more difficult to use—one reason was its and Computing Initiative (ASCI) in reliance on punch cards for input and output. Programmers in companies 1995. ASCI and its successor, the and laboratories that owned 701s talked among themselves informally, Advanced Simulation and Computing resulting in various “home-brewed” systems. IBM soon began to develop The IBM 701 computer was Delivery of the IBM 701 in 1954 the need for mammoth amounts of Program, pushed the development of a higher level language, FORTRAN (formula translation), and the delivered to the Laboratory dramatically improved the Laboratory’s computing power. Almost from the that use thousands Laboratory sent Robert Hughes to IBM for an extended visit to contribute in 1954—it was five to capability to perform scientific opening of the doors in 1952, a sizable and now millions of processors to the effort. The original FORTRAN manual lists four contributors; one of six times faster than its calculations. With 72 cathode-ray team of Livermore people was learning working in parallel in increasingly them was Robert Hughes. predecessor, the Univac-1. tubes, 2,048 words of memory, and to use the Univac-1 and troubleshoot its complex machine architectures. The accompanying gadgetry, the machine problems. At election time, the machine IBM Sierra machine, which is being was the first commercially successful earmarked for Livermore was loaned delivered to Livermore in 2017–2018, “scientific” because of its to a TV network to predict the results. will provide more than 120 petaflops speed. It was five to six times faster than Acquisition of the Univac-1, and soon (1015 floating-point operations per its predecessor, the Univac-1, which after the IBM 701, marked the beginning second) peak performance—300 trillion the Laboratory acquired during its first of the Laboratory’s not-so-coincidental times faster than the Univac-1 year of operation. The Univac-1 correctly links to commercial supercomputing— (see Year 2017). predicted the Eisenhower landslide their nearly identical birth dates, efforts victory in the 1952 presidential election to develop the fastest and most powerful Livermore’s petascale—and planned for with only 7 percent of the vote tallied, but machines, and use of machines to solve exascale (1018)—computing capabilities Livermore’s needs quickly outgrew the large, complex problems. keep the Laboratory at the forefront machine’s capabilities. of scientific computing in the early The IBM 701 and all of Livermore’s 21st century. They promise to help Even before the Laboratory was a reality, subsequent computers have been experts maintain the nation’s nuclear founders Ernest O. Lawrence, Edward developed in part at the Laboratory’s deterrent and open many new avenues Teller, and Herbert York understood encouragement. The IBM 701 was the of scientific discovery.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 8 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 9 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1955 Nuclear Propulsion

In 1955, the Laboratory and Los Alamos which had to be mass producible. used in weapon components. Flying and Terrestrial Nuclear Reactors began work on Rover, a project Testing the reactors required novel Experiments using the reactor intended to supply nuclear propulsion remote-handling technologies, as well helped to assure that U.S. nuclear for space travel. The nuclear rocket as systems capable of ramming about warheads would function in wartime program continued for many years a ton of heated air through the reactor environments. In addition, from 1957 at Los Alamos with many technical each second. to 1980, the Livermore Pool-Type successes, while Livermore’s Reactor (a megawatt-class reactor) attention shifted in 1957 to a new For 45 seconds on May 14, 1961, was operated onsite for flying reactor effort, Project Pluto, Livermore tested the Tory II-A at the radiography, fundamental research for the Atomic Energy Commission . After additional on radiation damage to materials, and and the U.S. Air Force. An awesome successful experiments in 1961, Tory II-C the detection of trace quantities of undertaking, Project Pluto entailed was designed and built. Generating materials through . the design and testing of a nuclear 500 megawatts of power (about half the ramjet engine for low-flying, supersonic power capacity of Hoover Dam), it was Later efforts applied Livermore’s cruise missiles that could stay aloft for successfully tested in the spring of 1964. fission-energy science and many hours. All six tests of the two Tory reactors were engineering capabilities to protect conducted without failure. However, that public health and safety and develop For Project Pluto, Livermore designed summer, the project was halted for lack advanced technologies to close the and built two Tory II-A test reactors to of a firm military commitment. nuclear fuel cycle. Examples include demonstrate feasibility, and Tory II-C work on the Yucca Mountain Project was designed as a flight-engine Laboratory expertise in reactors and (see Year 1980), safety studies in prototype. Laboratory experts in the nuclear fuel cycle continued to the 1990s for the Nuclear Regulatory chemistry and materials science find many applications. The year Commission, development of were challenged to devise ceramic Project Pluto ended, Super Kukla methods to immobilize plutonium, fuel elements that had the required began operation in a shielded bunker and recovery of highly enriched neutronics properties for the reactor yet at the Nevada Test Site. Super Kukla uranium to enhance security. Today, were structurally strong and resistant was a prompt-burst neutron-pulse Laboratory expertise in fission energy to moisture and oxidation at high reactor designed to serve as a neutron focuses on understanding, detecting temperatures. The reactors needed source for irradiating a variety of test and monitoring, and closing paths to hundreds of thousands of the elements, specimens, including nuclear proliferation.

Construction was required to expand the “tank farm” that supplied high-pressure air to the ramjet reactor, which was tested inside a special facility (in the lower left corner). In one experiment, Tory II-C (far right photo) required hundreds of tons of heated air to operate for nearly 5 minutes.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 10 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 11 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1956 Polaris

In the summer of 1956, a U.S. Navy- solid-fuel missile system by 1965. By A Strategic Breakthrough sponsored study on antisubmarine the end of the year, following successful warfare was held at Nobska Point in tests of Livermore’s warhead design Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Edward at the Nevada Test Site, the Secretary Teller attended the Project Nobska study. of Defense authorized a step-up to His bold input would profoundly affect deploy the system by 1960, which the course of the Navy’s Fleet Ballistic was accomplished. Missile Program and the future of the Laboratory. At the time, the approved The summer of 1958 brought genuine program plans called for the deployment breakthroughs based on ingenious in 1965 of submarines that would carry proposals by Carl Haussmann, horizontally four 80-ton Jupiter S ballistic Kenneth Bandtel, Jack Rosengren, missiles, which were large enough to Peter Moulthrop, and David Hall in carry existing thermonuclear warheads. A Division and by B Division’s John (Laboratory Director, 1961–1965), The Polaris flag was presented by the Navy to Livermore scientists and engineers for the During Project Nobska, Frank E. Bothwell Chuck Godfrey, and Wally Birnbaum. Laboratory’s outstanding work in the development of the Polaris warhead. from the Naval Ordnance Test Station The significance of the innovations was raised the possibility of designing confirmed during tests in the Pacific ballistic missiles 5 to 10 times lighter only a few months before the 1958–1961 The USS Ethan Allen, the sixth-launched has a unique place in American nuclear than the Jupiter S missiles, with a nuclear testing moratorium began. Work Polaris submarine, conducted a weapons history. range of 1,000 to 1,500 miles; however, continued at the Livermore and Sandia complete operational test of the Polaris they would be able to carry only a laboratories, and through the efforts A-1 missile system, culminating with the The Laboratory’s innovative design relatively low-yield . of weapons designers and engineers, successful detonation of the Livermore- and development of the as part Teller discussed the feasibility of a computer specialists, and other experts, designed megaton-class warhead (see of a crash program established 1-megaton warhead compact enough the W47 Polaris warhead was created. Year 1962). Livermore’s reputation as a major to fit onto a torpedo—a radical concept. nuclear weapons design facility. The When asked whether his ideas could The program’s remarkable Conceived as a highly survivable work spurred additional innovations and be applied to the Navy’s ballistic achievements were demonstrated in system able to counterattack in the provided a model for future strategic missile program, Teller replied with a spectacular fashion on May 6, 1962. event of a Soviet first strike, Polaris weapon development. question, “Why use a 1958 warhead in a 1965 weapon system?” He opened the door to development of Polaris: a highly efficient deterrent system in which 16 compact missiles would be placed Teller Recalling Project Nobska vertically aboard a submarine for launch “The Navy asked if we could make a nuclear explosive of such and such on demand. dimensions and such and such a yield. What they wanted was a small, light, nuclear warhead in the 1-megaton range. Everyone at the meeting, So began a crash, three-year effort. including representatives from Los Alamos, said it could not In early 1957, the Navy issued a be done—at least in the near future. But I stood up and requirement for an underwater-launched said, ‘We at Livermore can deliver it in five years and it will yield 1 megaton.’ On the one hand, the Navy went away happy, and the program got approved. On the other hand, when I came back to Livermore and told them of The Laboratory’s design for the work that was in store for them, people’s hair stood the W47 Polaris warhead made on end. They said, ‘What have you done? We can’t get a it practical for U.S. nuclear megaton out of such a small device, not in five years!’” deterrent forces to be deployed in highly survivable submarines.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 12 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 13 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1957 Rainier The First Underground Nuclear Test Radiochemical analysis of the isotopes On September 19, 1957, the Laboratory the coupling of the explosion energy created by a was an detonated the first contained underground to the surrounding geology and in the important diagnostic tool for determining nuclear explosion. Rainier was fired resulting seismic effects. They also the yield and studying the performance beneath a high mesa at the northwest noted the environmental advantages of tested devices. Major advances in corner of the Nevada Test Site, which later of such a test at a time when there was radiochemistry were made by Peter became known as . growing concern about atmospheric Stevenson (second from the right), who nuclear testing. Rainier would prove to was killed in a plane crash returning from Carrying out such an explosion had be a pivotal event by giving a boost to the Nevada Test Site in 1979. Radiation detection been proposed early in 1956 by the nascent Plowshare Program and equipment in the Edward Teller and Dave Griggs, a affecting the future of nuclear arms foreground monitors the geophysicist who greatly contributed control and the conduct of nuclear tests. event. In the summer of 1956, Harold reservoirs. Subsequently, the Rainier the bottom of the explosion cavity about environment for a worker in to Teller’s effort to establish a second (Laboratory Director 1960–1961) test and its data gave a tremendous 15 months later, when radioactivity had a tunnel at the Nevada Test nuclear laboratory while serving as The idea of using nuclear explosions for proposed a symposium on the subject boost in confidence that a variety of decayed to manageable levels. From Site that was dug for the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force in nonmilitary purposes—beating swords to the Atomic Energy Commission applications were possible and could be these post-shot investigations, scientists Rainier event in 1957. the early 1950s. Their interest was in into plowshares—preceded the Rainier (AEC), and it was eventually held at implemented safely. developed the understanding of Livermore in February 1957. Some underground explosion phenomenology 24 papers were presented covering The Rainier event was announced that persists essentially unaltered today. a broad array of ideas. Although the in advance so that seismic stations That information provided a basis discussions were hampered by the lack throughout the U.S. and Canada for subsequent decisions in 1963 to of data on the effects of underground could attempt to record a signal. In agree to the Limited Test Ban Treaty, explosions, interest was high. In June, addition, samples were collected for which banned atmospheric nuclear the AEC established the Plowshare radiochemistry analysis by drilling a weapons tests and led to systems being Program to explore peaceful nuclear series of holes through the mesa above established for monitoring nuclear uses, such as the building of canals and and in the original tunnel. More data test activities worldwide, including an dams, and the stimulation of natural gas were collected by mining a tunnel into international array of seismic detectors.

The Legacies of Plowshare

The first Plowshare test, Gnome, created a nearly 70-foot-high, 165-foot-diameter underground cavity in a dry salt bed near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Many potential applications were explored until the program ended in 1977, and they drove nuclear design to the two extremes—minimum fission or minimum fusion depending on the application. The most dramatic relic of Plowshare is a 350-foot-deep, 1,200-foot-diameter crater (left) at the Nevada Test Site created by the event in 1962. Important legacies of the effort include Livermore’s biomedical research program to study the effects of fallout and other radioactive hazards on biological systems (see Year 1963) and the Laboratory’s Atmospheric Release and Advisory Capability (ARAC) program, which grew out of the need to predict the potential for atmospheric release from cratering shots (see Year 1979).

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 14 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 15 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1958 Test Moratorium In July and August 1958, Ernest O. Lawrence and Harold Brown (Laboratory Director, 1960–1961) Providing Technical Support attended the Conference of Experts held in Geneva, Switzerland, to examine how a comprehensive ban on for Arms Control Negotiations nuclear testing could be verified. Their participation signaled the beginning of the Laboratory’s long history of Soviet Premier Nikita providing technical support for arms Khrushchev delivers control negotiations and implementation. a speech during the Lawrence served as one of the three reception in the Kremlin’s U.S. representatives at the conference, Georgian Hall following and Brown was a member of the the formal signing of delegation’s technical advisory group. At the Limited Test Ban the conference, Lawrence performed his Michael May comments at one in a series of workshops held in 2001 on the future of Treaty on August 5, 1963. final service to the nation before suffering deterrence. The meetings were sponsored by Livermore’s Center for Global Security Hoping he would not be an acute attack of colitis that led to Research, which focuses on the nexus between technology and national security policy. caught taking this picture, his death. Many Livermore scientists University of California would follow in Lawrence’s and Brown’s Nuclear explosion monitoring remains overall mission. For example, experts Professor Glenn T. footsteps by contributing their expertise an important research activity at the at the Laboratory provided technical Seaborg, who was then to the negotiations of nuclear arms Laboratory. Current efforts focus on assistance to the U.S. government in the Chairman of the Atomic reduction and nuclear test ban treaties. enhancing monitoring capabilities with negotiations of the Joint Comprehensive Energy Commission, particular emphasis on detection of Plan of Actions with Iran. Livermore also captured the image. At the conclusion of the Conference of low-yield nuclear explosions (see Year provides technical input to decision Experts, President Dwight D. Eisenhower 2008). More broadly, technical support makers supporting deliberations about announced U.S. willingness to suspend of arms control negotiations continues the nation’s nuclear weapons posture and begin to be an integral part of Livermore’s and force structure. negotiations on a comprehensive test ban. Concurrent with these negotiations, a feasible verification regime was to be developed. Research on monitoring The Evolution of Nuclear Force Postures nuclear explosions ensued at the Laboratory as part of the program. Michael May’s distinguished career included many contributions to The seismic detection of underground the evolution of U.S. strategic forces. May, Laboratory Director from explosions (the effort) 1965 to 1971, served as Technical Adviser to the Threshold Test proved to be more of a challenge than Ban Treaty negotiations (1974) and as U.S. Delegate to the Strategic anticipated by the report of the experts. Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with the Soviet Union (1974–1976). Although never ratified, the SALT II Treaty effectively capped the A worldwide network of seismic stations growth of strategic nuclear arsenals during the Cold War. In 1981, was built as a part of Vela Uniform, and May participated in a panel chaired by University of California for more than 50 years, this network at Berkeley Professor Charles Townes that recommended to has been the primary source of data President how to base MX (Peacekeeper) missiles, for the seismic community. In 1961, the and in 1988, he was lead author of “Strategic Arms Reductions” in moratorium was broken when the Soviet International Security, a seminal paper that provided an intellectual Union resumed atmospheric testing. basis for the subsequent Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Serving With the confidence gained through as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Vela in detecting and monitoring nuclear International Security and Arms Control, May also directed a study explosions, President John F. Kennedy that resulted in the 1991 report The Future of the U.S.–Soviet Nuclear signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty in Relationship, which paved the way for later decisions about post-Cold August 1963, which banned nuclear War nuclear policy and strategic force reductions. weapons testing in the atmosphere, under water, and in space.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 16 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 17 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1959 E. O. Lawrence Awards Created Exceptional Contributions to John S. Foster, Jr. Herbert F. York John H. Nuckolls Michael M. May E. Wainwright Seymour Sack U.S. Department of Energy Missions 1960 1962 1969 1970 1973 1973

Established in November 1959, the and its programs. Researchers at Ernest Orlando Lawrence Memorial Livermore have won 29 of the more than Award was at first presented to scientists 200 awards presented to date. Today, and engineers for their exceptional the award consists of a medal and a contributions to the development, use, $25,000 prize. or control of nuclear energy. The criteria have since been expanded to include Lawrence was the father of “big science” Charles A. McDonald William Lokke John L. Emmett B. Grant Logan Lowell L. Wood George F. Chapline exceptional scientific, technical, and/ and founder of the nuclear science 1974 1975 1977 1980 1981 1982 or engineering achievements related to laboratories (or “Rad Labs”) at Berkeley the broad missions of the and Livermore that were named for U.S. Department him. His invention of the cyclotron in the of Energy 1930s started nuclear science on a path that has led to inventions ranging from advanced accelerators for elementary particle physics and the atom bomb to cancer therapies.

After Lawrence’s death in August 1958, John A. McCone, Chairman of the George B. Zimmerman Robert B. Laughlin Peter L. Hagelstein Thomas A. Weaver Joe W. Wayne J. Shotts Atomic Energy Commission, wrote 1983 1984 1984 1985 1986 1990 to President Dwight D. Eisenhower suggesting the establishment of a Memorial Award in Lawrence’s name. President Eisenhower agreed, saying, “Such an award would seem to me to be most fitting, both as a recognition of what he has given to our country and to mankind and as a means of helping to carry forward his work through inspiring others to dedicate their lives and talents to Richard Fortner John D. Lindl E. Michael Charles R. Alcock Benjamin D. Santer T. Goodwin scientific effort.” 1991 1994 1994 1996 2002 2002

Clair E. Max Omar Hurricane Thomas P. Guilderson Siegfried H. Glenzer Stephen C. Myers 2004 2009 2011 2013 2013

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 18 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 19 NATIONAL LABORATORY Since its establishment, the Laboratory has followed Ernest O. Lawrence’s approach of how large-scale science should be pursued: through multidisciplinary teams dedicated to solving challenging problems and responding to national needs. A rapid response was called for when the Soviet Union broke the international nuclear testing moratorium in August 1961. The following year, the United States mounted its most ambitious— and last—series of nuclear tests in the Central Pacific, Operation Dominic. The Laboratory proof-tested nuclear designs fielded during the moratorium and laid the groundwork for future Livermore designs of compact, high-yield ballistic missile warheads. The Sixties Multidisciplinary team science Multidisciplinary expertise gained by the Laboratory, along with the need to understand the consequences of atmospheric nuclear testing, spawned bioscience and environmental programs at Livermore. Subsequent biotechnology developments contributed to the Department of Energy’s bold decision to launch its Human Genome Initiative. Environmental programs have led to novel groundwater remediation technologies and atmospheric modeling capabilities that range from local to global scales. A multidisciplinary approach is also New Leadership the hallmark of Livermore’s international assessments program, which has supported the U.S. Intelligence

Harold Brown John S. Foster, Jr. Michael M. May Community since 1965. (1960 • 1961) (1961 • 1965) (1965 • 1971)

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 20 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 21 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1960 Linacs for Hydrotesting

Improved Nonnuclear Testing Accelerator Technology Development Capabilities Site 300, the Laboratory’s remote a remote disassembly complex, and The Laboratory has a long history of experimental test site, was a busy place three other buildings were completed advancing the technology of linear in 1960. In the midst of a nuclear testing that year. In addition, a new linear accelerators for scientific and national moratorium, Livermore was enhancing accelerator (linac) was delivered to security applications. After , the its nonnuclear testing capabilities. Two Site 300. That machine, which was Electron Test Accelerator (ETA) was built to test complexes, a chemistry facility, installed in Bunker 351 (now 851), study electron beam propagation in air as a a high-explosives preparation facility, has undergone numerous upgrades possible directed-energy weapon. Completed in 1983, the 10-times more energetic Advanced Test Accelerator at Site 300 (right) furthered the study of beam propagation, and the beam was used as a pump for a free electron laser (FEL). In the 1990s, Livermore collaborated with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (now SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to design and build the B-Factory at SLAC. More recently, Livermore scientists and collaborators have demonstrated capabilities to accelerate to extremely high energies over very short distances using a tabletop-sized ultrashort-pulse laser.

and is still used for hydrodynamics Meanwhile, in another part of the Induction linacs are now the heart experiments. The accelerator generates Laboratory, Nicholas Christofilos, one of of the nation’s two most modern the powerful x-ray flashes needed for his generation’s most original thinkers in hydrodynamic testing facilities—the taking images of mock nuclear-weapon physics, was pursuing a magnetic fusion Contained Firing Facility at Site 300 primaries as they implode. concept, ASTRON. in Boston, (with the Flash X-Ray (FXR) machine) Massachusetts, Christofilos grew up in and the Dual Axis Radiographic The linac for Bunker 351 superseded , where he received a degree in Hydrodynamic Test Facility (DARHT) The XR2 machine the capabilities of Bunker 312’s XR2 engineering, privately studied physics, at Los Alamos. Built in 1982 and (above and left) was machine, which had been moved from and first invented and patented the subsequently upgraded, FXR was located in Sugar Sugar Bunker at the Nevada Test Site concept of alternate gradient (strong) used in the 1990s to perform the Bunker (far left) at the to Site 300 in the late 1950s. Charles focusing for particle accelerators. first experiments in which scientists Nevada Test Site (NTS) McDonald, who later rose to senior ASTRON required the invention of a new recorded a detailed digital image until it was moved to management positions at the Laboratory, kind of electron accelerator, the induction of a highly compressed gas cavity Site 300 near Livermore. was one of the graduate students linear accelerator (or induction linac), to inside a weapon (see Year 1985). There, it provided who helped build the XR2 in 1951 at produce an intense circulating electron Other successor induction linacs the Laboratory’s first the Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley. beam to magnetically confine and heat a include three accelerators built (and primitive radiographic Starting at the Laboratory in fusion to, it was hoped, thermonuclear since retired) at Livermore for beam capability. A new science research, McDonald became a ignition temperatures. The world’s first research: the Electron Test Accelerator linear accelerator was weapon primary designer and then used induction linac was built for the ASTRON (ETA), ETA-II, and the Advanced Test delivered to NTS in 1960. the machine at Sugar Bunker. project in 1963. Accelerator at Site 300.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 22 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 23 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1961 Project Sherwood led by Post (Table Top, Felix, ALICE, and the meeting did pave the way for future Baseball I and II) and the other led by cooperation with Russian scientists Fred Coensgen (Toy Top, Toy Top II, 2X, while the Cold War raged. Artsimovich’s 2XII, and 2XIIB). colleagues shared how they suppressed Magnetic Fusion and International plasma instabilities by reshaping the Fred Coensgen (shown) led At the 1958 Geneva conference, the mirror field. Within months, Livermore the development of the Toy Top fusion Laboratory’s significant achievements researchers duplicated this result and research devices, which created a hot, In 1961, the International Atomic Energy Livermore’s Controlled Thermonuclear in magnetic fusion were reported: the went on to pioneer new and improved mirror-confined plasma by plasma Cooperation mirror field configurations (see Year injection and magnetic compression. Agency held its first conference on Reactions (CTR) Program, which was creation of a hot, mirror-confined controlled in Salzburg, part of the Atomic Energy Commission’s plasma in Toy Top; the confinement of 1977). However, overcoming other high- Toy Top experiments produced fusion Austria. It was the second international Project Sherwood, began when the a hot-electron plasma between mirrors frequency plasma instabilities would , a significant early achievement gathering of fusion researchers, following Laboratory opened in 1952. Herbert for a millisecond using Table Top; prove to be a major obstacle. in the controlled fusion program. the 1958 Atoms for Peace Conference York’s original written prospectus successful measurement of plasma in Geneva, Switzerland. The Geneva for the Livermore site included the density; and the development of conference had attracted 5,000 establishment of a small CTR group of ultrahigh vacuum techniques for use scientists, government officials, and about seven physicists and engineers. in Felix. Laboratory researchers also observers, who witnessed the unveiling Richard Post, who wrote many of the formulated the idea of hydromagnetic of fusion research by American, British, CTR group’s first monthly reports, was instability of plasma confined in a simple and Russian scientists. The weekend recruited by York to help launch the mirror machine, developed the theory before the conference, the United program. Early exploration of various of adiabatic (i.e., slow) confinement of States and Great Britain announced concepts led the team to focus its charged particles in mirror systems, the end of secrecy in their controlled efforts on the concept, and recognized the need to overcome The Table Top machine fusion research efforts. The Russians in which a hot fusion plasma (charged impurity radiation losses from plasmas was used by researchers then announced that they had built the particles) would be confined in a to achieve fusion temperatures. to confine a hot electron world’s largest fusion research device, cylindrical region by a uniform magnetic plasma between magnetic a doughnut-shaped machine called a field with intensified fields at the ends. After Geneva, fusion energy research mirrors for about a , and declassified their research Researchers explored two experimental hit roadblocks—plasma instabilities in millisecond. as well. lines using two series of machines: one Livermore’s mirror machines allowed the hot plasma to escape. At the 1961 Salzburg conference, the Soviet Union’s chief fusion experimentalist, L. A. Artsimovich, was sternly critical of Livermore’s fusion research; however,

Richard Post—A Lifetime of Service

The December 1952 Laboratory phone book listed 250 employees, including a newly transferred physicist named Richard (Dick) Post, who still came to work four days each week 63 years later. During his remarkable career, which earned him a host of awards and honors, Post was a leader in magnetic fusion research and an innovator of solutions to energy-related needs, such as better flywheels for energy storage and fail-safe magnetic levitation for transportation. He received 34 patents—with 9 issued after he turned 90—and some 85 records of invention.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 24 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 25 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1962 Operation Dominic The Largest U.S. Nuclear Testing

On August 30, 1961, Premier Nikita nuclear testing, and he approved civilian personnel participated in the For Livermore’s Operation Muskegon test in Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Operation Dominic—the largest test series, and more than 200,000 tons Union would break the three-year U.S. nuclear testing operation of supplies, construction materials, and Operation Dominic, moratorium and resume nuclear testing. ever conducted. diagnostics equipment were shipped the nuclear device Two days later, the Soviets started an or airlifted to the test areas. About 500 was air-dropped unprecedented series of atmospheric Thirty-six atmospheric tests were of the Laboratory’s 4,700 employees from a B-52 bomber tests, including the detonation of a conducted at the Pacific Proving participated in Operation Dominic. The near Christmas 50-megaton device. Subsequently, Grounds under Operation Dominic Laboratory’s Task Unit 8.1.2 was directed Island. The yield President John F. Kennedy decided that between April and November 1962. by Robert Goeckermann of Chemistry of the weapons- the nation must resume atmospheric Approximately 28,000 military and and Chuck Gilbert of Test Division. related experiment was in the range of Operation Dominic experiments 50 kilotons. proof-tested weapons introduced into the stockpile during the moratorium. The most dramatic experiment was Frigate Bird, in which the USS Ethan Allen launched a Polaris missile, and the Livermore-designed warhead successfully detonated over the open ocean. Most of the other tests were airbursts with the devices dropped by During Operation B-52 bombers. The data collected from Dominic, diagnostic these tests laid the groundwork for future measurements were Livermore designs of the Minuteman gathered aboard and Poseidon warheads, which were ships, and aircraft compact enough that numerous were used to collect warheads could be carried by a single debris samples. missile (see Year 1970).

Experiments were also carried out in The mushroom 1962 to gather weapons effects data for cloud from the the Department of Defense (DOD). For Frigate Bird Operation Fishbowl (part of Operation operational test Dominic), five Los Alamos–designed of the Polaris devices were lofted by Sandia-designed missile and rockets and detonated at high altitude. to study cratering effects. The collected warhead was , for example, was a data also helped to validate later fallout observed through 1.4-megaton explosion at 400-kilometers models developed at the Laboratory. the periscope altitude. Information was collected about of the USS the electromagnetic pulse phenomenon Operation Dominic was the last series Carbonero, which as well as other data related to ballistic of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests was stationed missile defense systems (see Year conducted by the United States. Signed some 30 miles 1966). Later in the year, additional tests in Moscow on August 5, 1963, the from ground zero. for DOD were performed at the Nevada Limited Test Ban Treaty banned weapons Test Site. In Johnnie Boy and Danny Boy, tests in the atmosphere, under water, Livermore-designed devices were used and in (see Year 1958).

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 26 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 27 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1963 Biomedical Research To Understand the Effects of Radiation

The first biomedical and environmental biological measurements that indicated 1987). That initiative evolved into the bioterrorism as a threat to international staging ground for Livermore methods to research program began at Livermore in the dose to subjects who had been international Human Genome Project, security. Laboratory scientists took continuously monitor crowd venues for 1963. The Atomic Energy Commission exposed to radiation. That work led which took on the task of sequencing the initiative to develop advanced the presence of such agents. Given the recognized a growing need for a to an examination of the effects of all 3 billion base pairs of human microtechnologies needed to improve growing concerns about bioterrorism, bioenvironmental presence at the radiation and other toxins on the DNA. Livermore was a major player detection systems for biological and the Olympics were the first of many Nevada and Pacific test sites, and the building blocks of the human genetic among the dozen or so laboratories chemical agents (see Year 2001). applications of our bioscience research decision was made for this work to take apparatus. Increasingly, the focus was in the world participating in the The Winter Olympics of 2002 was the to homeland and international security. place at Livermore. John Gofman, a on DNA—how it is damaged, what largest biological research project distinguished professor at the University damages it, how it repairs itself, and ever undertaken. of California at Berkeley, was recruited to how these processes may vary with set up the program, which would study the genetic makeup of the individual. Biomedical scientists worked with the effects of radiation on humans. Technology development at Livermore engineers, physicists, laser experts, and Los Alamos provided the basis for chemists, and materials scientists to In the early 1970s, the biomedical DOE’s decision to launch its Human develop Livermore’s preeminence focus of the program shifted toward Genome Initiative in 1987 (see Year in flow cytometry, a technique for measuring and separating cells. Other Livermore innovations included analyzing and purifying biological samples, imaging chromosomes and DNA, early sequencing procedures, and associated database processes. The Laboratory’s strength in computation also led to unique capabilities in computer simulation of biological processes, such as predicting the three-dimensional Early groundbreaking work in flow cytometry, a technique for separating specific cells structure of proteins directly from DNA from other cells, led to numerous medical research applications in genomics research sequence data. and national security applications, such as biosensors that detect specific agents used in biological weapons. This same cooperative approach led Livermore’s Center for Dr. John Gofman (second Accelerator Mass Spectrometry from left) discusses with (CAMS) to concentrate on biological Contributing to the Cancer Moonshot colleagues an abnormal measurements (see Year 1990). chromosome pattern The extraordinary sensitivity of Livermore’s high-performance computing will play a major role in the in malignant cells. AMS means that it can detect the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Moonshot, launched in 2017 as a Gofman came to the interaction of mutagens with DNA in $1.8-billion, seven-year undertaking to accelerate cancer research. LLNL Laboratory in 1963 to set the first step in carcinogenesis. Now, is strongly contributing to the DOE’s three pilot projects. Much of this up a new biomedical and LLNL is a major participant in DOE’s effort builds on partnerships that the Laboratory . The research environmental research support for the National Cancer draws on Livermore’s exceptional capabilities in large-scale simulation program. Institute’s Cancer Moonshot. of biological systems and deep analysis of complex and diverse data.

In the 1990s, research efforts began to focus on emerging concerns about

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 28 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 29 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1964 Department of Applied Science Bringing Academia to the Laboratory

In the early 1960s, Edward Teller Berkeley and Davis before finally With a trailer for administrative offices Currently, LLNL researchers are Ties remain very strong with UC. championed the need for a graduate negotiating an agreement to create and two rooms in an old barracks engaged in more than 500 collaborations In addition to the many LLNL program in applied science. He wanted the UC Davis Department of Applied building for classrooms, the UC Davis with faculty world-wide. More than researcher–UC professor relationships, to see a university-level educational Science. That department, which Department of Applied Science was 250 postdoctoral fellows work at the UC administers a collaborative facility established at Livermore. Teller was part of UC Davis’s newly formed officially dedicated on January 16, Laboratory—many of whom stay on to research projects program funded by held numerous meetings with University College of Engineering, has often been 1964. In 1977, a permanent building become full-time employees. More than contract management fees received of California (UC) administrators at referred to as “Teller Tech.” for the department was dedicated just 1,000 graduate and undergraduate as a Lawrence Livermore National outside the Laboratory’s gates, with no students per year participate in LLNL’s Security, LLC, partner. Other strategic less than former Vice President Nelson Visiting Scholar and Summer Employment partnerships include those with Texas Rockefeller on hand for the ceremonies. programs. In addition, Laboratory A&M University, Georgetown University, employees engage in a wide range of the Historically Colleges and Teller served as the department’s science, technology, engineering, and Universities/Minority Serving Institutions, first administrator, and his staff mathematics (STEM) outreach activities the California State University system, included one full-time employee as directed at K–12 students. and local community colleges. well as a half-time vice chairman. The Department of Applied Science opened with 81 students—12 full-time students and 69 Laboratory employees working to finish their advanced In June 2017, the tenth degrees. Altogether, the department annual Institutional awarded more than 400 Ph.D.s with Postdoctoral Poster about 50 percent of its graduates Symposium showcased taking their first job at the Laboratory. a total of 183 posters In 2011, facing a $100 million budget presented by Laboratory shortfall, UC Davis closed the postdoctoral researchers Department of Applied Science. Yet, and Livermore graduate over the same span of years, many scholars. ties with UC campuses grew stronger and outreach extended to more university partners.

For example, in 1982, a branch of the UC multicampus Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) opened. Other academic outreach centers and Former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller institutes followed, such as the Center (shown between Edward Teller and a for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (see student) visited the Laboratory in 1977 Year 1990), the Institute for Scientific to dedicate the new building (right) for Computing Research, the Center for the University of California at Davis Bioengineering, the Glenn T. Seaborg Department of Applied Science. Plans Institute, the Jupiter Laser Facility, are being developed for the facility’s and the Center for High Energy use for academic outreach as part of the Density Science. Livermore Valley Open Campus.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 30 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 31 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1965 Z Division Assessing the Weapons Capabilities

Since the early days of Livermore, Soviet effort to rapidly develop nuclear Z Program. Under Laboratory Director relocated after 9/11 into a new facility to threats to U.S. national security posed of Others by new technologies. Its anticipatory intelligence agencies have sought weapons became a paramount concern John Foster, a formal relationship with accommodate growth (see Year 2002). Laboratory expertise in nuclear weapons of U.S. intelligence agencies. the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) intelligence mission involves working to design to analyze atmospheric nuclear was established in a memorandum The Laboratory’s Intelligence Program understand and identify emerging threats tests conducted by the Soviets and to In 1965, Laboratory scientists and of understanding signed between applies the complete set of LLNL’s and delivering solutions in time to counter develop an understanding of the Soviet engineers helping intelligence the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) science and technology capabilities to those threats. LLNL’s top anticipatory nuclear program and weapon designs. agencies understand the significance and the Atomic Energy Commission, support the IC in overcoming its most initiatives focus on data analytics, The Soviet Union’s first test of an atomic of Soviet nuclear weapons tests were a predecessor to the Department difficult challenges. Z Program’s strategic additive manufacturing, biosecurity, weapon in the late 1940s took the consolidated into Z Division, today of Energy. LLNL celebrated the intelligence mission involves developing and data collection systems. Z Program West by surprise, and monitoring the known as the Intelligence Program or 50th anniversary of this successful deep contextual understanding to also supports current operations by relationship in 2015. support national decision making providing timely, actionable solutions to with a particular focus on analyzing achieve national security goals. Three To help develop an Scientists and engineers in Z Division foreign nuclear weapons programs, primary topical missions include cyber understanding of the Soviet analyzed radiological samples from identifying and evaluating WMD intelligence, counterterrorism, and nuclear weapons program Soviet, and later Chinese, nuclear tests. proliferation, and identifying foreign counterproliferation. and nuclear forces, analysts They also developed new technologies studied photographs for monitoring tests and collecting data taken by satellites, such that allowed analysts to determine what as this 1966 image of a type of weapon was being tested— Developing Cyber Security Tools Soviet military airfield with atomic or thermonuclear. Anticipating bombers visible. that nuclear proliferation could become Cyber security specialists at the Laboratory are developing tools a major problem, Z Division started a to enhance the security of complex networks. Network Mapping proliferation monitoring program in the Systems (NeMS) is a computer network mapping tool that is fast and mid-1970s. That effort has continued unobtrusive to the network being mapped. It can routinely identify to grow together with the IC’s need network connections that were unexpected by the network operator. for all-source analyses of the nuclear NeMS scans and probes a computer network to characterize its programs in an expanding list of operating environment in detail, building a visual representation of countries of concern. Involving both its current structure and activity profile. The nation depends on many regional specialists and technical critical complex networks. Operators need to understand an entire experts, these multidisciplinary network as it evolves to prevent intrusions and accomplish critical analyses draw on general technical tasks when system failures do occur. knowledge about nuclear testing, specifics about each country’s nuclear capabilities, and evaluations of nontechnical issues that motivate nuclear programs.

Z Division was a primary building block of Livermore’s Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and International Security Directorate (NAI), established by Director John Nuckolls to respond to an emerging threat—weapons-of-mass- destruction (WMD) proliferation and terrorism. NAI has since transformed into the Global Security Principal Directorate, with Z-Division activities

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 32 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 33 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1966 Nuclear Effects Dealing with Transient Electromagnetic Pulses

A consequence of the Starfish Prime been a research topic at the Laboratory In 1966, the Institute of Electrical and high-altitude nuclear test in 1962 was ever since the Starfish Prime test Electronic Engineers published a paper A scale model of a the failure of 30 strings of streetlights in (see Year 1962). Researchers have by a Livermore researcher, K. S. Yee, that Grumman A-6 aircraft is Oahu, Hawaii, 1,300 kilometers away. provided support to the Defense greatly advanced the art of modeling tested in the EMPEROR Although only about 1 percent of Oahu’s Nuclear Agency—now the Defense electromagnetic phenomena. “Numerical facility, an anechoic streetlights were affected, their failure Threat Reduction Agency—which is Solution of Initial Boundary Value chamber still in use at raised concerns that the electromagnetic the Department of Defense agency Problems Involving Maxwell’s Equations the Laboratory. The pulse (EMP) generated by a nuclear responsible for assessing the hardness in Isotropic Media” introduced the Finite cone-shaped copper weapon burst could cause widespread of military equipment to EMP. In addition, Difference Time Domain algorithm—a structure in the chamber damage to the nation’s civilian and for the weapons program, the effects stable, efficient computational means produced extremely high- military infrastructures. The phenomenon of fast electromagnetic pulses had for solving Maxwell’s equations that has bandwidth electromagnetic needed to be understood. to be understood to develop nuclear been widely used ever since. fields for EMP and test diagnostics and to ensure the high-power microwave Modeling and experimentation to study hardness of U.S. nuclear warheads to Follow-on leading-edge electromagnetic The LLNL-developed EMSolve code finds wide-ranging applications: to study vulnerability studies. transient electromagnetic pulses has electromagnetic effects. simulation models were developed at the electromagnetic noise in integrated circuits (left) and to ensure that electromagnetic pulses Laboratory. An example is Livermore’s resulting from extremely short but high-energy laser bursts in the National Ignition Facility’s Numerical Electromagnetic Code (NEC), target chamber (right) do not lead to data loss or damage to diagnostic equipment. an imported model that was greatly improved by Laboratory researchers in the 1970s. NEC is still the world’s most widely used code for analyzing the Hardening U.S. Nuclear Warheads performance of wire-frame antennas; over 3,000 copies have been distributed. A transient electromagnetic pulse is only one of a variety of nuclear Expertise in applied electromagnetics effects that a U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile or submarine- continues to be critical to the launched ballistic missile warhead might encounter—and have to Laboratory’s national security missions. survive—on the way to its target. Hardening warheads to nuclear Today’s premier simulation capability, effects has been an important issue since the Soviets began deploying EMSolve, models in detail the electric antiballistic missile (ABM) defenses in the 1960s. Missile warheads have and magnetic fields of complex systems been designed with special hardening features to improve survivability ranging in size from integrated circuits to when penetrating an ABM system (see Year 1970). These features were entire buildings and over timescales from developed with the aid of experimental facilities, such as the Super billionths to tens of seconds. Kukla burst reactor, and an extensive series of “exposure” nuclear tests conducted in conjunction with the Defense Nuclear Agency. LLNL computer scientists and engineers developed EMSolve to run on parallel computer architectures. With advances in supercomputing, they wall-penetrating and ground-penetrating operates facilities for development of have increased simulation accuracy radars, analyze the effectiveness of pulsed-power systems and components and speed, added capabilities, and radar systems to detect space debris, (including explosive systems), an coupled EMSolve for use with thermal, and characterize the electromagnetic anechoic chamber and laboratory structural, and hydrodynamic codes. signatures from conventional explosions. space for high-power radio-frequency The code has been used to address experiments, and particle accelerators pulsed-power issues that arise related Expertise in applied electromagnetics for radiography and accelerator to nuclear weapons, design and test includes experimentation. LLNL component development.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 34 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 35 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1967 Gasbuggy

to stimulate natural gas production in Gasbuggy and two subsequent gas- both large and small companies, in The Quest for Energy Resources rock too impermeable for economical stimulation nuclear tests brought Project efforts to optimize the production of production by conventional means. Tight Plowshare field experiments to a close, unconventional oil and gas. Livermore sandstone formations, like those in the but they marked the beginning of researchers combined expertise in On December 10, 1967, under the Atomic Energy Commission, El Paso San Juan basin, were projected to hold Livermore’s work with U.S. industry to subsurface fracture mechanics and technical direction of Livermore Natural Gas Company, and the Bureau at least 300 trillion cubic feet of natural enhance subsurface energy production. high-performance computing to scientists, a 29-kiloton nuclear device of Mines of the U.S. Department of the gas in the western United States. After the 1973 energy crisis, Laboratory develop GEOS, a 3D multiphysics exploded in a sandstone formation Interior. It was the first of three Project researchers engaged in a variety of supercomputer simulation code for at a 4,000-foot depth in the San Juan Plowshare experiments, each partially The detonation produced an energy projects that culminated in predicting subsurface behavior when basin of New Mexico. The experiment, funded by U.S. industry, to test the underground chimney 335 feet high large-scale demonstrations of technical shale formations are subjected to Gasbuggy, was a joint venture of the feasibility of using nuclear explosives with a diameter of almost 165 feet. feasibility and commercial viability. hydraulic fracturing. Horizontal drilling Gas was extracted from the chimney For example, processes for in situ strategies are being designed to in six subsequent major production coal gasification—converting coal maximize oil and gas production with tests (the last in 1973). Results were beds to gas without mining—were the least environmental impact, and encouraging in that gas production developed. Activities ran from 1974 field experiments are being conducted was increased six to eight times through 1988, with the first large-scale at multiple sites, including the Permian over previous rates. However, the tests conducted at the Hoe Creek Basin in Texas. “clean” Plowshare device used in Site in Wyoming in 1977. In addition, Gasbuggy, which was designed to researchers pursued activities that led minimize the post-detonation residual to a technical demonstration of retorting radiation, still resulted in undesirably oil shale to recover oil from large U.S. high concentrations of tritium in the reserves. A 6-ton-capacity pilot oil-shale GEOS, a high-performance computing gas. Livermore’s device design was retort facility operated at the Laboratory model of detailed geomechanics, is used acceptably clean for the subsequent in the early 1980s. to explore fracture patterns in a 300-meter- Rio Blanco experiment; however, it was long section of a production field. The goal not economically viable to use nuclear Currently, the Laboratory is partnered is to enhance resource recovery while explosives to stimulate gas production. with the oil and gas industry, including reducing environmental impacts.

In the Gasbuggy experiment, a part of , a nuclear explosive was lowered down a 4,000-foot hole and detonated in a sandstone formation in New Mexico to increase natural gas production.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 36 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 37 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1968 Royston Plan An Attractive Place to Work

In 1968, the Laboratory went for a new master plan for the site. The Royston the site. New facilities were built adjacent curvilinear pattern of loop roads and Commission (the Department of Energy’s look, away from the military aspect it Plan sought to bring order out of the to existing buildings in what seemed the utilities that would create a wider predecessor) and sparked the initiation inherited and toward more of a campus chaos created by the haphazard, most expedient way to grow, but which, variety of land parcel shapes and large of comprehensive site plans at other environment. At the initiative of Carl random construction of buildings and in fact, led to congestion and loss of developable areas. The Laboratory facilities in the complex. Haussmann, then Associate Director roadways that characterized the first the flexibility conducive for research. adopted it as the framework for its for Plans and in charge of Livermore’s 18 years of the Laboratory’s existence. By contrast, the northeastern half of the first master development plan, which The Royston Plan introduced two nascent Laser Program, the Laboratory Laboratory was underused. established basic planning principles loop-road systems—including northern hired landscape architectural firm At the time, employees worked in to guide future growth. The Plan, as California’s first traffic circle—in the Royston, Hanamoto, Beck & Abey to barracks and facilities crowded into a Royston proposed a flexible it has come to be called, was termed undeveloped area of the site, curving prepare a long-range development grid pattern in the southwest corner of development plan based on a exemplary by the Atomic Energy around a central hub that was zoned for general support functions such as the business offices, technical information facilities and libraries, and plant engineering. The loop system not The Royston Plan Carl Haussmann only made for more efficient travel and guided the Laboratory’s utilities distribution around the site but transformation from a In 45 years of service at the Laboratory, Carl Haussmann made major also reduced traffic and saved money. former military facility to contributions in many technical areas, including weapons, high-end Another major element of The Plan a campuslike setting that computing, and lasers. He also had a visionary interest in the strategic was making the site more attractive is an attractive place to development of the site and was the driving force behind commissioning to employees by incorporating liberal work and a vital part of and implementing the Royston Plan. Known as the “Father of the Trees” landscaping and inviting bicycle and the community. because of his passion for landscaping, Haussmann arranged for the walking paths. An aesthetically pleasing California Conservation Corps to plant some 300 trees throughout work environment, it was judged, would the site. help attract and retain valuable staff.

A plaque affixed near the entrance to Building 111 reads: “In gratitude for The Laser Program’s facilities were the the beauty and function of the Livermore site, landscape, architecture, first developed in accordance with The and trees, which Carl planned and patronized over 30 years.” Plan. Laser buildings 381 and 391 had offices and main entrances on Inner Loop Road, which was to be the “front door” to future facilities. Outer Loop Road was intended to act as the “service Carl Haussmann entrance” to the large laboratories with a disk behind the office buildings, with smaller laser, one of the laboratories forming a transition between technologies for the two areas. the . Today, the Laboratory has little undeveloped acreage remaining, but The Plan continues to guide Laboratory growth as the Livermore Valley Open Campus is developed. The Plan was so visionary that it still retains its integrity and flexibility after nearly 50 years.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 38 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 39 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1969 First CDC 7600 Time Sharing and The innovative Livermore Television Monitor Display System, or TMDS (left), was a familiar sight in the 1970s, providing visual Two-Dimensional Modeling information to users. Data management and storage were improved with the first “chip” storage of the IBM Photostore system (below). It was designed to store online an astonishing Always eager for better computer the Lab bought a CDC 1604 mainframe (at the time) 1 trillion bits of data. simulations, Laboratory weapons from then-upstart Control Data designers enthusiastically greeted Corporation (CDC) of Minnesota. the arrival of their first CDC 7600 supercomputer in 1969. Nineteen of the A young CDC engineer named first 20 scientific computers purchased Seymour Cray was already at work on by the Laboratory had been from IBM. an innovative design for a machine That string was broken in 1962 when 50 times faster than the CDC 1604, and

The arrival of the first CDC 7600 continued a long period of Livermore leadership in computing and custom software development for nuclear design and plasma simulations.

Livermore happily acquired one of his interactively. Large libraries of Fortran The Laboratory’s collaboration with CDC 6600 computers for $8 million in subroutines evolved, optimized for Seymour Cray continued for another August 1964. Cray’s design team then the Laboratory’s mathematical and 15 years. In 1972, he started his further refined this approach, yielding graphical needs. The local job-control own company (Cray Research) and the even larger and faster CDC 7600 language, online documentation developed his first integrated-circuit in 1969. In the hands of Laboratory system, and file-storage service set (chip-based) scientific computer, the users, these machines defined scientific the standards in their fields, as did the CRAY-1. As they became available, supercomputing for a decade. Their whimsically named Octopus network Livermore acquired early serial- small instruction sets, fast clock that efficiently connected hundreds of number versions of Cray Research speeds, extremely dense custom- remote terminals and printers to the machines, refining the Cray Time soldered circuit boards, and clever central, shared computers. Sharing System (formerly LTSS) to use of the machine frame for cooling make the most of each new generation were ideal for nuclear design and This combination of leading-edge of hardware. plasma simulations. hardware and innovative support software yielded many benefits for the In 1985, when the Laboratory Laboratory computer scientists two-dimensional modeling projects received the world’s first CRAY-2 responded to the availability of the then under way at Livermore. Higher supercomputer, it finally retired its CDC 6600 and CDC 7600 with a resolution simulations clarified important last CDC 7600. In many ways, the long, fertile period of custom software aspects of ongoing field tests. New hardware–software combination development. The Livermore Time experiments could be optimized at pioneered here was the model Sharing System (LTSS) enabled the desktop. And scientists gained on which the National Science hundreds of users to run application increased understanding of the physics Foundation supercomputer centers codes simultaneously and tune them underlying many Laboratory projects. were later created.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 40 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 41 NATIONAL LABORATORY In the early 1970s, the Laboratory completed development of new warheads for the nation’s strategic missile forces and for the Spartan antiballistic missile interceptor. Livermore pushed the frontiers of what was possible in nuclear weapons design and engineering. Designers then turned their attention to modernizing NATO’s nuclear forces with novel weapon designs and to exploring the use of insensitive high explosives for improved nuclear weapons safety.

Capitalizing on an emerging technology, Livermore also began a laser program and has been at the forefront of and technology ever since. The Seventies On the frontiers of science and technology In 1974, Janus was built, the first in a sequence of ever-larger lasers to explore inertial confinement fusion (ICF) for national security and civilian applications. Design, engineering development, and use of the Laboratory’s ICF lasers have contributed to thermonuclear weapons science, enabled new scientific discoveries, and stimulated the development of new products and processes in U.S. industry. The 1970s’ energy crisis helped to invigorate long-term research efforts in both ICF and magnetic fusion as New Leadership well as other energy research programs at the Laboratory.

Roger Batzel (1971 • 1988)

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 42 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 43 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1970 First MIRV Warheads

The Poseidon C-3 Multiple Warheads Increase missile launched from a submerged Missile Effectiveness submarine.

In 1970, the United States introduced allowed each missile to attack multiple Minuteman III. By early 1965, the Navy’s a new capability that dramatically targets within a large “footprint.” This Strategic Systems Project Office had increased the effectiveness of its provided considerable flexibility in developed baseline design requirements land- and sea-based strategic targeting. MIRVs also were more for the C-3 missile that would include In the 1970s, Minuteman III missile forces. Both the Minuteman III cost-effective because they leveraged MIRV capability. missiles with Livermore- intercontinental ballistic missile and the large costs of missile silos and designed warheads the Poseidon C-3 submarine-launched submarines. The warheads for each of Livermore received the assignment were deployed in 550 silos ballistic missile were deployed with these missile systems were designed for both systems, and each program at U.S. Air Force bases in multiple independently targeted reentry by Livermore. The W62 warhead for faced significant design challenges. The three states. vehicles (MIRVs), a technology that Minuteman III (deployed in April 1970) requirement to put 14 vehicles on the relatively small C-3 platform was very stressing. The (in the Mk3 reentry body) was the smallest strategic warhead ever deployed by the U.S. The yield of the W62 had to be sufficient for attacking hardened missile silos, and the design of the Mk12 reentry vehicle placed stringent volume limitations on the warhead to achieve the required accuracy. In addition, both warheads included special hardening features intended to improve survivability when penetrating a threat antiballistic missile system. These features were developed with the aid of an extensive series of “exposure” nuclear tests conducted in conjunction with the Defense Nuclear Agency.

and the W68 warhead for C-3 (deployed for improved accuracy. Early in the When the first MIRV systems were in June 1970) pushed the envelope of development of Minuteman III, it deployed more than 30 years ago, they yield-to-weight ratio, a key to the MIRV became clear that a liquid-fueled fourth marked the end to a chapter in which concept. They were also the first designs stage was needed for higher delivery Livermore and the military redefined the to include a comprehensive set of accuracy. Further consideration led strategic missile posture of the United hardening features for protection against to the concept of using additional fuel States. The W62 and W68 represented antiballistic missile (ABM) defenses. in the fourth stage to independently such a dramatic advance in the state of The warheads were the product of an target multiple RVs and penetration nuclear design that all subsequent missile extremely fruitful period in weapons aids. Meanwhile, the ability of missile system warheads have incorporated development at the Laboratory during systems to deploy individual satellites many of their key elements. Their the 1960s. through use of a post-boost control extensive development programs, system had been demonstrated in the conducted in close coordination with The MIRV concept resulted from the U.S. space program in October 1963. the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy convergence of missile technology In December 1964, Secretary of and their contractors, were a model for improvements, concerns about Soviet Defense Robert McNamara approved all subsequent generations of delivery- work on ABM systems, and the desire development of a MIRV system for system design teams.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 44 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 45 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1971 Cannikin At the Frontier of Missile Defense

The morning before the Cannikin family, anxiously waited. Meanwhile, the 11:00 a.m., and the nearly 5-megaton systems. Livermore also developed attack remained a noble goal and Technology technological challenge for Laboratory event at Island, Alaska, the Supreme Court ruled by a 4–3 margin blast generated the ground motion of a and tested the warhead technology for test site was subjected to rain and that the test could take place. At 7.0 Richter-scale-magnitude earthquake. the second-tier interceptor, the researchers and was pursued with wind gusts up to 124 miles per hour. 6:30 am on November 6, 1971, in missile. Subsequently, Los Alamos was renewed vigor after President Ronald The test crew and visiting dignitaries, Amchitka, the go-ahead came from the Cannikin was a massive undertaking assigned responsibility to develop the Reagan launched the Strategic including Atomic Energy Commission White House on a telephone hotline. involving hundreds of Laboratory nuclear warhead for Sprint. Defense Initiative. Nuclear directed- Chairman James Schlesinger and his Cannikin was successfully detonated at employees and nearly five years of energy weapons were pursued at effort. Test operations overcame myriad The Safeguard ABM system was a Livermore, including experimental logistics hurdles, and experimenters scaled-down version of the Sentinel demonstration of x-ray lasing at achieved many technical firsts. Two system for defense of U.S. cities. the Nevada Test Site. Laboratory years of drilling produced a record- Rapid evolution of offensive missile researchers also devised the concept breaking emplacement hole that was technologies (see Year 1970) made of Brilliant Pebbles for nonnuclear 6,150 feet deep and 90 inches in national defense impractical, and in defense against missiles in boost diameter with a 52-foot-wide cavity 1972, the United States and the Soviet phase, which led to the Clementine mined at its bottom. The diagnostics Union signed the ABM Treaty. However, experiment to map the (see canister was 264 feet long, and protection against ballistic missile Year 1994). altogether 400 tons of cables and equipment were lowered downhole. Cannikin was the first test in which a laser successfully aligned diagnostics downhole and a computer system assisted field operations. A record- setting number of recording trailers, 2,000 feet from ground zero and shock-mounted to withstand a ground upheaval of 15 feet at shot time, were instrumented with 250 oscilloscopes. One hundred percent of the test data was successfully retrieved.

The experiment tested the design of the warhead for Spartan, the interceptor used in the upper tier of the U.S. Safeguard anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system. Spartan missiles were to engage clouds of reentry vehicles and decoys above the atmosphere and destroy incoming warheads with a burst of high-energy x rays. The Laboratory stepped up to the difficult challenge of designing the appropriate warhead. The Spartan warhead had high yield, produced copious amounts of x rays, A Spartan missile body with the nuclear device is lowered downhole for the Cannikin event. The test was successfully and minimized fission output and debris During preparation for the Cannikin event, workers—including Test Director Phil Coyle conducted on November 6, 1971, on Amchitka Island, Alaska. to prevent blackout of ABM radar sitting on the right—ate their meals near the rigging.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 46 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 47 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1972 Ozone Depletion Calculations Preventing Planetary Sunburn

In 1972, the Laboratory applied newly that would fly in the stratosphere. An important early test of the model developed modeling capabilities to Concerns were raised that exhaust was its ability to explain the observed investigate whether human activities emissions might chemically react in decrease in stratospheric ozone might degrade the stratospheric ways that would thin the stratospheric concentrations following atmospheric ozone layer, which screens out most ozone layer. Livermore’s one- nuclear testing by the United States of the radiation that causes sunburns dimensional (altitude) model of and the Soviet Union in the early 1960s and skin cancer. U.S. decision stratospheric ozone, developed under (see Year 1962). These simulations makers needed information on the Julius Chang, was one of the first clearly indicated that use of a large potential effects of a proposed fleet of simulation tools in the world used to number of megaton-size nuclear supersonic transports (SSTs)—faster- examine ozone interactions with the weapons in a nuclear war would than-sound commercial jet aircraft— SST’s nitrogen oxide emissions. seriously deplete stratospheric ozone— in addition to the extensive destruction caused at the surface. This finding later A massively parallel aerosol chemistry and atmospheric chemical transport played a central role in a 1974 National code developed at Livermore in the early 2000s provided estimates of regional Academy of Sciences study on concentrations of aerosols and the fractions of those concentrations from the potential long-term worldwide anthropogenic sources. effects of multiple nuclear weapons detonations, adding impetus for the two superpowers to reduce weapon yield and the size of their nuclear arsenals. Less Bay Area Ozone

In 1974, the effect of chlorofluorocarbon In the late 1960s, the Laboratory responded to a growing interest in the (CFC) emissions on stratospheric ozone quality of our environment by applying its capabilities to help understand also became an issue. In response, human-induced effects on the atmosphere. The rising number of Don Wuebbles and colleagues at excess ozone days in the Livermore Valley prompted Mike MacCracken the Laboratory developed a two- and colleagues to adapt a new modeling technique developed at the dimensional (latitude and altitude) University of Illinois for use as the core of a Bay Area air- model that predicted increasingly quality model. Results from this model and later versions served as the severe ozone depletion from continued basis for preparing the Bay Area’s Air Quality Maintenance Plan, which, use of CFCs in aerosol spray cans, with later revisions, has lowered the number of days of excess ozone refrigerators, and air conditioners. from about 50 per year to just 1 or 2 days per year. These results provided important input to the first international assessment of stratospheric ozone. International negotiations to limit CFCs ensued, protocol set goals for globally phasing aerosols on ’s climate. In general, and the U.S. prohibited their use as out the use of halocarbons that have atmospheric aerosols have a cooling propellants in spray cans. Later, the high ODP. effect by directly reflecting solar research team developed a technique radiation and seeding the formation Photo credit: The Boeing Company. for calculating the Ozone Depletion As computers became more powerful in of clouds, which also reflect radiation. Potential (ODP) of other compounds, the late 1990s, Laboratory researchers Improved modeling of clouds remains Depletion of stratospheric ozone was one of the concerns raised when development began of commercial supersonic a formulation that was included in the focused attention on improved modeling a key objective of climate research at transport aircraft. Later, use of chlorofluorocarbons was prohibited because of similar concerns about ozone depletion. Montreal Protocol. Adopted in 1987, the of the effects of anthropogenic the Laboratory.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 48 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 49 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1973 U-AVLIS Program Begins Industrial-Scale Applications Livermore’s plant-scale In the early 1970s, many analysts were uranium-238. The Uranium Atomic uranium separator for Lasers system was one of projecting a shortage of electricity Vapor Laser Isotope Separation starting in the next decade. One option (U-AVLIS) Program began at Livermore the largest technology was expanded use of fission energy, in 1973 to help maintain the U.S. market transfer projects in the for which an inexpensive source of share of enriched uranium fuel for the Laboratory’s history. enriched uranium fuel was needed. At host of plants that would the same time, the inherent properties be constructed to meet the world’s one or two passes through the laser of lasers were recognized as having energy needs. beam, rather than the hundreds of the potential of leading to a low-cost passes required in other processes. method for producing such fuel by The U-AVLIS process for separating It needs only 1/20th the electrical selectively ionizing uranium-235 and isotopes of uranium presents numerous power required by diffusion plants, electrostatically separating it from advantages. It achieves separation in producing significant cost savings. Because U-AVLIS uses uranium metal as the source material rather than uranium hexafluoride, the process is less expensive and less hazardous and produces less low-level nuclear waste.

In the early years of the program, the A technician works with U-AVLIS process used copper vapor the diode-pumped solid- lasers to pump liquid dye lasers to effect state (DPSS) green laser the separation process, while in later developed for U-AVLIS. years, more efficient solid-state lasers The technology won were developed as the pump lasers. Dye LLNL an R&D 100 Award lasers were used because they could (see Year 1999), and produce a broad and almost continuous DPSS lasers are used for range of colors. An optical system in the precision machining and laser is able to “tune,” or select, the laser many other applications. to the precise color needed to separate the desired isotope.

Through its 25-year history, the U-AVLIS Program progressed from the Morehouse experiment that produced the first milligram quantities of enriched uranium in 1974 through the REGULIS separator in 1980, the MARS Facility in based industrial production, which which was a government corporation 1984, and the Uranium Demonstration contributed not only to the U-AVLIS until privatized in 1998, to move the System and the Laser Demonstration Program but also to other projects U-AVLIS program into the private sector. Facility in the 1990s. In the process, such as the Laser Guide Star (see By the late 1990s, however, the energy tunable laser technology was Year 1996), the Laser and Materials economies of the world and the supply dramatically advanced, and significant Processing program, and the National versus demand for enriched uranium scientific progress was made in the Ignition Facility (see Year 1997). had changed. USEC suspended the A clean, efficient process for producing the fuel for nuclear power plants was made possible by the Laboratory’s precisely physics of laser–atom interactions. U-AVLIS program in 1999, retaining tuned, high-power lasers used for the U-AVLIS Program. In addition, the Laboratory staff Congress created the United States the rights to U-AVLIS technology for gained valuable experience in laser- Enrichment Corporation (USEC) in 1992, commercial applications.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 50 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 51 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1974 Lasers and ICF

Lasers Join the Quest to a better understanding of laser plasma physics and thermonuclear physics and to demonstrate for Fusion Energy laser-induced compression and thermonuclear burn of –tritium. It was also used to improve the LASNEX computer code developed for laser With the goal of achieving energy gain fusion predictions. Janus was just the In 1975, the one-beam Cyclops laser through inertial confinement fusion beginning of the development, in quick began operation, performing important (ICF) as its mission, the Laser Program succession, of a series of lasers, each target experiments and testing optical constructed its first laser for ICF building on the knowledge gained from designs for future lasers. The next year, experiments in 1974. Named Janus, the last, leading to the National Ignition the two-beam Argus was built. Use of the two-beam laser was built with about Facility (NIF), currently performing Argus increased knowledge about laser– 100 pounds of laser glass. experiments. The pace of laser target interactions and laser propagation The first Livermore laser for construction matched the growth limits, and it helped the ICF program prepared the Laboratory to take the With the 20-beam ICF research, Janus, had Under the leadership of John Emmett, in ICF diagnostics capabilities, develop technologies needed for the next major step, construction of the in 1977, the two beams and produced who headed the Laser Program from computer simulation tools, and next generation of laser fusion systems. 192-beam NIF (see Year 1997), where Laboratory established 10 joules of energy. 1972 to 1988, researchers used Janus theoretical understanding. scientists are striving to achieve fusion its preeminence in laser The $25-million 20-beam Shiva became ignition and energy gain. science and technology. the world’s most powerful laser in 1977. Almost the size of a football field, it delivered 10.2 kilojoules of energy in less than a billionth of a second in its first full-power firing. Two years later, Inertial Confinement Fusion Shiva compressed fusion fuel to a density 50 to 100 times greater than In a fusion reaction, two nuclei—deuterium and tritium—collide and fuse its liquid density. Shiva provided more together, forming a heavier atom and releasing about a million times power, better control over conditions, more energy than in a chemical reaction such as fossil fuel burning. higher temperatures, and greater fuel The nuclei must travel toward each other fast enough to overcome compression than any previous laser. electrostatic forces. Thus, the fuel’s temperature must be over 10 million kelvin, and the fuel must be compressed to a density 20 times greater The came on line in 1983 than that of lead. Laser beam as a test bed for the Nova laser design light heats the surface of the and an interim target experiment facility. fuel pellet and rapidly vaporizes It was used to demonstrate the efficient its outer shell, which implodes coupling of higher-harmonic laser light the inner part of the fuel pellet to fusion targets and to create the first and reduces it in size by a factor soft-x-ray laser. The Nova laser (see of 30 or more—equivalent to Year 1984), 10 times more powerful than compressing a basketball to the Shiva, was built the following year. size of a pea.

Altogether, six large fusion laser A typical hohlraum for the Nova systems were engineered and built laser is shown next to a human hair. in 10 years. The next decade of ICF Hohlraums for the National Ignition research was devoted to studying and Facility have linear dimensions about demonstrating the physics required for five times greater than those for Nova. fusion ignition and gain (fusion output greater than energy input). The work

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 52 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 53 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1975 W79 Development

Special-Effect Weapons for the Tactical technology began to be developed at Livermore in the early 1960s and entered the stockpile in 1974 with the Battlefield In January 1975, Livermore was capability using delivery systems already deployment of the warhead for the assigned the task of developing a new deployed with conventional shells. Sprint antiballistic missile interceptor shell warhead, the W79, (see Year 1971). Computer models that could accommodate larger numbers and types of military units for the U.S. Army’s 8-inch howitzers. The W79 and the -3 were to be and were applicable to a wider range of scenarios, such as urban combat, were developed Nuclear artillery shells were part of the the first battlefield nuclear weapons to ER weapons were also developed for at the Conflict Simulation Laboratory in the 1980s. Player-interactive simulations are used U.S. arsenal from the mid-1950s until include an “enhanced radiation” (ER) NATO forces. They were designed to by the U.S. military for training, analysis of tactics, and mission planning. 1992. They were deployed for both capability. ER provided a relatively be far more effective than previously U.S. Army and U.S. Navy systems and high fraction of the prompt weapon deployed battlefield nuclear weapons provided a highly accurate, short-range output in the form of neutrons (hence for blunting a Soviet armored invasion Laboratory received a second related the center of an international controversy. (typically about 10 miles), all-weather the nickname “”). ER of Western Europe and hence assignment—to provide an enhanced A principal concern expressed by strengthened deterrence. A lethal radiation modification to the Livermore- opponents was that by virtue of the lower radiation dose to enemy troops—likely designed W70 warhead for the Army’s yield and greater utility of ER weapons, protected in armored vehicles—could short-range Lance missile system. their deployment would serve to lower be achieved with the much smaller yield This warhead, the W70-3, was also the threshold for nuclear war. This of an ER weapon than with a standard deployed in 1981. The , a weapon controversy led to a 1985 Congressional nuclear weapon. ER weapons could be for the 155-millimeter howitzer, was order that future W79s be built without employed to strike enemy units much also assigned to Livermore, but the the ER capability, and existing units closer to urban areas while avoiding development program was canceled in were modified to remove this capability. collateral damage to towns and civilians. the mid-1980s prior to deployment. Eventually, all U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons were retired in accordance The W79 weapon development program By the time the W70-3 and the W79 were with President George H. W. Bush’s led to deployment in 1981. In 1976, the part of NATO forces, they had become September 1991 address to the nation.

Conflict Simulation Laboratory To understand the role of tactical nuclear weapons, analysts have had to take into account many factors that are not amenable to analytical models—the so-called “fog of war.” In the mid-1970s, under the leadership of Don Blumenthal, the Laboratory began building high-resolution combat simulation models. A major advance occurred in 1978, when George Smith developed Mini-J, the first two-sided, player-interactive combat simulation model. The players observed their own units in real time, interactively acquired enemy units on a computer screen, and gave orders. Mini-J evolved into a model called Janus, which was successively improved at Livermore’s Conflict Simulation Laboratory. The culmination of this work is the Joint Conflict and Tactical Simulation (JCATS) model, which is widely used by the Department of Defense, Secret Service, and other agencies for training and planning.

Nuclear artillery shells for the U.S. Army’s 8-inch howitzers included an “enhanced radiation” capability developed at Livermore.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 54 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 55 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1976 Enhanced Safety TATB Makes Nuclear Weapons Safer

In 1975, Laboratory researchers the past five decades to improve the The material is virtually invulnerable Crystals of published their first report on safety and security of nuclear weapons. to significant energy release in plane TATB (triamino- investigations of an insensitive high Its development is a demonstration of crashes, fires, or explosions, or from trinitrobenzene), explosive (IHE), TATB (triamino- the expertise in energetic materials deliberate attack with small arms fire. In which are shown trinitrobenzene). Further work to that resides at the nation’s nuclear fact, TATB is so stable that researchers magnified in the characterize the material and find weapons laboratories. had to discover how to reliably initiate background, are improved ways of producing it has led an explosion of the material. They also examined under a to widespread use of IHE in nuclear First synthesized in the 19th century, had to find a ready and affordable way microscope. weapons. Use of IHEs is one of the TATB qualifies as an IHE because to produce the material. Building on many important advances made over of its inherent insensitivity to shock. advances made at both nuclear design laboratories, Los Alamos researchers made a key improvement in 1967 by finding a way to prepare TATB as a molded, plastic-bonded explosive at close to theoretically maximum density.

Subsequent experiments at Livermore by Richard Weingart and his colleagues included shock-initiation, heat, and fracture tests to define the safety characteristics of plastic-bonded TATB. Research on energetic Other experiments helped researchers A mock W87 warhead materials at the to understand how to initiate TATB with IHE in a Mk21 Laboratory has led to reliably even in the extreme conditions reentry vehicle is the formulation, detailed that a nuclear weapon might face. A mounted on simulated characterization, and team led by physicist Seymour Sack upper stages of the development for weapons made design advances that enabled Peacekeeper missile (in use of extremely safe TATB’s reliable use in nuclear weapons. a canister) in preparation high-explosive materials The first nuclear weapon systems to for an explosive test for weapons. include TATB were a variant of the to determine accident B61 bomb and B83 strategic bomb. environments and The W87 ICBM warhead (see Year warhead response. 1986) was the first design to use TATB for the explosive detonators as well as for the main explosive charge, further Range Standoff missile is scheduled TATB requalification and enhancing safety. to begin in 2018. Requalification remanufacture will draw heavily and remanufacture of the IHE to on the outstanding experimental Use of TATB has been largely limited to be used as the warhead’s main capabilities at Livermore to nuclear weapons because it is costly charge is critical for program synthesize, formulate, process, test, to manufacture. For nuclear weapon success (see Year 2016). This major and evaluate newly manufactured applications, the legacy stock of undertaking is a collaborative effort explosive materials. The Laboratory this material will be depleted before involving involving Livermore, has also greatly advanced the fidelity production begins for the W80-4 life- Los Alamos, the Pantex Plant, the of simulations of high-explosive extension program (LEP). Engineering Holston Army Ammunition Plant, performance and is exploring the development (Phase 3) of the W80-4 the 3M Company, and the Department feasibility of additively manufacturing warhead for the U.S. Air Force’s Long- of Defense. high-explosive materials.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 56 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 57 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1977 Tandem Mirror Experiment Enormous Strides in Magnetic Fusion

In 1977, Laboratory researchers which promised major performance were making enormous strides both improvements. That summer, in the quality of their insights into researchers used an intense beam of plasma physics and in the size of their energetic neutral atoms to generate and experimental equipment. In the spring, sustain a high-density (1014 particles the Energy Research and Development per cubic centimeter), high-temperature Administration approved $11 million for (160 million kelvin) plasma in the 2XIIB the Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX), machine, which was the single-cell

One of the yin-yang magnets for MFTF-B being moved into Building 431. The magnet system for MFTF-B was the largest superconducting system ever built.

mirror experiment that set the stage magnets in the world, MFTF-B was the plasma in a future commercial fusion for TMX. And in autumn, construction Laboratory’s largest construction project reactor. Laboratory researchers are also began on the Mirror Fusion Test Facility ($372 million) when completed in 1986. providing leadership in the development (MFTF), an advanced experimental However, what could have been learned and use of large-scale simulation of fusion device designed to be an with MFTF-B will never be known plasmas to carry out fusion research. intermediate step between the existing because it was officially mothballed mirror machines and an experimental later that year. A scientific tool that had As one of its significant legacies, the fusion reactor. The goal was to increase pushed the limits of engineering was large magnetic mirror fusion effort at plasma confinement to nearly 100 times turned off before it was ever turned on. the Laboratory led to the establishment that of 2XIIB and to increase plasma of the nation’s first unclassified national temperature to more than The decision was a major setback for supercomputing center to provide 500 million kelvin. fusion energy research at Livermore, magnetic fusion researchers nationwide but scientists continued work on with the computing horsepower that Success with TMX experiments over the other approaches to magnetic was then available only to nuclear Great success in the Tandem next several years led the Laboratory to fusion. Laboratory researchers are weapons designers. When it opened at Mirror Experiment (TMX, above) attempt to improve plasma confinement collaborating in experimental studies Livermore in 1974, the computer center led to TMX-Upgrade (far left and by heating the electrons at the ends of tokamak performance using the pioneered many practices: remote left). The vacuum vessel was of the machine to create a thermal DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics and access by thousands of users; high- enlarged, and new end coils barrier—a change that turned out to the NSTX-U at the performance data storage and retrieval; were installed in an attempt add to instabilities. At the same time, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. online documentation; and around-the- to demonstrate the thermal the MFTF design was substantially One key innovation devised by a clock support for users. In the 1980s, barrier concept and improve modified into a large tandem mirror Livermore-led team is the “snowflake” the center became the National Energy performance over TMX. configuration called MFTF-B. With a power divertor, a successfully tested Research Scientific Computing Center 58-meter-long vacuum vessel and approach for managing safe dissipation (NERSC). It is now located at Lawrence the largest set of superconducting of the power exhaust from the hot Berkeley National Laboratory.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 58 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 59 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1978 Operation Morning Light When Satellites Go Bad

Cosmos 954 started losing orbital pieces of Cosmos, including perhaps altitude in December 1977. The 100 pounds of nuclear fuel. The exact North American Aerospace Defense time and place of reentry would not be Command (NORAD) thought it would known until the final orbit. burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere on reentry, but not much was known Meanwhile, the Laboratory’s NEST about the Soviet satellite—its size, contingent—a group of health its weight, and most important, the physicists, chemists, nuclear physicists, amount of nuclear material in its reactor. and engineers—left for the Las Vegas A month later, the Laboratory was NEST office to wait. They had packed quietly notified to get ready. NEST—the every type of clothing because they had Nuclear Emergency Search Team—was no idea where they would ultimately end prepared to find the satellite, wherever up. Radiation detectors, liquid nitrogen, it landed. sample containers, power generators, what passed for portable computers After the first meeting at the Laboratory then, and even a helicopter were on January 18, 1978, two Livermore loaded into a C-141 aircraft—all to look computer scientists were provided for anything that survived reentry. the exclusive use of a CDC-7600 computer, and they spent the next few The final orbit occurred on January 24. sleepless days refining calculations of Cosmos fragments scattered across a the trajectory and figuring out how wide 30-mile-wide, 500-mile-long swath of an area—called the footprint—would the Northwest Territories of Canada, result from the impact of variously sized a desolate area populated by caribou

and a few Inuit hunters. Within six snow-packed forest and in the middle NEST members from Livermore join Not Exactly California Weather hours, the official request for help of frozen lakes. Because of the intense the search for Cosmos 954, a fallen came from Canada, and Operation cold, team members could work only Soviet satellite. They found small During Operation Morning Light, Livermore’s Morning Light began. The Canadians for short periods. pieces of the satellite and its nuclear Tom Crites was at the Baker Lake site, where the were depending on the Laboratory reactor on frozen Baker Lake in the temperature hovered around –40°F, or around team to help find Cosmos pieces, Operation Morning Light officially Northwest Territories of Canada. –120°F with the wind-chill factor. The Canadians identify the reactor fuel, and estimate ended on April 18. At the peak of its had outfitted every team member with the latest the fission product inventory. operation—the first two weeks— survival gear. Crites needed it all. The hydraulically 120 U.S. personnel worked alongside powered helicopter failed one day, requiring the Soon, planes with radiation detectors the Canadians. Of that number, stranded team to build snow igloos and keep fires were surveying the frozen landscape. 39 were from the Laboratory with going. They endured a subzero night before a The first radioactive pieces were an additional 80 people back at plane rescued them. A few people lost fingers and found on January 26. Radioactivity Livermore supporting the team. toes to frostbite. Crites has put his experience to ranged from a few milliroentgen to 100 Today, Laboratory personnel are still good use leading Boy Scout camping trips in the roentgens per hour. No single piece part of NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Sierras. “Besides,” he says, “where else can you was much larger than a small trash Support Team (a revised name for look south to see the Northern Lights?” can, and tiny bits of radioactive fuel the restructured NEST organization), dotted the landscape. Hotspots were ready to deploy at a moment’s notice concentrated in a few places in the anywhere in the world.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 60 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 61 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1979 Tracking Three Mile Island and areas of radioactive fallout. Working The group included the Environmental NARAC scientists and engineers— with a private contractor that was taking Protection Agency, DOE, the Department often within 15 minutes—generate aerial radioactivity measurements of Defense, the Nuclear Regulatory dispersion and fallout models’ during flyovers of the area, Livermore Commission, and even the Federal predictions of dose, air, and ground Responding to Nuclear Emergencies scientists used meteorological and Emergency Management Agency. contamination, blast damage zones, topographical information to determine and health risks. where the plume of radioactive ARAC has since changed its name Worldwide On March 29, 1979, Marv Dickerson information as part of its integrated materials was located and where it to the National Atmospheric Release The center has responded to and Tom Sullivan were at a meeting system. The two scientists received a would travel. Advisory Center (NARAC) because hundreds of alerts and incidents to secure an agreement with the call: “There’s been an accident at the of its expanded role to respond to since operations began. Key events U.S. Air Force Global Weather Center to Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. When it started in 1973, ARAC was nuclear, radiological, chemical, or include the 1980 Titan II missile supply information to the Atmospheric Could ARAC help, and how soon?” a research and development project natural hazardous material releases. explosion in Damascus, Arkansas; Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) at with a goal to track any radioactive The center’s central system, now in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant Livermore. ARAC, which had recently Over the course of the next 10 days, accident that happened at a DOE its third generation, uses automated meltdown in 1986; the Kuwaiti oil fires begun pilot operations under the ARAC scientists worked 24 hours a day, facility and assess its effect on the software to build 3D models of the during and after the Persian Gulf War sponsorship of DOE, would use that 7 days a week to predict possible levels surrounding community. But with the area under scrutiny using worldwide in 1991; the 1991 Mount Pinatubo meltdown at Three Mile Island, ARAC meteorological and geographical eruption; an industrial cesium-137 became a household name within the databases. With information added release in Algeciras, Spain, in 1998; group of federal agencies responsible about the characteristics of the and the Fukushima disaster in 2011 for responding to nuclear accidents. hazardous materials in question, (see box).

Response to the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster

NARAC was activated on March 11, 2011, after a massive tsunami hit the east coast of Japan and knocked out power to the Da-ichi Nuclear Power Plant’s reactor cooling systems, resulting in damage to reactor cores and the release of radioactivity. NARAC personnel provided critical support to agencies in the United States and Japan responding to the disaster. The team generated a steady stream of up-to-date atmospheric dispersion predictions, plume projections, and radiation dose estimates. During the height of the crisis, the center operated around the clock for 22 days. By the time active operations ended in mid-May, NARAC had logged more than 5,000 person- hours and produced more than 300 projections and analyses.

ARAC scientist Marv Dickerson keeps members of the media informed about the status of radioactive releases from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in 1986.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 62 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 63 NATIONAL LABORATORY All major programs at the Laboratory have relied on the interplay between computer simulations and experiments to increase scientific understanding and make dramatic engineering improvements. In the 1980s, the combination of testing and simulations greatly contributed to the development of new strategic weapons, such as a nuclear bomb that could be delivered at low altitude, to help win the Cold War. The combination was also critically important to scientific exploration of x-ray lasers and the complexities of intense laser light interacting with matter. Major new experimental facilities were constructed, such as the Bunker 801 complex at The Eighties Simulations and experiments Site 300 for hydrodynamic testing, the Nova laser, and the High Explosives Applications Facility; and the first three-dimensional simulation codes were developed.

In the late 1980s, Laboratory researchers began to explore the feasibility of using multiple parallel processors for scientific computing—now a key component of efforts to maintain the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. Since Livermore opened, the need for ever more powerful simulations for nuclear New weapons design has guided industry’s development Leadership of supercomputers, and the Laboratory has helped industry make prototype machines ready for a wider John H. Nuckolls range of users. (1988 • 1994)

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 64 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 65 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1980 Spent Fuel Test–Climax Addressing the Challenges of Nuclear Waste In 1980, the Laboratory placed spent nuclear fuel 420 meters underground at the Nevada Test Site beneath the floor of a tunnel in Climax granite. In this experiment, Spent Fuel Test–Climax (SFT–C), researchers measured thermal loads from 11 canisters of spent fuel, 6 electrical heaters designed to mimic fuel canisters, and 20 electrical heaters in adjacent tunnels. The combined measurements of the three-year-long test simulated the thermal behavior of part of a large geologic repository for nuclear fuel.

SFT–C was a significant large-scale field test for demonstrating essential technologies and revealing unexpected effects of high-level nuclear waste disposal in geologic repositories. Nuclear waste issues were looming on the horizon long before 1980, but Congress did not pass the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to deal with the problem until 1982. Scientists perform an instrumentation checkout in the tunnel at the Cannisters of spent nuclear fuel were entombed 1,400 feet below Opportunities for testing at full scale Nevada Test Site. The purpose of Spent Fuel Test–Climax was to the surface as part of the DOE National Waste Terminal Storage were very limited this early in the determine the issues involved with storing and retrieving nuclear Program. They were placed in holes drilled in the Climax granite U.S. nuclear waste management wastes underground. formation and retrieved three years later. program. Livermore undertook SFT–C to demonstrate the feasibility of spent- of spent-fuel assemblies between the requested bids for a computer for showed the Laboratory’s strong fuel handling and retrieval from an SFT–C tunnel and a surface storage logging the test data, only one company capabilities in materials science, underground repository and to address facility were part of this demonstration. (Hewlett-Packard) answered the call. nuclear science, earth science, technical concerns about geologic Undaunted, Livermore scientists advanced simulations, and engineered repository operations and performance. SFT–C technical objectives required and engineers designed most of the systems. The test’s success provided The test was part of the Nevada Nuclear a measurements program with nearly instruments, installed the system, and a foundation for subsequent Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) 1,000 field instruments and a computer- recorded geotechnical, seismological, collaborations with nuclear waste project for the Department of Energy. based data acquisition system. The and test status data on a continuing disposal programs in other countries. system had to be robust enough to basis for the three-year storage phase More directly, as NNWSI evolved into Operational objectives included withstand the vagaries of the Nevada and six months of monitored cool-down. the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP), packaging, transporting, storing, Test Site’s power grid, shaking from SFT–C helped prepare Livermore At the Nevada Test Site, each spent-fuel canister was moved over paved and retrieving highly radioactive fuel nuclear weapons tests, and high The SFT–C experiment demonstrated researchers for their role as experts roads from the hot-cell facility to the mined test facility in a specially assemblies in a safe and reliable temperatures caused by the thermal the feasibility of deep geologic storage in addressing YMP waste form, waste designed surface cask mounted on a low-boy trailer. The cask was upright manner. In addition to emplacement and load—a major challenge for 1980s of spent nuclear fuel from commercial package, near-field environment, and for loading and almost horizontal for travel. retrieval operations, three exchanges technology. When the Laboratory nuclear power reactors. SFT–C also repository performance issues.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 66 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 67 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1981 LODTM Groundbreaking The Art of Precision Machining

It has been called the world’s most The machine’s precision was such with a diameter up to 1.65 meters, a accurate lathe, the world’s most that LODTM (pronounced “load-em”) height up to 0.5 meters, and a weight precise large machine tool. With the outperformed the measurers—the up to as much as 1,360 kilograms. groundbreaking for the Large Optical National Institute of Standards and Diamond Turning Machine (LODTM) in Technology could not corroborate the Like a lathe, LODTM spun a workpiece 1981, the Laboratory solidified its place accuracy of its work. LODTM machined as a tool cut the revolving surface. But at the top of state-of-the-art precision metal to a mirror-smooth accuracy the similarity ended there, because machining. LODTM opened in 1983, within one-millionth of an inch—1,000 LODTM left behind a gleaming two years after its groundbreaking, and times more accurate than conventional reflective surface that often needed remained in service for two decades. machine tools. It handled a workpiece no further polishing. During its service Machining metal up to 1.65 meters in diameter and at a precision of 2 micrometers was life, LODTM was the tool of choice for possible with LODTM. contractors making lenses for heat- seeking missiles and other weaponry, the late 1960s, and by the early 1970s, LODTM. The culmination of previous exotically shaped for lasers, and one-millionth of an inch precision was Laboratory research in machine mirrors for powerful telescopes such achieved. The idea of the LODTM arose tool accuracy, LODTM incorporated as Keck in Hawaii and NASA’s space- later in the decade when researchers exhaustive analysis and elimination of based lidar-system, SPARCLE. When began considering the development of factors that caused errors in machine the Shoemaker–Levy comet collided powerful lasers as an element of missile tools—from the heat of the human body with Jupiter in 1994, it was witnessed defense. The laser system’s optics to the vibration from a heavy truck in real time, thanks to mirrors turned on had to be extremely large, exotically passing by. LODTM and then installed at Keck. shaped, and fabricated with a precision that corresponded to a small fraction of Precision engineering continues to Almost since its inception, the the wavelength of light. No machine had be an exceptional strength of the Laboratory has been among the leaders those needed capabilities. Laboratory and an essential feature of in the development of advanced many programmatic activities ranging techniques for precision measurement Livermore’s Precision Engineering from targets and optics for the National and manufacture to meet the demands Program, under the guidance of Jim Ignition Facility to biocompatible of programmatic work. Livermore’s first Bryan, Jim Hamilton, Jeff Klingmann, neural-interface microelectronics for diamond turning machine was built in Dennis Atkinson, and others, designed biomedical research.

The Large Optics Diamond Turning Machine was the first machine able to A Hero of U.S. Manufacturing produce an aspherical mirror. Literally billions of dollars worth of machine tools have been tested with a small measuring device invented by Jim Bryan, who made wide-ranging contributions to metrology and precision machining in 32 years of service at the Laboratory. In the 1980s, Bryan reworked an old British invention called a fixed bar by adding a telescoping arm to the instrument. Today, versions of Bryan’s ball bar are used around the world to test machine tool performance quickly. For this invention and other achievements, which include leading the design and construction of record-breaking diamond turning machines in the 1970s, Bryan was recognized in 2000 by Fortune magazine as one of six “Heroes of U.S. Manufacturing.”

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 68 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 69 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1982 DYNA3D Technology Transfer with DYNA3D

In 1982, a growing list of users plowshares” story. Interest in DYNA3D Much of the early incentive to develop benefited from the publication of the rapidly expanded from a manual to an DYNA3D, short for dynamics in three first User’s Manual for DYNA3D. This international conference on the code’s dimensions, arose from challenges three-dimensional computer code was applicability to a wide range of structural presented by the B83 program. The developed by Laboratory mechanical analysis problems. The computer code was to be released engineers to meet the needs of the has been used by industry for making from a low-flying aircraft, and even nuclear weapons program, and it grew everything from safer planes, trains, and though it was to be slowed by a to become a remarkable “swords to automobiles to better cans. parachute, the bomb would have to survive an impact with the ground or whatever irregular structure it hit at up to 75 miles per hour. Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories needed an affordable program of tests and simulations to design the B83 and certify its crashworthiness. DYNA3D The automotive industry has used LS-DYNA to make great leaps in safety research. was used to model the structural This crashed car was simulated with more than 1.5 million points. (Image courtesy of performance of the B83, a complex computerhistory.org) design using a wide variety of materials, and it saved millions of dollars and years of time.

An unclassified code, DYNA3D soon Mitigating Traumatic Brain Injury began spreading to private industry in one of the Laboratory’s best examples Soldiers could reduce the severity of traumatic brain injury by wearing of software technology transfer. The one-size-larger military helmets fitted with thicker pads. In a study list of early industrial users of DYNA3D conducted for the U.S. Army and the Joint IED Defeat Organization, reads like a “Who’s Who” of major Livermore researchers used experiments and ParaDyn simulations firms—General Motors, Daimler- to examine the response of various helmet pad systems to battlefield- Chrysler, Alcoa, General Electric, relevant blunt and ballistic impacts. Increasing current pad thickness Lockheed Missiles and Space, General by a quarter inch can make a large difference in reducing head Dynamics, Boeing Commercial accelerations. How this difference influences brain response and Airplane Group, Adolph Coors Co., possible injury is a complex issue and still being studied. Rockwell International, and FMC Corp. DYNA3D’s developer, John Hallquist, founded Livermore Software Technology Corporation in 1987 and moved to predict vehicle behavior in collisions line computer code into a 150,000-line DYNA3D “off campus” as LS-DYNA. reduce the need for expensive tests package. In the late 1990s, Livermore Altogether, more than 2,500 companies with real cars. Seatbelts, airbags, and researchers developed a version for worldwide have reaped benefits in other specialized vehicle components parallel computers, called ParaDyn, cost savings and safety advancements are also designed with the help of which has undergone continuous with LS-DYNA’s stress and deformation LS-DYNA. The industry has seen improvement since 2000. Among its many prediction capabilities. multi- billion-dollar savings over the applications, ParaDyn has been used A DYNA3D calculation shows the crush-up of a B83 strategic bomb’s nose cone upon impact. Simulations were in excellent last three decades. to estimate debris fields from satellite agreement with the results of experiments, such as this drop test with a B83 test unit landing on a rigid steel plate. Use In particular, use of LS-DYNA has been collisions in space and to improve the of DYNA3D accelerated the B83 development program and lowered costs by reducing the number of actual crash-test nothing short of revolutionary for the Since work started on it in 1976, DYNA3D design of helmets for U.S. military forces experiments needed. automotive industry. Crash simulations has blossomed from a small 5,000- to reduce traumatic brain injury.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 70 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 71 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1983 Laughlin Nobel Work Award-Winning Science and Technology

The road to the Laboratory’s Nobel Prize of classical hot liquids from physicists in physics was a 15-year journey, one such as Hugh DeWitt, David Young, that winner Robert B. Laughlin credits to Marvin Ross, and Forrest Rogers. While Livermore’s strength in team science. waiting for his security clearance, he passed time by learning Monte Carlo Laughlin earned his Nobel in 1998, simulation methods, studying the but it was in 1983 that Physical experimental literature of fluids, and Review Letters published making computer models of fluids. his elegant theoretical work While thinking of the possibilities explaining the so-called for the quantum Hall wave function, fractional quantum Hall Laughlin realized “it was a fluid effect. The effect had been problem.” He believes that he would experimentally discovered not have seen that if he had not been in 1982 by Horst Stormer interacting with fellow H-Division of Columbia University and physicists, who understood fluids. Daniel Tsui of Princeton Although some experts think the University, who shared fractional quantum Hall effect research the Nobel with Laughlin. Its could lead to advances in computers key surprise is that collective or power generation, Laughlin motions of electrons can behave sees the main value of his work as like a fraction of the electrical charge revealing fundamental insights into for one electron. Previously, the only quantum mechanics. example of fractional charges in nature had been quarks. Laughlin has the distinction of being the first national laboratory employee By the time Laughlin’s research was ever to win the Nobel Prize. He is the lauded in ceremonies held in Stockholm, 71st winner who worked or conducted Sweden, on December 10, 1998, research at a DOE institution or whose Laughlin had become a professor work was funded by DOE, and he is the of physics at Stanford University. But 11th University of California employee to the work that led to that Nobel Prize receive a Nobel Prize in physics. was born in the Laboratory’s condensed matter physics division. It was there As a professor at Stanford University, that Laughlin, a solid-state postdoctoral Laughlin continued his association with physicist, benefited from Livermore’s the Laboratory. His work stands as the multidisciplinary approach to science— hallmark of the world-renowned science first championed by Laboratory conducted at Livermore, work that has cofounder and Nobel winner earned hundreds of other scientists, like Ernest O. Lawrence. Laughlin, Ernest O. Lawrence awards, Teller medals, distinctions from every (AP photo/Jonas Ekstromer) Laughlin learned the ins and outs of worldwide scientific society, and even plasma physics and the mathematics the Nobel Prize. Robert Laughlin (left) received the Nobel Prize for physics from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at the ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10, 1998.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 72 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 73 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1984 Nova

Breakthrough Laser Science and Pioneering the Petawatt Laser Technology In the early 1980s, researchers were of Nova. In December 1984, Nova produced laser pulses that delivered LLNL researchers reconfigured one arm of the Nova laser to achieve a exploring how to produce x-ray laser became operational, enabling further up to 100 trillion watts of infrared laser highly significant advance in laser technology: a petawatt laser. In 1996, beams initiated by nuclear explosives groundbreaking research in x-ray lasers power for a billionth of a second. the petawatt laser set a power record of 1.25 quadrillion (a million billion) at the Nevada Test Site. At the same and many other areas of laser science For that brief instant, its power watts—more than 1,200 times the U.S. power generating capacity— time, success was achieved creating a and technology. was 25 times greater than the total for a duration less than a trillionth of a second. The laser’s ultrashort a soft x ray (with a wavelength of about produced by all U.S. power plants. pulses and extremely high irradiance opened up entirely new physical 200 angstroms) laser in a laboratory Ten times more powerful than Shiva, Unlike Shiva, Nova included crystal regimes to study. Experiments have split atoms, created antimatter, and setting using the Novette laser, its predecessor, Nova was the world’s plates to convert the infrared light to generated a well-focused, intense proton beam—all firsts for a laser. which was a test bed for the design most powerful laser. Its 10 beams ultraviolet light—needed for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. In 2016, the Laboratory set new records with the High-Repetition- Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser (HAPLS) system, which is designed In 1986, Nova ICF experiments to generate 10 pulses per second, each 30 quadrillionths of second produced a record-breaking laser long with greater than one petawatt peak power. The system includes fusion yield of 11 trillion fusion many breakthrough technologies, including the use of laser diodes as neutrons. The following year, Nova flashlamps, which reduces system size and power requirements. HAPLS compressed a fusion fuel pellet to has been delivered to the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) Beamlines about 1/30th its original diameter, facility in the Czech Republic, where it will provide experimenters with very close to that needed for high unique opportunities to advance their understanding of the fundamental gain (fusion output greater than nature of energy and matter. energy input). The laser exceeded its maximum performance specifications In 1984, when it began in 1989 when Nova generated more operation, Nova was the than 120 kilojoules of laser energy at world’s most powerful laser. its fundamental infrared wavelength Laser pulses were produced in a 2.5-nanosecond pulse. In with 10 beams (right), which addition, in 1996, one arm of Nova were directed to a 5-meter- was reconfigured as the world’s first diameter target chamber petawatt laser (see the box). (below left). Inside the chamber (below right), the About 30 percent of Nova’s shots laser light was focused on were used by the nuclear weapons BB-sized targets. program. When the United States ceased nuclear testing, laser facilities became even more important for defense research, and the portion of Nova shots dedicated to the weapons program increased considerably. Researchers using Nova continued the target, in the interaction between Nova served as the proving ground for obtaining high-temperature data the laser light and the plasma, and the 192-beam National Ignition Facility necessary to validate the computer in the fusion process. Some of the (NIF). Achievements on Nova helped codes used to model nuclear technologies provided spin-off scientists to convince the Department weapons physics. advances, such as improved medical of Energy of the viability and probable technologies, femtosecond laser ultimate success of achieving Livermore also developed increasingly machining, and techniques for using thermonuclear ignition on NIF (see Year sophisticated diagnostic instruments extreme ultraviolet light for lithography 1997). In May 1999, Nova fired its last to measure and observe what was to produce smaller, faster computer shot after 14 years of operation and happening with the laser beam, in chips (see Year 1999). more than 14,000 experiments.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 74 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 75 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1985 Bunker 801 Improving Implosion Images

In 1985, Livermore completed the Continual upgrades to Bunker 801 Bunker 801 project to upgrade since 1985 have kept the facility what was the very first facility (then equipped with the most modern called Bunker 301) at Site 300, capabilities. For example, in the 1990s, the Laboratory’s remote test site. Laboratory scientists and engineers The newly refurbished bunker—a improved the beam quality of the FXR complex of protected enclosures, so that a higher overall x-ray dose is largely underground—became a produced. In addition, the Laboratory fully modernized hydrodynamic test developed a gamma-ray camera facility to gather data crucial for to record the radiographic images. assessing the operation of a nuclear With these upgrades, scientists in weapon’s primary stage. Until project 1998 were able to carry out the first completion, weapon designers relied “core punch” experiments on mock largely on technologies from the 1960s pits for two stockpiled weapons—the for much of their hydrodynamics submarine-launched ballistic experimentation. missile warhead and the B83 strategic bomb. In core punches, images are After the upgrade, Bunker 801 obtained of the detailed shape of the contained the most modern gas cavity inside a highly compressed diagnostics available. They included a . In 2017, FXR carried out its first –Perot interferometer to measure double-pulse imaging experiment, the velocity of explosion-driven enabling researchers to follow the time surfaces, 10 high-speed cameras to evolution of the implosion process. capture the progressive movement of This added capability was the result a pit’s outer surface, and an electrical- of a multilaboratory collaboration that probe diagnostics system for recording entailed numerous upgrades to FXR data from hundreds of shorting pins and its diagnostic systems. that time the arrival of the interior surface. Additionally, an important In 2001, Bunker 801 became the diagnostic tool was the Flash X-Ray Contained Firing Facility through a (FXR) machine, a 16-megaelectronvolt major upgrade, the addition of a firing linear-induction accelerator (see Year chamber to the complex. This addition 1960). Electrons from the FXR strike a allows debris from test explosions to target to produce an intense burst of be contained in a more environmentally x rays, which are used to image a mock benign manner than ever—dramatically nuclear weapon primary as it implodes. reducing particle emissions and Before completion of the Contained Firing Facility in 2001, tests at Built between 1978 and 1982, FXR minimizing the generation of hazardous the Bunker 801 complex were conducted outdoors (top). Now the produced five times the x-ray dose of waste, noise, and blast pressures. With complex (middle left) includes an indoor firing chamber (middle previous machines in one-third the pulse walls up to 2 meters thick and protected right), which contains debris and minimizes the environmental length. Much denser objects could be by steel plating, the firing chamber is consequences of tests that use up to 60 kilograms of high radiographed and with less blur because designed to withstand repetitive tests that explosives. The facility is equipped with the latest diagnostics, of the shorter pulse. use up to 60 kilograms of high explosives. including electronic image-converter framing cameras (bottom).

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 76 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 77 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1986 W87 ICBM Warheads with Modern Safety Features Studies of MX Basing In March 1986, the first production vehicle. Peacekeeper was designed to unit of the W87 warhead for the carry 10 independently targetable Mk21 In 1982, President Reagan set up a commission led by Professor Charles M. Townes (University of California at Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic reentry vehicles with W87 warheads. Berkeley) to evaluate basing options for the MX missile. The commission sought input from a variety of sources, missile (ICBM) was completed at the including weapon systems analysts from Livermore’s D Division. Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. This The W87 design is unique for strategic event culminated a four-year advanced ballistic missile systems in its use of Upon conclusion of the study, Townes wrote to University President David Saxon: “It was clear that most of the development program executed by an insensitive high explosive (see Year industrial organizations were quite cautious about giving information or making conclusions which would be the Laboratory in close coordination 1976) and a fire-resistant pit design. contrary to Pentagon policy. I was personally impressed that the many persons who helped us from Livermore with Sandia National Laboratories Both features help to minimize the seemed completely objective in examining the technical facts, in investigating what needed to be looked into, and and the U.S. Air Force and its possibility of plutonium dispersal in the in being willing to state plainly, though diplomatically, where they did not agree… I make the above point because contractors, particularly AVCO, which event of an accident. First incorporated I think, contrary to some opinions, Laboratory personnel are often important in giving helpful perspective and was responsible for the Mk21 reentry in Livermore’s warhead design for ameliorating U.S. nuclear policy, and that this is partly because they are protected by the management structure from the obvious pressures to which commercial or governmental laboratories are subjected.”

the ground-launched cruise missile, a stage of the development program when plan was later abandoned in favor of fire-resistant pit includes in the weapon Air Force plans called for Peacekeeper, basing the missile in Minuteman silos. primary a metal shell that is able to at that time known as MX, to be based in keep molten plutonium contained. the Multiple Protective Shelter mode. To With the signing of the START II Both the W84 and W87 also include improve missile survivability in an attack, treaty, the U.S. chose to retire detonator strong links that provide many moderately hardened shelters Peacekeeper ICBMs and to deploy additional safety assurance. would be built, and the ICBMs would a large fraction of its W87 warheads be clandestinely shuttled among them, on Minuteman III missiles. The enhanced safety design features of forcing an attacker to target all shelters the W87 were incorporated at an early or to guess which held a missile. This To prepare for long-term continuing deployment of the W87, a life extension program (LEP) for the W87 was initiated Engineering tests supported in 1995 to make some mechanical the development of the W87 modifications. The first refurbished warhead for the Peacekeeper warhead under this program was missile, which carried 10 produced in 1999. Extensive ground Mk21 reentry vehicles with and flight testing together with detailed . Through a stockpile calculations using the newly available life extension program Blue Pacific supercomputer preceded completed in 2004, W87 formal certification of the refurbished warheads were refurbished W87s in April 2001. Certification without to extend their long-term use nuclear testing was an important early on Minuteman III ICBMs. demonstration of new capabilities developed under the Stockpile Stewardship Program. Work finished on the final unit in November 2004, marking the Stockpile Stewardship Program’s first successful conclusion of an LEP.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 78 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 79 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1987 Human Genome Project

Deciphering the Human Genetic Code conference, held in March 1986 in automated, high-throughput sequencing Shortly after JGI had completed the Santa Fe, New Mexico. Participants at machines, a rough-draft sequence of human genome, microbial genome this landmark meeting concluded that the entire 3 billion base pairs of human sequencing became the next exciting In 1987, Livermore biomedical chemicals interact with human genetic mapping and then sequencing the DNA—all 23 chromosomes—was area for research in both medical researchers joined a DOE initiative that material, mutating DNA and leading to human genome were desirable and completed in 2001, several years ahead and environmental areas. Because of would determine the entire sequence cancers and other adverse effects. The feasible goals, and DOE became the of schedule. DOE’s Joint Genome improvements in sequencing technology of DNA that makes up the human Laboratory’s experiments to study repair first federal agency to commit to these Institute (JGI), a sequencing production and the small size of microbial genome. Chromosome 19 became of DNA damaged by radiation focused on goals by launching its Human Genome facility in Walnut Creek, California, genomes, microbiology experienced a the focus of a new Human Genome chromosome 19 (see the box). By 1984, Initiative. This decision was endorsed in sequenced chromosomes 5, 16, and 19. renaissance. The research provided center at Livermore. At the same Livermore and Los Alamos were working an April 1987 report by a DOE Biological JGI combined the efforts of Lawrence a step toward the Laboratory’s current time, Los Alamos began work on together to build human chromosome- and Environmental Research Advisory Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley, and Los focus on applied genomics in support chromosome 16 and Lawrence Berkeley specific gene libraries. Advanced Committee, which noted that DOE was Alamos national laboratories. The institute of important national problems in public chose chromosome 5. The intensive chromosome-sorting capabilities, particularly well-suited for the task is now operated by Lawrence Berkeley health, biosecurity, and energy security work of decoding had begun and grew essential to the genome initiative, had because of its demonstrated expertise with participation by LLNL. (see Year 2011). to be an international industry. been developed at both laboratories. in managing complex, long-term multidisciplinary projects. Livermore’s involvement in genetic In 1984, DOE’s Office of Health and research stretches back almost to its first Environmental Research (OHER) In 1990, DOE joined with the National biological program, chartered in 1963 to cosponsored a meeting in Alta, Utah, Institutes of Health and other laboratories LLNL’s Long History with Chromosome 19 study the human health consequences that highlighted the value of acquiring around the world to kick off the Human of environmental radiation exposure a reference sequence of the human Genome Project, the largest biological In their investigations in the early 1980s, Livermore researchers (see Year 1963). A natural extension genome. Leading scientists were invited research project ever undertaken. Thanks chose chromosome 19 to study because evidence suggested that it was to explore how radiation and by OHER to a subsequent international to the commercial development of had a relatively high concentration of genes. That hunch proved to be correct. The gene density is more than twice the genome-wide average. Chromosome 19 codes for more than 1,400 genes, most of which are important for general human health. Many of these genes In the late 1990s, the are associated with diseases such as insulin-dependent diabetes, sequencing process at the myotonic dystrophy, migraine, Alzheimer’s, elevated blood cholesterol, Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA). In work spanning two decades, had numerous steps, four LLNL completed the difficult task of mapping and began the enormous of which are shown here: task of sequencing chromosome 19—work that was completed at JGI. Colonies of cells containing Important ensuing studies focused on understanding the function, human DNA are selected regulation, and evolution of the genes. from a cell culture plate (right). The CRS robot system (upper right) places a DNA sample plate onto a plate washer for purification of the DNA. A JGI researcher (lower right) removes a plate of purified DNA from a plate washer. A JGI research technician (far right) reviews the sequencing data produced by one of JGI’s 84 DNA capillary sequencers.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 80 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 81 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1988 Joint Verification Experiment Reducing the Nuclear Threat

In 1988, a landmark event in U.S.–Soviet Test Ban Treaty and the Peaceful Nuclear delegation visited the Department of relations occurred when Soviet and Explosions Treaty. The intent of both Energy’s Nevada Test Site (NTS) a U.S. teams for the first time conducted treaties was to limit the yield of nuclear short while later. measurements of nuclear detonations explosions to no more than 150 kilotons. at each other’s nuclear testing sites. Russian scientists were on hand to The event, called the Joint Verification Planning for the JVE took place in witness the Kearsarge event that Experiment (JVE), allowed Soviet and Geneva, Switzerland, and at the two was detonated August 17, 1988, on U.S. scientists to become more familiar nations’ nuclear test sites. A U.S. at NTS. As a symbol of with characteristics of the verification delegation made a familiarization international good faith and cooperation, technologies that were proposed to visit to the Semipalatinsk Test Site the Soviet Union flag was raised to the monitor compliance with the Threshold early in January 1988, and a Soviet top of the emplacement tower next to Associate Director J. I. Davis leads a tour of the Nova laser for senior managers from the U.S. flag. Nearly 150 people from the Arzamas and Chelyabinsk (the Russian counterparts to Los Alamos and Livermore) as U.S. traveled to the Semipalatinsk test part of a groundbreaking series of U.S.–Russian laboratory visits in 1992. site to participate in the preparation of the Shagan test on September 14, 1988. Forty-five U.S. personnel witnessed the event, standing just 4 kilometers from the HEU Transparency Program test ground zero. Both nuclear tests were Heralding an emerging in the yield range of 100 to 150 kilotons In 2013, after 20 years of operation, the U.S.– Highly Enriched period of cooperation, U.S. of explosive power. Livermore personnel Uranium (HEU) Purchase Agreement achieved its goal of converting and Soviet flags fly side by were heavily involved in fielding the more than 500 metric tons of HEU to safer low-enriched uranium for side atop the experiment two explosions, with the Laboratory use in American nuclear power plants (shipping containers are shown). tower at the Nevada Test Site contributing equipment, instrumentation, Livermore researchers supported the HEU Transparency Program by during the first of two Joint and technical advice. serving on and coordinating the U.S. monitoring team. They provided Verification Experiments. advanced equipment For each of the two tests, both sides such as an LLNL- made hydrodynamic yield measurements developed portable in the emplacement hole and in a satellite nondestructive hole located about 11 meters from assay system the emplacement hole. U.S. scientists and maintained measured nuclear yield based on close-in a repository of observations of the velocity of the shock the collected wave generated by the nuclear explosion monitoring data. using a technology called CORRTEX (continuous reflectometry radius versus time experiment). The Soviets also made CORRTEX-like measurements as well Photo credit: U.S. Enrichment Corporation. as a hydrodynamic measurement using switches. The satellite holes at the test sites were drilled by U.S. personnel with U.S. equipment because of a professed the West. The more open atmosphere independent states. They monitored and Soviet lack of such capability. preceded the collapse of the Soviet assisted the progress of arms reductions; Union and prevailed for nearly two pursued cooperative efforts to better Many American–Russian friendships decades. When diplomatic conditions protect, control, and account for nuclear were forged during the JVE, which was permitted, Laboratory scientists were materials; and collaborated with scientists a turning point in Soviet relations with frequent travelers to Russia and the newly on nonweapons-related projects.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 82 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 83 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1989 Computing in Parallel Exploring the Future of Scientific Computing In October 1989, the Laboratory and Sandia national laboratories— to Laboratory computer applications of Directed Research and Development paved the way for the Accelerated then-accelerating trends in commercial office funded the ambitious Massively Strategic Computing Initiative (or ASCI, microprocessors. Advances in very-large- Parallel Computing Initiative (MPCI), now the Advanced Simulation and scale integration had increased both which cut across directorates at the Computing (ASC) Program), which is computer chip speed and reliability so Laboratory and helped redefine high- a vitally important part of the Stockpile much that massive, coordinated clusters performance computing as massively Stewardship Program. of microprocessors were sometimes parallel computing. The exploratory rivaling the performance of custom- work performed as part of the initiative— Led by Eugene D. Brooks III, the three- designed supercomputers. For example, and comparable efforts at Los Alamos year initiative explored the relevance early tests here with radiation transport codes (used in weapons simulations) First available from Bolt, Beranek and Newman Advanced Computers, Inc., in 1989, the suggested a factor of 20 advantage for BBN-ACI TC-2000 had a multiprocessing architecture that allowed individual processors the massively parallel approach. to be partitioned into clusters and dynamically reallocated. Because data could be shared within and between clusters, the computer was able to integrate distinct segments of a Eugene D. Brooks III, leader In 1990, the MPCI project acquired complex calculation. of early Laboratory efforts to Livermore’s first substantial, onsite explore potential benefits of massively parallel resource, a 64- parallel computing, displays node BBN-ACI TC-2000 machine a cluster of processors used that was upgraded to a full 128-node CIAC: Keeping Cyber Space Safe in the BBN-ACI TC-2000. configuration a year later. Scientists from across the Laboratory’s technical On February 1, 1989, DOE formed the Computer Incident Advisory directorates probed the software Capability (CIAC) at Livermore. A continuous stream of security development challenges of effectively incidents had begun the previous year, affecting computer systems using this new architecture by running and networks throughout the world. Crackers and intruders made a variety of computer problems on bold headlines with their stealthful entry into government computers, the MPCI machine. By 1992, early commercial equipment, and telephone systems. The world of computers results were already available in such was proving to be a dangerous one and clearly something needed to diverse areas as particle-physics event be done. CIAC’s primary mission has been to help protect the DOE simulation, multidimensional numerical computer community, currently by providing crucial support to analysis, parallel graphics rendering the DOE Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center. algorithms, and sedimentation modeling. Each MPCI annual report not only encouraged use of this new approach to scientific computing but also providing fast, high-capacity parallel that have advanced scientific discovery summarized the latest trial programming computers to researchers throughout and Laboratory missions. Software techniques and output evaluations for the Laboratory and their collaborators. innovations at Livermore developed Laboratory researchers. Supported by institutional funding and for use on parallel computational managed by the Livermore Computing resources have made possible quantum One rewarding long-term effect of the program, M&IC procures the computing molecular dynamics simulations based early MPCI work was a heightened hardware and covers operational costs— on first-principles physics (see Year desire to widely share centrally managed leveraging ASCI/ASC investments in 2003), greatly improved modeling of massively parallel computing resources high-performance computing. laser–plasma interactions in fusion among many unclassified projects ignition experiments and enhanced at the Laboratory. In 1996, a formal The Laboratory’s continued investment studies to quantify the key uncertainties Multiprogrammatic and Institutional in M&IC has repeatedly enabled that influence the predictions of global Computing (M&IC) initiative began groundbreaking unclassified simulations climate simulations.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 84 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 85 NATIONAL LABORATORY The Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the Cold War ended, and significant reductions were being made in strategic arsenals. Both the Soviet Union and the United States entered a nuclear testing moratorium in 1993 while recognizing an important continuing role for nuclear weapons in the post–Cold War world. The United States formally began its Stockpile Stewardship Program to maintain a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear deterrent in 1995. As a National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory, Livermore is a principal contributor to the program. The Nineties Focus on national security In the post–Cold War world, the Laboratory broadly contributes to the nation’s science and technology base, but its defining mission remains national security. That mission is broader than stockpile stewardship. The invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent discovery of aggressive Iraqi programs to develop weapons of mass destruction made clear that the world remained a dangerous place—complicated by the uncertain status of nuclear weapons and materials in a fragmented Soviet Union. Livermore responded by quickly expanding its New Leadership analysis and technology-development program to prevent proliferation at its source, detect and reverse proliferant

C. Bruce Tarter activities, and respond to the threat or use of weapons of (1994 • 2002) mass destruction.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 86 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 87 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1990 CAMS Detecting One in a Quadrillion

In 1990, soon after the Center for AMS is a sensitive technique for quality, climate change, seismology, Accelerator Mass Spectrometry measuring concentrations of specific archaeology, biomedical science, and (CAMS) started operations, the first isotopes in very small samples— many other areas of scientific research. biomedical experiment using AMS was able to seek out, for example, one performed at Livermore. It measured carbon-14 isotope out of a quadrillion The opportunity for a multiuser AMS Standing next to the Center the effects on rat DNA of a suspected (a million billion) other carbon atoms. capability was recognized by Jay Davis, for Accelerator Mass carcinogen that results from cooking The technique enables Laboratory at the time a division leader, who lined Spectrometry’s tandem meat. From the beginning, CAMS has researchers to diagnose the fission up support for the new accelerator electrostatic Van de Graaff proved to be a highly versatile research products of atomic tests and monitor facility from programs throughout the accelerator, physicist facility, contributing to the success of the spread of nuclear weapons by Laboratory. Research efforts benefited Jay Davis explains the a wide range of Laboratory programs detecting radioisotopes in air, water, from one of Livermore’s first large-scale center’s operations and the and the research projects of many and samples. In addition, AMS initiatives in its Laboratory Directed many applications of AMS. external users. supports studies in environmental Research and Development program. In addition, funding from the University of California (UC) helped to support construction and continuing use of CAMS by UC faculty. To help lower costs, the designers used as many spare components as they could find. The accelerator came from the University of Washington, and a couple of the largest magnets had previous lives in an electron beam accelerator at Stanford University.

Established in 1988, CAMS was unique from the start because of the use of high-quality beam optics and a computer-control system that allows large numbers of high- precision measurements to be taken. The capabilities exceeded those of CAMS began operation in 1989 and now processes about 25,000 samples per year for other AMS facilities because of the its users (above). With support from the National Institutes of Health, the Laboratory has programmatic need to measure a added a smaller AMS capability (not shown) dedicated to biomedical analyses. diverse array of isotopes. An initial optimistic projection was that someday AMS available to the biosciences capabilities, including the installation 5,000 to 10,000 measurements could community. CAMS became the first of a $3-million, NIH-funded, dedicated be handled each year. CAMS quickly National Resource for Biomedical bioAMS system and the development exceeded that goal. As the the world’s AMS. The facility provides biomedical of much-simplified and faster most versatile and productive AMS researchers—currently from more processes for sample preparation. facility, CAMS performs more than than 60 institutions—the ability to LLNL researchers are also working to 25,000 analyses per year. accurately measure very low levels develop and validate a totally new type of carbon-14 and other radioisotopes of spectrometer that will be smaller, In 1999, the National Institutes of used in tracer studies. Numerous less expensive, and simpler to operate Health (NIH) awarded Livermore a technology upgrades have enhanced and could be more widely deployed in Biotechnology Center grant to make the Laboratory’s biomedical AMS biomedical research laboratories.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 88 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 89 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1991 Iraq Inspections Inspecting for Weapons of Mass Destruction

At the end of Operation Desert Storm, the first inspection of Iraqi nuclear the world was full of rumors about facilities under UN Security Council Laboratory engineer Iraq’s nuclear capabilities and how Resolution 687. Laboratory engineer Iraqi Calutrons Bill Nelson inspects the much of them remained following an Bill Nelson was a member of that team. bombed-out reactor intense bombing campaign. In May Laboratory physicist Jay Davis, twice a member of UNSCOM/IAEA and nuclear research 1991, a specially selected team, under The first and subsequent UNSCOM/ inspection teams, found the Iraqi isotope separation technology facilities at Tuwaitha (just the auspices of the United Nations IAEA inspections uncovered evidence was similar to that developed at the University of California (UC) at outside Baghdad) during Special Commission (UNSCOM) of an advanced Iraqi nuclear program, Berkeley in the late 1940s to enrich uranium for the first atom bomb. the first inspection after and the International Atomic Energy code-named Petro-Chemical Project 3. Called the calutron because of its UC origin, the technology was Desert Storm. Agency (IAEA), was assembled for At Tarmiya, inspectors uncovered abandoned by the United States because of cost. However, it was an excellent choice for Iraq in that calutrons required few outside resources. Davis estimated the Iraqi –style effort at between $6 and $8 billion and noted that the quality of work was “every bit as good as we could do today.”

Project 946, a uranium enrichment armed Iraqi soldiers. Sleeping on pieces cameras and microwave production facility that the Iraqis of cardboard in the building’s parking lot communication links for remote attempted to hide by removing railings and sometimes without even water, the surveillance of facilities that could from the floor of the building, pouring a group refused to leave without the papers be used in missile production. new layer of concrete, and putting rubble they considered to be the smoking gun. on top. They had developed a first-class The documents indeed proved critical in Livermore continues to provide electromagnetic isotope separation establishing a knowledge baseline of the technology, analysis, and capability with supporting research and Iraqi program. expertise to help prevent the industrial infrastructure. Production of spread or use of weapons of mass 10 to 30 kilograms of highly enriched Iraqi facilities were inspected for destruction. Soon after the Iraq uranium, a key component of nuclear any evidence of weapons of mass inspections began, Laboratory weapons, might have occurred within destruction—not just nuclear, but also Director John Nuckolls formed the two years. chemical and biological weapons and Nonproliferation, Arms Control, ballistic missiles. The teams seized, had and International Security (NAI) Perhaps the defining moment came in destroyed, or subjected to monitoring Directorate. The new directorate September 1991, when UNSCOM/IAEA impermissible equipment. In all, more merged into a comprehensive Team 6 discovered a large cache of than a dozen Laboratory researchers program of research activities documents. Two Laboratory scientists took part in various inspections until pertaining to nonproliferation, were on the team; another was at the UN the UN removed all personnel in 1998 including proliferation prevention, supporting the operation. For five days, because of an increasingly hostile detection, and reversal, and a standoff occurred in Baghdad between atmosphere. Livermore scientists also response to potential proliferant the team of inspectors, which wanted to developed, installed, and maintained states and terrorists. NAI evolved remove the documents from where they sophisticated inspection and monitoring into the Global Security Principal were found, and hundreds of heavily equipment in Iraq, such as automated Directorate.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 90 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 91 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1992 Setting Model Standards Better Global Climate Models and Analysis In 1992, Laboratory atmospheric an atmospheric science professor at Livermore quickly became an scientist Larry Gates issued The Oregon State University, had come internationally recognized institution Validation of Atmospheric Models, the to the Laboratory on a sabbatical. for climate model analysis. PCMDI’s first of a continuing series of reports One year later, Gates and fellow earliest joint studies were conducted that would radically global atmospheric scientists formed a new with scientists from the Department climate change research and the way group at the Laboratory called the of Commerce’s Geophysical Fluid models characterize climate. The Program for Climate Model Diagnosis Dynamics Laboratory, the National report came five years after Gates, and Intercomparison (PCMDI). Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, Oregon State University, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Research Studies conducted in the 1990s used ocean circulation models to study northerly groups from Canada, China, Germany, movement of the carbon dioxide soaked up by cold water in the Southern Ocean. Efforts Japan, and the are under way to develop an integrated climate and carbon-cycle model. also participated. A selected set of climate models was transferred to a W. Lawrence Gates, an supercomputing facility at Livermore. In the late 1950s, Laboratory internationally known PCMDI researchers worked to devise physicist Cecil “Chuck” Leith climate scientist from a common format and processing and his group applied numerical Oregon State University, protocol for output, assemble methods used for weapons became the Chief Scientist databases for model evaluation, physics to develop the first global and first leader of PCMDI. and develop diagnostic methods general circulation model, which He set as the goal of the to illuminate the effects of model was able to simulate the behavior program’s first studies assumptions and approximations. of large weather systems. Results “to identify the model were displayed in a movie (left) improvements needed to At the time, the need for standards of the model’s weather on a map enable more reliable regional in both modeling and analysis were centered at the North Pole. climate predictions to be becoming increasingly apparent as made over the next decade.” more complex models were developed. The disagreements among models and between models and observations were significant and poorly understood. A persistent need exists to account models adhere so as to lend validity human activities. Ben Santer, who for, in a systematic fashion, the nature to to modeling efforts. The major goals received the prestigious MacArthur and causes of differences among are to develop improved methods and Foundation “genius award” in 1998, The Founding of PCMDI models and between simulations and tools for the diagnosis, validation, served as lead author for Chapter 8 observations to continually improve and intercomparison of global climate (“Detection of Climate Change, and In July 1989, a Laboratory press release announced: “Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has climate prediction studies in support of models and to conduct research on a Attribution of Causes”) of the 1995 begun a program to improve the quality of models for predicting potential climate change due to the global climate change research. variety of problems in climate modeling Second Assessment Report of the so-called ‘greenhouse effect.’” and analysis. PCMDI’s software system Intergovernmental Panel on Climate PCMDI integrates the talents of physical is recognized around the world for its Change. The report concluded that “The new effort—a collaborative one involving research groups across the nation—is called the (atmospheric) scientists and computer efficiency and flexibility. “the balance of evidence suggests a Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison. …The Chief Scientist of the new scientists, following the approach of discernible human influence on global program, Lawrence Gates, said that the major task for the program in its first few years of operation other interdisciplinary programs at Atmospheric scientists at PCMDI climate.” PCMDI’s work continues will be to work with the various national and international modeling groups to diagnose and compare Livermore. The program’s mission is have also been key participants in and contributed to the selection of the a series of increasingly stringent numerical ‘experiments’ with the models.” not to make new models but rather international efforts examining the winners of a Nobel Peace Prize (see to set a standard by which all climate evidence for climate change due to Year 2007).

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 92 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 93 NATIONAL LABORATORY Dynamic Underground 1993 Stripping Hot Technology Removes Contamination But instead of decades or even years, Contaminants are vaporized and driven Further cleanup was augmented by the 7,600 gallons of gasoline were to extraction wells, where they are easily installation of a system to enhance mopped up in about four months using removed from soil and water. The heat natural biological degradation If the Laboratory had used conventional remediation technologies developed and forced air chemically break down processes. After the Environmental methods in 1993 to clean major leaks by Laboratory scientists Roger Aines, many contaminants in place, leaving Protection Agency issued a Final Close from its underground gasoline tanks, Newmark, and John Ziagos harmless compounds. Electric currents Out Report in May 2009, the Visalia the project would still be under way. in collaboration with a University of heat that are too impermeable for site was removed from the National Estimates had pegged the time at California at Berkeley researcher. steam to penetrate. The treatment of Priorities List. 30 to 60 years to remove thousands contaminants is even more effective of gallons of gasoline that had leaked The technique, called dynamic when dynamic underground stripping is In addition to the Visalia cleanup into the soil beneath the shipping and underground stripping, involves combined with two related remediation project, dynamic underground stripping receiving area north of East Avenue. injecting steam to heat the ground. technologies subsequently pioneered technologies were successfully used by Livermore researchers: electrical at DOE’s , Pinellas resistance tomography, for monitoring Plant, and Portsmouth facility. For an underground clean up in real time; example, in 2000–2001 more than and hydrous pyrolysis/oxidation, which 65,000 pounds of contaminant were destroys pollutants where they are removed from an area at Savannah found underground. River where chlorinated solvents were stored (with considerable spillage and The technology achieved remarkable leakage). The technology was applied success cleaning a Superfund site in again in 2006 for groundwater cleanup Visalia, California, between May 1997 in an adjacent area. and June 2000. For nearly 60 years up to 1980, Southern California Dynamic underground had treated utility power poles with stripping cleans up carcinogenic wood preservatives such underground hydrocarbon as creosote and pentachlorophenol, spills. The method is used some of which leaked into the ground. in combination with other Using older cleanup methods at Visalia, Livermore-developed about 275 pounds of contaminants monitoring and remediation had been removed in one nine-month technologies to rapidly period. However, with the use of remove contaminants from the Livermore technology, Southern groundwater or destroy California Edison, working with the them in place. Laboratory and a licensee, was able in a similar nine-month period to extract about 540,000 pounds of pollutants— Two complementary technologies almost 2,000 times more. pioneered at Livermore have successfully cleaned up contaminated groundwater During the entire three-year Visalia and soil at facilities in several states. cleanup, about 1.2 million pounds Hydrous pyrolysis/oxidation combined of contaminants were removed from with dynamic underground stripping the four-acre site using the dynamic destroys contaminants in situ and brings underground stripping technology, and them to the surface at 5,000 times the rate the residual contaminants continued of conventional technologies. to degrade after operations ceased.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 94 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 95 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1994 Clementine

Using six on-board cameras designed and built at the Advanced Sensors Map the Moon Laboratory, the Clementine satellite mapped the entire surface of the Moon in 1994 at resolutions never before attained.

The Clementine Deep Space months in lunar polar orbit. The data Clementine’s sensor system adopted by SDIO as the new baseline Experiment, sponsored by the Ballistic has enabled global mapping of lunar- technologies were derived from for the space-based segment of a Missile Defense Organization, was crust rock types and the first detailed Livermore’s space-based interceptor national missile defense system. launched on January 25, 1994— investigation of the geology of the lunar development program. The Strategic 22 months after the effort began. At a polar regions and the lunar far side. Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) A wide variety of projects to develop mission cost of less than $100 million, funded related research beginning state-of-the-art sensor technologies it was the first U.S. spacecraft to visit The Clementine spacecraft included in 1985, and in November 1987, at the Laboratory have built upon the moon in over two decades. The new advanced technology sensors the Brilliant Pebbles effort formally the success of the Clementine Clementine mission collected over and space component technologies commenced. The concept was to program. An immediate follow-on was 1.7 million images during its two that provide the basis for a next deploy a constellation of sophisticated, the development of a large-format inexpensive, lightweight spacecraft digital camera system that uses in —Brilliant Pebbles— charge-coupled device detectors. that could detect and hunt down Astronomers used the 16-million-pixel generation of lightweight satellites for missiles over distances of thousands of cameras in the search for massive civilian and military missions. It had kilometers without external aid. In the compact halo objects (MACHOs), a a dry mass of only 500 pounds and summer of 1989, Brilliant Pebbles was form of dark matter. incorporated 23 advanced subsystem technologies. The spacecraft’s payload consisted of an advanced sensor suite weighing less than 16 pounds that was O Group designed, fabricated, integrated, and calibrated by Laboratory scientists and Under the leadership of physicist Lowell Wood, O Group pursued engineers with the support of industrial a variety of imaginative research projects in the late 1970s and the contractors. The Naval Research 1980s. O Group included many extremely talented young scientists, Laboratory designed, integrated, some of whom came to the Laboratory as Hertz Foundation and operated the spacecraft. fellows. An exceedingly ambitious early project was the design of NASA provided mission design and the S-1 supercomputer, an effort which led to the development operational support. of computerized design methods, including Structured Computer-Aided Logic Design (SCALD), which successfully spun-off from the Laboratory. Clementine carried an ultraviolet-visible O Group pioneered the development of x-ray lasers and gave birth to camera, a shortwave infrared sensor, a the concept of Brilliant Pebbles. longwave infrared sensor, an imaging lidar (light detection and ranging) instrument, and two Star Tracker Lowell Wood cameras. These instruments successfully presented President mapped the entire lunar surface in George H. W. Bush 11 spectral bands. By laser ranging, with a conceptual the lidar system also generated a global model of Brilliant topographical data set. The topography Pebbles when the of the moon’s many ancient impact president visited the basins was measured, and a global Laboratory in 1990. map of the thickness of the lunar crust was derived. In addition, bistatic radar measurements made over the Deep A mosaic of 1,500 images taken by Clementine reveals for the first time a 300-kilometer- South polar depression indicated the wide depression near the Moon’s lunar south pole. presence of frozen water on the moon.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 96 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 97 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1995 Stockpile Stewardship Understanding the Details of Nuclear Weapons Performance of their nuclear arsenals, both nations of maintaining a safe and reliable remanufacture, or replacement of stockpile stewards, who must recognize had been observing a moratorium on nuclear weapons stockpile. Then, on weapons as needs arise. and deal with issues as they arise to nuclear testing for three years, and the September 25, 1995, the president sustain the nuclear stockpile. U.S. had halted its programs to develop directed necessary programmatic To succeed, the three DOE national In 1995, the Stockpile Stewardship new nuclear weapons. activities to ensure continued stockpile security laboratories, now part The Stockpile Stewardship Program Program formally began when President performance. Under the leadership of the National Nuclear Security made excellent technical progress Bill Clinton reached two critical First, on August 11, 1995, the president of Vic Reis, Assistant Secretary for Administration, needed much in its first decade. For example, decisions that established the course announced that the U.S. would pursue Defense Programs, the DOE national more advanced experimental researchers made dramatic for future nuclear weapons activities in a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- security laboratories and the weapons and computational capabilities. improvements in their understanding of the United States. At the time, both the Ban Treaty. In making that decision, production facilities worked with DOE At Livermore, construction of the the properties and aging of materials U.S. and Russia were reducing the size he also reaffirmed the importance Defense Programs and the Department National Ignition Facility soon began in weapons, and the sophistication of Defense to formulate the Stockpile (see Year 1997), and the Advanced and resolution of 3D simulations Stewardship Program. Simulation and Computing Initiative of weapons performance rapidly (ASCI) prodded the development of increased. In addition, Livermore The program was launched as an next-generation supercomputers (see successfully completed engineering ambitious effort—not without risks—to Year 2000). As new capabilities have development work on its first stockpile significantly improve the science and come online, they have contributed life-extension program (see Year technology base for making informed to surveillance of stockpiled weapons 1986). However, then as now, tougher decisions about an aging nuclear to determine their condition, challenges likely lie ahead as weapons weapons stockpile without relying on assessment of weapon safety and continue to age. The long-term nuclear testing. All aspects of weapons reliability, activities to extend the success of stockpile stewardship must be understood in sufficient detail lifetime of weapons, and certification depends on a continuing strong so that weapons experts can assess of refurbished warhead systems. The national support for the program and the performance of the nation’s nuclear new experimental and computational on the skills and capabilities of future weapons with confidence and make capabilities also serve to train and generations of weapons experts at the informed decisions about refurbishment, evaluate the skills of next-generation nuclear weapons laboratories.

Vic Reis, DOE Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs, provided exceptional leadership in defining the “science-based” Stockpile Stewardship Established in 1989, Livermore’s High Explosives Program, working with program Applications Facility (HEAF) is an NNSA Center leaders from Livermore, Los Alamos, of Excellence supporting stockpile stewardship. and Sandia national laboratories. Reis Researchers at HEAF develop, characterize, and formulated and clearly articulated to test high explosives and other energetic materials. government decision makers a key Specially designed containment vessels (above major premise: the core of any long- and left, arriving in August 1988) are used to safety term stewardship program was a set detonate explosives in quantities as large as 10 of world-class scientific and technical kilograms of TNT-equivalent. Larger scale tests are laboratories with expertise in all staged at the Contained Firing Facility at Site 300. aspects of nuclear weapons.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 98 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 99 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1996 Laser Guide Star Heralding a New Era in Astronomy

In September 1996, observers at distortions, which cause stars to twinkle correct for atmospheric turbulence, an the University of California’s Lick and have haunted astronomers since adaptive optics system uses a large Observatory, atop Mount Hamilton near Galileo, no longer greatly limit the number of computer-controlled actuators at Livermore San Jose, California, obtained their first performance of Earth-based telescopes. to precisely adjust the shape of a image that was significantly improved deformable mirror up to several hundred Because astrophysics and nuclear weapons physics have many through use of a laser guide star and Two years earlier, a Livermore-designed times per second. The technology similarities, it is not surprising that the Laboratory has a long history adaptive optics. The event heralded adaptive optics system was installed has benefited from the efforts of many of contributing to the advancement of scientific understanding about a new era in astronomy. Atmospheric on Lick’s 3-meter Shane telescope. To researchers, including the team at LLNL, our universe and developing instrumentation used by astronomers. which developed adaptive optics for Pioneering work in the 1960s includes seminal papers on gravitational use as part of the Atomic Vapor Laser collapse and explosions by Laboratory researchers The Shane telescope’s Livermore- Isotope Separation (U-AVLIS) Program including Stirling Colgate, Montgomery Johnson, Michael May, Richard developed adaptive optics subsystem (see Year 1973). Adaptive optics are also White, and James Wilson. Current interests range from development (below and bottom) was the first such central to the design of the lasers for the of instrumentation for planetary imaging (see Year 2005) and x-ray laser system on a major astronomical National Ignition Facility (see Year 1997) astronomy to observation and experiments of high-energy-density telescope. Adaptive optics were and the search for extrasolar planets astrophysical phenomena (see Year 2009). installed on the Keck II telescope (left) (see Year 2005). in 1998, and in 2001, a laser guide star system was added. The adaptive optics system alone benefits astronomers only if the object being studied has a sufficiently bright nearby star that can be used to determine the atmospheric distortions that must be corrected. In most cases, no such star exists, and one has to be created—a “laser guide star.” The team of Laboratory and University of California (UC) researchers working on the Lick project, led by Livermore’s Claire Max, installed a laser guide star system at Lick in 1996. A 15-watt system, a technology developed as part of the U-AVLIS Program, was retrofitted onto the Shane telescope. Light from the laser reflects off a layer of sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere (about 100 kilometers altitude), creating enabled astronomers to obtain In December 2001, “first light” was the needed artificial star. infrared-light images of unprecedented achieved with a newly installed resolution—four times better resolution laser guide star system on the Subsequently, a team from Livermore, than the Hubble Space Telescope. 10-meter Keck II telescope. Science UC, and the California Institute of Early successes included detailed observations using the system began Technology installed adaptive optics studies of Uranus and its rings and the in late 2004. The first images of a and a laser guide star system on the observation of hundreds of young stars distant planet were taken at Keck, telescopes at Keck Observatory in in very fast orbit around an unseen, and a picture of Eris and its moon Hawaii. Since the first observations incredibly massive object—a black contributed to Pluto’s demotion from in 1998, the adaptive optics have hole—at the center of our galaxy. planetary status.

Photo credit: John McDonald/Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corp.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 100 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 101 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1997 NIF Groundbreaking

the physics of matter under conditions Jacobs Facilities, Inc., Laboratory staff, laser beams met all performance Thermonuclear Physics and Matter of extreme temperature, energy density, and the local building trades. criteria. Using the first quad, and pressure and pursuing inertial researchers conducted NIF’s first confinement fusion (ICF). Another key milestone, NIF Early physics experiment in August 2003. Light, occurred in December 2002 The ensuing experimental campaign at Extreme Conditions engaged scientists from Livermore and NIF is designed to deliver 192 laser with activation of the first “quad”—the beams with a total energy of 1.8 million first four laser beams. Early Light Los Alamos national laboratories Groundbreaking for the stadium-sized energetic laser. With NIF, scientists joules of ultraviolet light to the center of demonstrated that the integrated and the United Kingdom’s Atomic 192-beam National Ignition Facility perform vitally needed high-energy- a 10-meter-diameter target chamber. laser system worked and that the Weapons Establishment. (NIF) took place in May 1997. An density (HED) physics experiments. This energy, when focused into a extremely ambitious and technically The facility is a cornerstone in the U.S. volume less than a cubic millimeter, challenging project, NIF construction nuclear weapons Stockpile Stewardship provides unprecedented energy was the culmination of a series of Program to ensure the safety, security, densities in a laboratory setting. Target Chamber Construction increasingly larger lasers built over and effectiveness of the nuclear Scientists use NIF to obtain valuable the prior 30 years. Dedicated in 2009 deterrent. NIF serves as a national and data for stockpile stewardship and other The 10-meter-diameter target chamber was assembled from 18 four- (see Year 2009), NIF is the world’s most international user facility for studying national security applications, and they inch-thick aluminum sections fabricated by Pitt-Des Moines, Inc., re-create astrophysical phenomena of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a special-purpose building adjacent and extreme conditions that exist to the National Ignition Facility. After verifying that the vessel was inside planets. In ICF experiments, leak-free in June 1999, the 132-ton vessel was hoisted by one of the NIF’s laser beams converge on a target largest cranes in the world and carefully installed onto its support containing a peppercorn-sized capsule pedestal in the target building. Surprisingly, this breathtaking event of deuterium–tritium fuel, causing the took only about 30 minutes. The seven-story walls and roof of the capsule to implode and create fusion target bay were then completed, and the target chamber was coated reactions. The goal is to achieve ignition with a special 16-inch-thick neutron shielding concrete shell. Now and sustained thermonuclear burn (see weighing about 1 million pounds, the complete target chamber was Year 2013). precision aligned to better than 1-millimeter accuracy.

In June 1999, after two years of construction, the 132-ton aluminum target chamber was transported from its assembly building to the target bay where it is now aligned to better than a millimeter accuracy. While excellent progress was being made on all technical fronts and construction continued on the $270-million conventional facility, the NIF project was rebaselined to enhance the planned method for assembling the lasers and to ensure that strict cleanliness requirements would be met.

In September 2001, conventional facility construction was completed on schedule and on budget. Inside the building, the beampath infrastructure for the first 48 beams was completed the next In 2001, construction of the conventional facility was completed (top). The month. This significant milestone was 10-meter-diameter target chamber (above and right) had been moved into accomplished through the successful the facility in 1999. partnership of the installation contractor,

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 102 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 103 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1998 Multiscale Materials Modeling

Material Properties from Atomic to concerted effort to model material behavior over length scales ranging from nanometers to meters and time Large Scales For years, scientists have longed these microscale simulations—the scales ranging from billionths of a for computer simulations that strength properties of molybdenum— second to tens of years. could accurately predict materials’ were then passed on to codes that performance from atomic to engineering model phenomena at larger scales. Through multiscale modeling and scale. In 1998, researchers at the Researchers validated their codes experiments, scientists have gained Laboratory began to make great by comparing their simulations to a better understanding of the effects strides toward this goal, developing experimental results. of radiation damage on materials. The experimentally verified, three- issue is of particular importance to dimensional simulations that bridge The multiscale modeling approach scientists in the Stockpile Stewardship these extreme scales. The first only became possible with the Program, who are concerned about simulations focused on the mechanical advent of powerful, multiprocessor the aging of materials in nuclear behavior of molybdenum, using supercomputers in the 1990s. Using weapons (see Year 2006). In 2000, a information generated at the atomic the massively parallel computers of Livermore team headed by materials scale (measured in nanometers) to of NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and physicist Tomás Díaz de la Rubia used model phenomena occurring at the Computing Initiative (see Year 2000), multiscale modeling and experiments scale of micrometers. The results of Livermore researchers launched a to demonstrate for the first time the underlying connection between radiation damage (in crystalline metals), Livermore materials which occurs at ultrasmall scales Many research activities at the DTEM takes snapshots of the simulations are closely (nanometers and picoseconds), to Laboratory are benefiting from the work. dynamics that occur in samples coupled to a program of degradation over time of the material’s At the National Ignition Facility (NIF), of material undergoing change, laboratory experiments. mechanical properties. scientists are applying experimentally creating a visual record of Researchers measure the verified multiscale modeling to predict microstructural features as atomic transport properties Multiscale material modeling has the lifetime of optics subjected to NIF’s they rapidly evolve. Its use has of radiation damage dramatically improved as computing high-intensity laser light. The multiscale validated simulation models and defects in metals, including power increased and simulation tools approach is also being used to model provides new levels of scientific plutonium. The data are grew more sophisticated. Livermore biochemical processes and “designer understanding of nanostructure used to refine codes that researchers pioneered the development materials” for applications ranging from growth, phase transformations, simulate and predict the of first-principles molecular dynamics supercapacitors for energy storage to and chemical reactions. performance of stockpiled and quantum molecular dynamics advanced radiation detectors. nuclear weapons. simulation models (see Year 2003). At larger scales, LLNL scientists developed ParaDiS, a code for studying how dislocations in crystal structures Delving into Radiation Damage harden materials under strain. State-of- the-art experiments complement and Inherently a multiscale phenomenon, radiation damage can occur validate simulations. Notably, Livermore over a scale of 100 nanometers and in a small fraction of a second, scientists and engineers developed but the effects build up over decades. Radiation damage can produce techniques such as dynamic x-ray unacceptable changes in the plutonium used in nuclear weapons, diffraction to study the response of shorten the lifetime of pressure vessels in nuclear power plants, and shocked crystalline materials. They also limit the choice of materials for fusion energy research. Livermore’s developed tools such as the dynamic scientists have a long-standing interest in the topic; the Livermore transmission electron microscope Pool-Type Reactor, which operated on site from 1957 to 1980, provided (DTEM) to produce multiple digital neutrons to study radiation damage to materials (see Year 1952). images of ultrafast material processes on the billionth-of-a-meter scale.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 104 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 105 NATIONAL LABORATORY 1999 R&D 100 Awards Two of the awards in 1998–1999 are LLNL might be powered by processors other applications, those skills contribute indicative of the Laboratory’s wide made possible by EUV lithography. to development of diagnostics and variety of partnerships with U.S. industry targets at the National Ignition Facility as Technologies Spin Off to Industry and how technologies developed for These award-winning technologies further well as the extremely powerful High- national security applications often advanced unique, critical skills in laser Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser lead to broader societal benefits. In and optical technology and precision System for the European Union’s Extreme In 1999, R&D Magazine recognized be commercialized and that promise some cases, such as the 1998 award- engineering that support the Laboratory’s Light Infrastructure Beamlines facility (see Livermore with six of the 100 awards to improve people’s lives. With these winning Lasershot System, national security missions. Among many Year 1984). it grants annually for the most and later successes, Livermore has the commercialization comes quickly. technologically significant new won 158 of these coveted awards This new technology provided a way to products and processes; the prior year through 2016. That large number is a harden and extend the service lifetime Laboratory researchers won seven credit to the outstanding science and of metal parts, such as aircraft fuselages awards. The annual R&D 100 Awards engineering work at the Laboratory as and engine fan blades, faster and more competition recognizes important well as to Livermore’s excellent track effectively than conventional means. The technological advancements that can record in working with industry. commercialized technology, now part of Curtiss-Wright Surface Technologies, has been used since 2008 by the Boeing Company to manufacture wing panels for 747-8 aircraft.

One of the R&D 100 Awards in 1999 was for a multilayer, thinfilm deposition system, a technology that is key to the development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Development of EUV lithography was being pursued Former Laboratory employees and members of the LLNL Entrepreneurs’ Hall Fame Lloyd by a unique industry–government Hackel (left) and Brent Dane stand with a robot used in to strengthen collaboration that began in 1997. critical parts for aviation and other industries. The duo successfully commercialized the It involved Lawrence Livermore, Lasershot Peening System—used around the world for aircraft parts and turbines for Lawrence Berkeley, and Sandia national electric power generation. laboratories and a consortium of semiconductor companies called the EUV Limited Liability Company (LLC). The consortium committed $250 million Livermore Valley Open Campus to the project and then extended the cooperative research and development In June 2011, the High-Performance Computing Innovation Center agreement with the laboratories to 2005. (HPCIC) opened for business in the Livermore Valley Open Campus (LVOC). It is the first new facility at LVOC, a 110-acre At the time, the goal of computer chip collaborative open, unclassified research and development space on manufacturers was to print circuit lines the eastern edge of Lawrence Livermore and Sandia/California national at least as narrow as 30 nanometers laboratories. The HPCIC serves as a focal point for collaborations (1/3,000th the width of a human hair) among LLNL experts in the application of HPC and partners in industry to extend the pace of innovation and academia. HPCIC has partnered with such companies as IBM, described by Moore’s Law. Industry Intel, Cisco, Baker Hughes, and GE on far-reaching research efforts. saw EUV lithography as a possible solution, but that goal was reached by In 2016, a new supercomputing facility, adjacent to LVOC, opened to advancing technologies already widely meet a rapidly growing demand for unclassified HPC for Laboratory used by manufacturers. In 2017, IBM researchers and their collaborators. Construction also began at LVOC The Ultra Clean Ion Beam Sputter Deposition System, developed at Livermore, produces announced a major breakthrough: on the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory for LLNL employees to work precise, uniform, highly reflective masks in the lithographic process of printing features the first 5-nanometer silicon chip, with industry and academic partners. on computer chips. In many strategic partnership projects, Livermore supplies expertise which was manufactured using EUV in optics, precision engineering, and multilayer coatings. lithography. Future supercomputers at

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 106 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 107 NATIONAL LABORATORY The Laboratory entered its 50th year of operation as a recognized national resource, with an essential and compelling core mission in national security and the capabilities to solve difficult, important problems. Livermore’s responsiveness to national needs was vividly demonstrated after September 11, 2001. Ongoing research and expertise, prototype development, and field-testing enabled Livermore to respond quickly to the terrorist attacks. The Laboratory’s advanced technologies such as radiation and pathogen detectors have strongly contributed to homeland security and counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Aughts A national resource An exceptional scientific and technical staff made use of the Laboratory’s special facilities and capabilities to resolve a key issue about the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile by finding that plutonium pits in weapons are aging gracefully. In addition, construction of new facilities further strengthened stockpile stewardship. The National Ignition Facility was dedicated in 2009 and the Terascale Simulation Facility ushered in a new generation of supercomputers that have enabled first-principles simulations of nature at the scale of atoms.

New As a national resource, Livermore’s science and technology Leadership have broad impact. LLNL researchers are at the forefront of understanding our planet’s likely future climate and Michael R. Anastasio George H. Miller discovering distant planets. (2002 • 2006) (2006 • 2011)

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 108 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 109 NATIONAL LABORATORY Accelerated Strategic 2000 Computing Initiative ASCI White Arrives

During the summer of 2000, 28 moving system demands, the Laboratory had IBM’s RS/6000 SP hardware technology. vans carried the pieces of the world’s doubled the size (and the underfloor ASCI White consisted of 8,192 central fastest supercomputer, called ASCI space) of the computer room in processor units clustered into 512 nodes. White, from IBM’s development facilities in Building 451. Intended for large, highly parallel batch Poughkeepsie, New York, to Livermore. jobs, the machine demonstrated a To accommodate the sheer physical This latest addition to the Laboratory’s processing speed of 12.3 teraops (trillion size of this massively parallel machine, computing resources was deployed in operations per second), about three times together with its wiring and cooling three parts, all of which shared versions of more than any other available computer at that time.

ASCI White’s arrival marked the successful third step in a five- stage plan by the Department of Energy to sponsor development of a 100-teraops supercomputer by 2004. Launched in 1995 as the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI), this collaboration of Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia national laboratories with U.S. industry and academia was later renamed the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program. The goal was to significantly improve capabilities to simulate with The ASCI White supercomputer needed a floor with an extra 2 feet underneath it to high resolution the performance accommodate airflow, switches, and 40 miles of cable connecting all the computer nodes. of weapons in the nation’s nuclear stockpile. The White machine, as the allow faster interpretation of results 1,024 processors and took 39 wall- latest ASCI advance, became one of and bug detection. clock days to run. The Los Alamos the cornerstones of NNSA’s Stockpile work, executed remotely at Livermore Stewardship Program. ASCI White’s benefits were soon by using a secure network connection evident. Use of the machine for to New Mexico, took over 120 days. Effective use of a computer like pioneering scientific simulations High-bandwidth connections to ASCI White required sophisticated began even as component upgrades Los Alamos and Sandia, coupled with An array of 15 projectors (far software and network support. continued on ASCI White’s nodes. extensive user support services at left) was used to display the Laboratory innovations to transfer and By the spring of 2002, scientists at Livermore, allowed this machine to be results of ASCI computer store the massive data sets generated Livermore and Los Alamos, using used effectively by all three laboratories simulations in unprecedented by ASCI White simulation runs—and to separate approaches to parallel until it was retired in 2006. detail on the Powerwall (above), analyze that data visually—enhanced code development for ASCI White, a nearly 20-million-pixel screen. the practical value of this machine. successfully completed two of the Scientists also used arrays of Locally designed tools enabled the most refined computer simulations flat panel displays (left) in their efficient parallel storage of vast output ever attempted, the first full-system work centers and individual files. And local software (called a three-dimensional modeling of a offices to visualize the results of terascale browser) displayed data nuclear weapon explosion. Livermore’s ASCI calculations. visualizations on wall-sized screens to simulation alone used more than

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 110 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 111 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2001 Biodetectors Respond Defending against Terrorism

The events of September 11, 2001, lent formation of the Nonproliferation, Arms to the Intelligence Community. LLNL’s new urgency to the Laboratory’s efforts Control, and International Security Nuclear Threat Assessment Center to apply its technologies, tools, and Directorate in 1992, the Laboratory operated seven days a week to expertise to better prepare the nation to had been effectively organized to take evaluate numerous smuggling incidents defend against terrorist use of weapons a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and nuclear-related threats. In addition, of mass destruction (WMD). The approach to emerging WMD threats. the Counterproliferation Analysis and prospect of a devastating bioterrorist LLNL was developing technologies and Planning System (CAPS), developed at attack became even more real a few tools to counter threats and working Livermore and extensively used by the weeks later when a terrorist sent anthrax closely with response agencies to Department of Defense, supported U.S. through the mail, killing five people and ensure that the technological solutions military efforts to counter WMD threats. sickening 17. Livermore researchers met real-world operational needs. were able to provide immediate help As the anthrax mail cases illustrated, because they had begun addressing The Laboratory provided post-9/11 the U.S. is vulnerable to bioattack. the threat of WMD terrorism long analysis and assessments as well as Developments in DNA detection before September 11. Since the information tools and expert personnel technologies are at the core of the nation’s biodefense capabilities. The LLNL’s miniaturized DNA analysis LLNL has developed an array of DNA pathogen signatures against which a biological- device was commercialized by Cepheid agent detector matches gathered samples. DNA signature development involves Inc., as the Smart Cycler. It was microbiologists, molecular biologists, biochemists, geneticists, and informatics experts. Specialists from Livermore based on polymerase chain reaction and Los Alamos national (PCR) technology breakthroughs in laboratories deployed the biodetection instrumentation made by Biological Aerosol Sentry Laboratory researchers, who pioneered The Forensic Science Center and Information System the miniaturization and ruggedization (BASIS) for the 2002 Winter of DNA identification devices. In 1998, The Laboratory’s Forensic Science Center (FSC) is one of the two Olympics in Salt Lake City, the technology was successfully U.S. laboratories to be internationally accredited by the Organisation Utah. BASIS was developed demonstrated in field tests at Dugway for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to analyze suspect under the sponsorship Proving Ground, Utah, and an early chemical-warfare agents. Created in 1991, the center combines of NNSA’s Chemical version of the handheld instrument was state-of-the-art science and technology with expertise in chemical, and Biological National delivered soon after to selected users. nuclear, biological, and high-explosives forensic science to provide Security Program. 24/7 counterterrorism support to federal agencies. FSC researchers In addition, the Biological Aerosol also advance the state of the art in forensic science. In 2016, an Sentry and Information System (BASIS), LLNL-led tem developed the first-ever biological identification method developed jointly by by Livermore and that exploits the information encoded in proteins of human hair—a Los Alamos, was deployed to Salt Lake potential game-changer for forensics. City, Utah, as part of the overall security strategy for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Smart Cycler biodetectors are the heart of the BASIS field laboratory. Because biodetectors require unique (CDC) and distributed by the CDC to (see Year 2011). For example, almost antibodies or DNA sequences to the public health community. exactly one decade after 9/11, Laboratory identify and characterize pathogens, scientists announced an advance in PCR LLNL set out to develop “gold standard” The Laboratory has continued to make technology that makes possible near- DNA signatures and assay protocols, major advances in capabilities to detect instantaneous DNA analysis that could which are then validated by the Centers pathogens for biosecurity, disease be deployed in research laboratories and for Disease Control and Prevention control, and other health applications doctors’ offices around the world.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 112 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 113 NATIONAL LABORATORY Celebrating and 2002 Breaking Ground

Construction began on the Terascale (Z Program) started the Cyber, Space, developing terrorist threats involving Simulation Facility (TSF), a $91-million and Intelligence Initiative, which the use of chemical, biological, Reflecting on the Past and world-class supercomputing facility. focused on cyber defense and network radiological, nuclear, and explosive With 48,000 square feet of floor space intelligence, space security, intelligence (CBRNE) weapons and investigate for machines, TSF was designed to analysis, and persistent surveillance. opportunities to counter them. usher in a leap in supercomputing Z Program also works to understand Groundbreaking for the Future the state of foreign weapons of mass capability as part of DOE’s Accelerated Z Program continues to provide Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). technical solutions and assistance to destruction (WMD) programs; informs Anniversaries are a time to reflect on of a time capsule and a Family Day In November 2002, DOE announced defend U.S. government networks and U.S. counterproliferation decisions, one’s accomplishments, learn from and weekend to conclude the festivities. that IBM would develop for TSF the secure critical infrastructure, assess policies, and efforts; and develops be reinvigorated by them, and look to This look to the future in 2002 was two fastest machines in the world: the foreign cyber threats, and support supporting technology solutions the future. The Laboratory celebrated underscored by the selection of a 100-teraflops (trillion floating-point information operations efforts. The to dissuade or prevent states from 50 years of “Making History, Making a new Laboratory director, Michael operations per second) ASCI Purple, program also provides innovative acquiring WMD-related technologies, Difference” through panel discussions, Anastasio, and groundbreaking designed to be a workhorse for stockpile analysis to anticipate new and materials, and expertise. special conferences and publications, ceremonies on April 4, 2002, for two stewardship, and a research machine and events such as the dedication mission-critical facilities. called BlueGene/L. The latter was an innovative, scalable supercomputer Shown rising on the banks based on energy efficient “system-on-a- of Lake Haussmann, the chip” technology. $91-million Terascale Simulation Facility was Blue/Gene L proved to be the future completed in 2004 ahead of of supercomputing. It topped the schedule and under budget. list of the world’s most powerful It initially housed two of computers for four years, ultimately the world’s most powerful achieving 480 teraflops peak speed. computers, BlueGene/L The peak performance of its Blue/ and the 100-trillion- Gene Q successor, , is nearly At a 50th anniversary panel discussion, directors Michael Anastasio, Bruce Tarter, operations-per-second 20,000 teraflops (20 petaflops). John Nuckolls, Michael May, John Foster, and Herbert York reflect on the Laboratory’s ASCI Purple machine. Sequoia is sited in the Livermore past, present, and future. Harold Brown participated via teleconference, and Edward Teller Computing Complex, known as TSF gave a video presentation. Roger Batzel passed away in 2000. before supercomputing outgrew the building’s name. The next leap in capability is Sierra (see Year 2017). Plans are in the works for a facility upgrade to accommodate delivery of a 1,000-petaflop-scale (exascale) supercomputer in the next decade.

Installation at TSF of BlueGene/L’s On the other side of the Laboratory, 64 racks, air-cooled cabinets with a groundbreaking ceremony also 1,024 nodes (2,048 processors) each, began construction on the International was completed in summer 2005. Security Research Facility (ISRF). The 65,536-node system clocked ISRF was necessary, in part, to 280 teraflops, a record-breaking accommodate growth within the benchmark speed. The astonishingly Laboratory’s Intelligence Program successful system was later expanded (see Year 1965) following the events to 106,496 nodes and achieved of September 11, 2001. The two- 480 teraflops. story, 64,000-square-foot building houses LLNL’s work in support of At a 50th-anniversary event for the local community, former astronaut and U.S. Senator the Intelligence Community. In the John Glenn enclosed a memento thanking the Laboratory for its service to the nation and mid-2000s, the Intelligence Program helped seal a time capsule, which is to be recovered at the 100th anniversary.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 114 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 115 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2003 First Principles Physics Codes Record-setting molecular dynamics simulations on BlueGene/L won Gordon Prizes in 2005 and 2006. First, physicist Fred Streitz Simulating Nature at the Scale of Atoms challenge of achieving linear (shown) led a team performing a scaling. With this improvement, 524-million atom simulation of the the computational complexity is solidification of tantalum at extreme In 2003, a team of LLNL researchers, the simple hydrogen atom to complex proportional to the number of atoms conditions. Computer scientist the Quantum Simulations Group, biomolecules and nanostructures. rather than the cube of the number. In François Gygi then led a team using launched a Laboratory Directed The simulations are based on the addition, the simulations were modified Qbox to study the properties of Research and Development project laws of quantum mechanics with no to run efficiently on a large number of molybdenum under high pressure. to make practical “first-principles” fitted parameters as input. As a result, processors in parallel. The researchers molecular dynamics simulations. Such they are well suited to predict highly used some of the Laboratory’s largest calculations were possible for small complex and unexpected states of computers at the time to demonstrate problems, but practicality required the matter. They have many applications the use of large-scale first-principles development of new algorithms and relevant to LLNL’s national security molecular dynamics simulations Berni , Father of Molecular Dynamics numerical methods combined with mission: calculations of the properties on a wide range of problems. This the emergence of highly parallel of high explosives, equation of state of work opened the door to numerical Simulations terascale computing. molecular liquids, shock simulations, simulations of physical processes biochemistry, and nanotechnology. occurring on length scales of several In August 2015, the Laboratory honored Berni Alder at a special First-principles simulations are ideal nanometers, which was previously symposium to celebrate his 90th birthday and his illustrious 60- tools for examining the atomic and The Quantum Simulations Group inaccessible. year research career at Livermore. Alder saw the opportunity to electronic structure of materials, from successfully addressed the major use supercomputers to simulate the properties of materials and Successful development and application joined the Laboratory in 1955. He invented computational molecular of Qbox, a practical first-principles dynamics and helped develop Monte Carlo methods. Alder and molecular dynamics code, earned LLNL his colleagues at Livermore researchers and collaborators the 2006 have made pioneering advances Gordon Bell prize, a prestigious award in the field ever since. In 2009, for innovations in high-performance Alder received the National computing. The simulation, run on Medal of Science, the highest BlueGene/L, studied the behavior honor bestowed by the U.S. of 1,000 molybdenum atoms (a government upon scientists, high-Z metal) under immense pressure. engineers, and inventors. The ability to validate experiments and understand and predict material Now LLNL scientists explore performance at the nanoscale under “extreme chemistry” with quantum extreme conditions is especially molecular dynamics simulations important to LLNL’s nuclear stockpile of thousands of atoms. Classical Livermore researchers stewardship mission and experiments at molecular dynamics models are used quantum simulations the National Ignition Facility. much larger. The Laboratory’s to discover a new class of Gordon Bell Prize winner in 2005 cheap and efficient catalysts Broader mission areas also benefit. was a 524-million-atom simulation to facilitate the process of Qbox, now a high-performance of resoldification of tantalum. splitting water to make zero- open-source software infrastructure, emission hydrogen fuel. is increasingly used as a predictive They found that the surfaces tool in the exploration of properties of the new materials actively of new materials for batteries, solar more advanced tools, they were able quantum simulations of condensed produce hydrogen, whereas energy conversion, light-emission to locate key reactions and provide and molecular systems, combined only the edges are active devices, dielectric materials, and a detailed, microscopic view of the with advances in high-performance for other similar (layered phase-change materials for optical interface of chemistry and dynamics. computing, has created the possibility metal dichalcogenide) storage. For example, in one project of using truly predictive simulation tools catalysts. Their results were LLNL researchers simulated the Predictive simulation tools play an to address the complexity of materials— experimentally validated solid-electrolyte interfaces in – increasingly important role in LLNL’s both natural and designed for special by collaborators. ion batteries. Using Qbox and even basic materials research. Progress in applications—at the nanoscale.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 116 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 117 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2004 Portable Radiation Detectors For Enhanced National Security—and Space Exploration

Years before the events on 9/11, LLNL researchers brought to bear their Laboratory researchers began to focus expertise in , micro- their research efforts to counter the and nanotechnologies, and materials threat of weapons-of-mass-destruction science to develop innovative systems use (see Year 2001). The attacks that to more reliably detect and distinguish day redoubled attention to nuclear special nuclear materials (uranium Inspectors at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- LLNL researchers have developed improved scintillator materials (left) to better threats that might not arrive in the form and plutonium) from other sources of Ban Treaty Integrated Field Exercise in Jordan detect and distinguish special nuclear materials from other sources of radiation and of missiles launched from abroad. A radiation. They quickly developed a in 2014 identified sources of interest using the a novel technology for detecting thermal neutrons from plutonium shielded to evade new generation of portable radiation portable gamma-ray spectrometer, now Detective instrument. detection (right). detection devices were needed by commercialized as ORTEC’s Detective. military, law enforcement, and first rays come from many sources, so it safe, help Japanese governmental flashes of light. Currently used crystal responders to easily and quickly identify Detective was licensed to ORTEC, a is important to count only those at authorities determine who should scintillators are difficult to grow in large radioactive materials and distinguish unit of AMETEK, Inc., in June 2003— the precise energies that are emitted be evacuated or sheltered in place, sizes and are expensive. Materials among them. only 21 months after 9/11. Gamma by special nuclear materials. High- and identify agricultural areas of science experts at the Laboratory purity germanium crystals cooled to radiological concern. made a breakthrough widely thought –280°F are ideal for this application. to be impossible: They developed An R&D 100 Award winner LLNL researchers invented ways to Finding highly-enriched uranium is inexpensive plastic materials that in 2009, the GeMini gamma- make this possible in a small package. especially difficult. A more effective, yet are almost as effective as crystal ray spectrometer uses a Detective features a miniaturized still very challenging, approach is to scintillators. Further research has led germanium crystal kept electromechanical refrigeration system, detect and discriminate neutrons from to much faster and cheaper ways to at low temperature by an uses sophisticated artificial-intelligence- background gamma rays. Improved grow large crystal scintillators as well innovative ultraminiature based identification detection requires effective, affordable as a novel approach to detecting low- cooling system. The algorithms, and weighs only 15 pounds. materials to use as scintillators, which energy neutrons using scintillators with spectrometer flew to the The battery-powered device can be convert the radiation to measurable nanoengineered features. planet Mercury and has operated by workers or first-responders been commercialized as with minimal training. This miniaturized an affordable, portable detector technology was also sent into instrument for accurately space (see the box). A Mission to Mercury detecting and identifying nuclear materials. More than 1,200 Detective instruments A key instrument aboard NNSA’s MESSENGER mission to Mercury have been acquired for use at was the Laboratory’s gamma-ray spectrometer. Launched on August border crossings, cargo ship docks, 3, 2004, the spacecraft journeyed more than 4.88 billion miles over transportation terminals, and other six-and-a-half years to reach the planet. The germanium crystal had to locations to differentiate between be cooled to –330°F in the presence of the extreme heat from the Sun potentially dangerous radioactive and re-radiating from Mercury’s surface. The instrument, which orbited materials and otherwise harmless the planet for four years, collected data to help determine the elemental radiation sources. mineral composition of Mercury’s surface. The information gathered is forcing researchers to rethink theories about how the planet was formed. During the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear A later, newer version of the MESSENGER instrument, called GeMini, Power Plant crisis in 2011, Detective also was licensed by ORTEC—and a still later version, GeMini Plus, is radiation detectors were used to being developed to fly on a NASA mission to the asteroid Psyche. ensure that American citizens at the embassy and on military bases were

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 118 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 119 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2005 Extrasolar Planets

In 2005, a team of Laboratory scientists Discovering and Studying and collaborators launched an effort to greatly advance the state of the art in adaptive optics (see Year 1996) Distant Worlds to directly image extrasolar planets. It was the birth of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) project. Meanwhile, an international team including another Laboratory scientist discovered the LLNL engineer Lisa Poyneer and first Earth-like extrasolar planet, using Stanford University astrophysicist Bruce a network of telescopes across the Macintosh (previously at Livermore) globe and a technique pioneered by stand in front of the Gemini Planet LLNL, called microlensing. Microlensing Imager, which is mounted on the Gemini astronomy began with an international South telescope in Chile (bottom left). To effort, launched by the Laboratory and correct for atmospheric turbulence, the applying technologies developed for imager uses a small deformable mirror Clementine (see Year 1994) to look (top left) made of etched silicon with for Massive Compact Halo Objects 4,096 actuators. (MACHOs).

Images of the young star HR4796A revealed a narrow ring around the star (left), which could be dust from asteroids or comets left behind by planet formation. An image of only polarized light (right) more clearly shows starlight scattered by the nearer side of the ring.

Designated OGLE-2005-BLG-290 Lb, adaptive-optic (ExAO) system for the designed for fine focusing employs the newly found planet is composed of Gemini Observatory in Chile. LLNL’s 4,096 tiny microelectromechanical rock and ice, has five times the mass Bruce Macintosh (now at Stanford actuators. GPI produces the fastest of Earth, and orbits a red dwarf star at University) served as principal and clearest images of extrasolar about three times the distance between investigator of the GPI project, an planets ever recorded. Earth and the Sun. It was discovered international partnership. First-light through microlensing, which occurs experiments occurred in November 2013. During its first observations, GPI whenever a distant solar system so captured images of a planet four times closely aligns with the nearby star Sensitive enough to see giant (but the size of Jupiter orbiting the star Beta that the two appear as one image in not Earth-sized) planets, GPI sits Pictoris, 63 light-years from Earth. Two a telescope. The gravity of the nearer on the 8.1-meter-diameter Gemini disks of dense gas and debris were star acts as a lens, bending the path South telescope, at an altitude of also observed. The Beta Pictoris system of the photons from the solar system; 2,715 meters. The size of a small car, and a later discovered Jupiter-like the closer the alignment of the two, the GPI is mounted behind the telescope’s planet orbiting a young star, 51 Eridani, greater the apparent brightness. A primary mirror. LLNL engineers provide clues about the early formation small, 12-hour-long fluctuation in devised a remarkably agile ExAO of solar systems. These discoveries are brightness provided evidence of the system that measures 1,000 times part of an ongoing three-year effort to presence of the orbiting planet. per second the light passing through find and study young Jupiters circling 2,000 control points at the aperture about 600 nearby stars. To image and characterize distant of the telescope. Every thousandth of planets, Livermore scientists and a second, the system adjusts the engineers began in 2005 to develop shapes of two deformable mirrors to a next-generation, dedicated planet- correct for atmospheric distortions. hunting, high-contrast “extreme” The 2.56 centimeter-square mirror

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 120 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 121 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2006 Plutonium Aging

performance. Although the plutonium Researchers used the Determining that Nuclear Weapon isotope used in pits has a half-life of gas gun at the Joint 24,000 years, its decay rate is high Actinide Shock Physics enough to produce a significant amount Experimental Research remanufacture pits, one of the most of damage after only a few decades. facility to simultaneously Pits Age Gracefully shock samples of aged important components comprising a Weapon scientists needed greater nuclear weapon. assurance that a pit would retain its size, and new plutonium. Heading into 2006, there was shape, and strength in the presence of uncertainty about how long aging Many physicists, metallurgists, and an ever-increasing amount of radiation plutonium pits in the U.S. nuclear chemists have worried that the natural damage. Many pits are in deployed deterrent would work. DOE was radiation produced by plutonium weapon systems that are far older than Years of research culminated in 2006 Plutonium continues to age gracefully. considering development of a over many years might sufficiently their originally planned lifetimes. with the announcement that plutonium Ongoing research since 2006 shows new, multibillion-dollar facility to damage the pit, compromising weapon aging would not affect warhead reliability that no unexpected aging issues are In 1997, DOE launched a $100-million for decades. The laboratories’ results appearing in plutonium that has been effort at Livermore and Los Alamos indicated that pit lifetimes were much accelerated to an equivalent of around national laboratories directed at longer than scientists had previously 150 years of age. In addition to lending studying this enigmatic material. estimated. An independent panel of increased confidence in the reliability Livermore scientists used some of scientists, who advise the government and effectiveness of the future stockpile, the most accurate instruments in the on science and technology, reviewed this work helped reinforce the DOE world to measure the microstructural, their work and concurred that the decision that a new pit manufacturing physical, and chemical properties of credible lifetime for most pit types is at facility was not needed at this time, thus plutonium and its alloys. In dynamic least 100 years. saving taxpayers billions of dollars. experiments such as gas-gun tests and static studies using diamond anvil cells, Livermore chemist they examined how Brandon Chung (left) and affects plutonium’s structure, phase mechanical technologist stability, and equation of state (EOS). JASPER Supports Plutonium Aging Studies Kenneth Lema peer They also measured the element’s through a glovebox to density and volume with unprecedented On September 25, 2012, JASPER (the Joint Actinide Shock Physics check the setup on the accuracy and reviewed data from past Experimental Research facility) fired its 100th shot. Located at the dilatometer that measures nuclear tests. Nevada National Security Site, the 20-meter-long, two-stage light the dimensions of gas gun is a key scientific tool for the Stockpile Stewardship Program. plutonium samples. One of the challenges associated with Experiments at JASPER have enabled LLNL scientists to understand forecasting aging effects was that the important properties and behaviors of plutonium. The shots make oldest weapons-grade plutonium made essential contributions to aging studies. The gun can shoot a projectile in the U.S. and available for detailed at up to about 17,000 miles per hour into a chamber containing at a analysis was about 45 years old, taken small plutonium from pits retired from the stockpile. To target, subjecting it simulate the properties of pits many to millions of times decades into the future, researchers atmospheric pressure accelerated the age of samples by and temperatures adding isotopes with shorter half-lives. of thousands of The researchers “spiked” an alloy of degrees. LLNL weapons-grade plutonium-239 with operates JASPER plutonium-238, which has a half-life of in conjunction with 87 years, so that it accumulates radiation the Joint Laboratory damage 16 times faster than weapons- Office–Nevada. grade plutonium alone. Artificially aged samples can then be tested against new and naturally aged samples.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 122 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 123 NATIONAL LABORATORY Climate Change and 2007 Its Impacts A Nobel Peace Prize and the Challenge of Climate Change

In 2007, the Nobel Peace Prize was That year IPCC issued its Fourth shared by the Intergovernmental Panel Assessment Report. In the opening on Climate Change (IPCC) and former acknowledgements of the report, As principal investigator for the Earth Vice President Al Gore for their efforts PCMDI is thanked for “the archiving LLNL chemist Sarah Baker holds a gas chromatography vial used System Grid Federation (ESGF), to build up and disseminate knowledge and distribution of an unprecedented Laboratory researcher Will Smith looks at microcapsules that can to measure the amount of methanol produced by a 3D-printed computer scientist Dean Williams led the about the role human activities play amount of climate model output.” be used to capture carbon dioxide from coal or natural gas-fired enzyme-embedded polymer. The research could lead to more development of a large, interactive data in climate change and to lay the IPCC presented PCMDI a plaque power plants, as well as in industrial processes like steel and efficient conversion of methane to energy production and should and visualization system for researchers foundations for the measures that are with the inscription, “in recognition cement production. be useful in a wide range of applications. from around the world to securely store needed to counteract such change. At of extraordinary contributions to the and share models, analyses, and results the Laboratory’s Program for Climate Fourth Assessment Report.” PCMDI Laboratory scientists authored sections carbon dioxide (CO2), confining it practical as a zero-emission fuel for along with observational data. ESGF Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison has made major contributions to of reports and provided comparisons within the shell. Once saturated, the transportation, and they are part of a supported the fourth assessment report (PCMDI), more than 40 LLNL all five IPCC reports, from the First and assessments of worldwide climate microcapsules are emptied of the CO2 Laboratory–industry collaboration that of the Intergovernmental Panel on employees were delighted with and Assessment Report in 1990 to the models that feed into IPCC conclusions in an environmentally benign manner designed a tractor-trailer truck with Climate Change. honored by the choice (see Year 1992). Fifth Assessment Report in 2013. and recommendations. and ready for reuse. Another team of 104 percent improved fuel efficiency. LLNL researchers combined LLNL is also leading the multilaboratory Moreover, PCMDI researchers provide and 3D printing to create the first DOE HPC for Manufacturing Program, valuable database support to the global chemical reactor that can continuously which provides HPC expertise to help climate analysis community; work on produce methanol from methane U.S. industry advance innovative key issues such as ocean warming, (a potent greenhouse gas) at room clean energy technologies, reduce cloud modeling, and natural climate temperature and pressure. energy and resource consumption, and fluctuations; and conduct studies of strengthen competitiveness. human influence on climate. Comparing More broadly, LLNL is applying past data records with the results from expertise in high-performance As part of a Navistar SuperTruck I climate models and satellite records, computing (HPC), additive team, Livermore helped design a they work with colleagues worldwide manufacturing (see Year 2014), and new type of tractor-trailer truck that to better understand contributing materials science to enhance the significantly improves fuel economy. factors to climate change and improve nation’s energy and resource security. Full-scale wind tunnel tests of the predictions of expected variations. For example, Laboratory scientists design have been conducted at the are working to make liquid hydrogen NASA Ames Research Center. Facing the prospect of significant climate change, Laboratory researchers are devising innovative “negative emissions” technologies—eliminating the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Livermore scientists, along with collaborators, developed a new type of carbon-capture media composed of core-shell microcapsules, which consist of a highly permeable polymer shell and a fluid made up of sodium carbonate solution (simple baking soda found in grocery stores). The fluid reacts with and absorbs

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 124 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 125 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2008 RSTT LLNL engineer Justin Jones inspects the interface at the top of the high-explosives canister in preparation for the Source Physics Experiment-6 test, which was Detecting Clandestine Nuclear conducted at the Nevada National Security Site in October 2016. Explosions In 2008, Lawrence Livermore, capabilities to detect and locate low- locate using regional seismic data Los Alamos, and Sandia national yield nuclear explosions. The four- because the propagation of regional laboratories were working with the year-long effort, which began in 2006, signals depends on local geological U.S. Air Force Technical Applications earned Myers an Ernest O. Lawrence details. Because of these geological Center (AFTAC) to produce the first Award for his leadership of the project. variations, event location could not be 3D model of the Earth specifically for pinpointed by using signal travel times monitoring nuclear tests. Led by LLNL’s Before the development of RSTT, to various regional seismic stations. Stephen Myers, the collaborators detection of small-yield events RSTT includes a worldwide digital Physics Experiments (SPEs) are being Lawrence Livermore is also developed the Regional Seismic was problematic. The weak signal 3D model of the seismic properties conducted at the Nevada National partnering with Los Alamos, Pacific Travel Time (RSTT) technology, which challenged the ability to use long-range of Earth’s crust and upper mantle, Security Site. These highly instrumented Northwest, and Sandia national dramatically improved international seismic data. Events were difficult to which makes it possible to accurately underground, high-explosives tests laboratories in the Low Yield Nuclear calculate travel times and incorporate provide data to improve capabilities Monitoring Program, a five-year regional seismic data. Small-yield to detect and identify low-yield collaborative initiative to address An improved version of events are detected quickly and with nuclear explosions amid the clutter key obstacles that hamper detection RSTT called LLNL-Global 3D an accuracy once achieved only of conventional explosions and small of low-yield nuclear tests. The (G3D) is used to simulate with large, globally recorded events. To earthquakes. Phase I of the SPE series, research focuses on signature the waves generated by a date, the United States has sponsored which consisted of six experiments, discovery, understanding, and hypothetical seismic event. six workshops to share the RSTT concluded in October 2016. signature exploitation. The seismic waves (the technology with 67 nations. yellow lines) are shown propagating through the AFTAC and the Preparatory Commission Earth’s interior. Added to for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- South Napa Earthquake Simulation the simulation image are Ban Treaty use RSTT to monitor nuclear representations of the events around the world, including Laboratory seismologists used supercomputers to simulate the ground surface waves. those in North Korea. The existence of a motion of the magnitude 6.0 south Napa earthquake on August 24, cluster of events in North Korea enables 2014. The University of California at Berkeley’s Seismology Laboratory RSTT to determine event location even provided descriptions of the earthquake source, and high-resolution more precisely. Seismologists have LLNL simulations determined how the rupture process affected the been able to pinpoint the locations of region’s 3D geological structure. The simulations also examined the five North Korean underground nuclear impact of surface details on local ground motion. Comparison with tests—in 2006, 2009, 2013, and two observed data serves to improve models, making them better tools to in 2016—within about 100 meters study future earthquake scenarios. accuracy when the location of one event is known. In addition, LLNL researchers have built upon the RSTT model and extended it to the center of the Earth, an additional depth of more than 6,000 kilometers. The Laboratory is pursuing even-more-accurate 3D models to better detect small clandestine nuclear explosions.

The NNSA laboratories and collaborators continue efforts to improve detection capabilities. Source

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 126 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 127 NATIONAL LABORATORY NIF Dedication 2009 NIF experiments require specially- designed, precision-fabricated targets, such as the one shown, which is used to study how to manage instability growth and achieve the fuel density conditions A Mainstay for Stockpile Stewardship needed to achieve fusion ignition. laser is a crucial element of NNSA’s and HED Science Stockpile Stewardship Program. NIF creates high-energy-density (HED) conditions—temperatures The National Ignition Facility (NIF) was Year for 2010. The award recognizes the of 100 million degrees and pressures formally dedicated on May 29, 2009, year’s most innovative and successful 100 billion times that of the Earth’s exactly 12 years to the day after its project. The effort was completed atmosphere—similar to those in stars groundbreaking. Prominent dignitaries on budget and on time according to and detonating nuclear weapons. Upgrades to NIF are dramatically and more than 3,500 guests attended the construction schedule that was improving diagnostic capabilities. the ceremony, portions of which rebaselined in 2000 (see Year 1997). Campaigns of HED science Technicians inspect a mirror (left) in were aired live on network television. experiments at NIF explore wide- the Advanced Radiographic Capability Construction of NIF, the world’s largest Because NIF is the only facility ranging phenomena central to stockpile (ARC), which will be used to produce laser, was honored by the Project that can create the conditions that stewardship. The experiments provide an x-ray “movie” to diagnose NIF target Management Institute as a facility are relevant to understanding the valuable data about the properties implosions with tens-of-picoseconds “pushing beyond the state of the art,” operation of modern nuclear weapons, of materials at extreme conditions, resolution. In addition, a new Target earning the prestigious Project of the the 192-beam, 1.8-million joule the interaction of matter with intense and Diagnostic Manipulator (TANDM, radiation, and hydrodynamic turbulence shown below) is being used with a and mixing. These issues are critical newly installed Advanced Tracking Laser to understanding nuclear weapons Alignment System to further enhance performance and improving the the efficiency of NIF operations. predictability and results of fusion- ignition experiments (see Year 2013). Achieving ignition is a vital goal in support of stockpile stewardship and provides an option for long-term energy security.

As the world’s premier HED science experimental facility, NIF is also operated as a user facility for the scientific community with an unprecedented capability for studying materials at extreme conditions. While the defining mission of NIF is stockpile stewardship, experiments also support broader The demand for experimental time many process improvements, new national security needs. In addition, a to use NIF’s unique capabilities has equipment and technologies are Discovery Science program provides always exceeded supply. The NIF team reducing the time between shots. opportunities for researchers to explore took steps to dramatically increase With the combination of enhanced conditions that exist in the core of shot opportunities in response to this diagnostics, improved capabilities planets and re-create at miniscule demand and budget constraints. to manufacture complex targets, scale puzzling energetic phenomena These efforts benefited from the results and the development of new observed by astronomers. The NIF of a NIF efficiency improvement study types of experimental platforms, User Group includes researchers from requested by Congress and conducted faster progress is possible in HED DOE national laboratories, international by the NIF team in partnership with science for stockpile stewardship. Laboratory Director George H. Miller introduces dignitaries at the NIF dedication ceremony held in May 2009 (top). The facility required fusion energy researchers, scientists the other NNSA laboratories. The shot The range of innovative HED more than 55,000 cubic meters of concrete, 7,600 tons of reinforcing steel rebar, and 5,000 tons of structural steel. The giant laser has from academia, and other national and rate increased from 191 in FY 2014 experiments that can be performed nearly 40,000 optics that precisely guide, reflect, amplify, and focus 192 laser beams onto a target about the size of a pencil eraser. international users. to 415 in FY 2016. In addition to at NIF is ever expanding.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 128 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 129 NATIONAL LABORATORY The 21st century presents an expanding array of challenges and an ever-changing security environment. Nuclear deterrence remains the ultimate security guarantee for the United States; yet, we face tensions with increasingly bold actors in a complex strategic environment with growing threats in multiple security domains. We must be prepared for surprises.

As a “new ideas” laboratory, our mission is to strengthen the nation’s security through cutting-edge science, technology, and engineering. Livermore’s first priority is to sustain the nation’s nuclear arsenal. Responsible for the next two warhead life- extension programs, LLNL is pursuing innovations in materials The Tens A “new ideas” laboratory for the 21st century and manufacturing to transform the NNSA weapons complex by expediting production, lowering costs, and delivering systems that are safer and more secure.

Research at the frontiers of science and technology underlies our ability to deliver cutting-edge solutions to the nation’s most pressing challenges. Leadership in high-performance computing, for example, is enabling predictive simulations and extraction of information from “big data” for applications ranging from bioinformatics to persistent surveillance. Expertise in materials New science and engineering, combined with unique experimental Leadership capabilities, makes possible development of advanced neurological sensors, discovery of new elements and new planets, Penrose C. Albright Bret E. Knapp William H. Goldstein and progress toward a clean energy future. (2011 • 2013) (2013 • 2014) (2014 • Present) Acting Director

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 130 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 131 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2010 BLU-129/B Development of a New Precision program with the Department Materials scientist of Defense (DOD) coupled with Jennifer Rodriguez Livermore’s signature capability of examines a high- Munition—in 18 Months performance pairing high-performance computing (HPC) simulations with focused carbon composite The U.S. Air Force had an urgent need the newly designed munition. The first experiments to accelerate technology part, created using for a game-changing conventional BLU-129/B was delivered to the theater development. Ongoing work as part of the 3D direct-ink munition. U.S. troops were on the of operations in 2011, 18 months after the Joint DOD/Department of Energy writing process ground in increasingly crowded the effort began. The Air Force had a Munitions Technology Development newly developed at battlefields, and air support was limited munition fully capable of being safely Program provided excellent options— LLNL. Carbon fiber by the risk of collateral damage. A team deployed near friendly soldiers and disruptive new technologies—for structural material of LLNL researchers answered the call. noncombatants. high explosives and case materials to has important Within nine months, they completed minimize collateral damage. Scientists applications prototype development, a process that The breakthrough design of a low- and engineers were able to rapidly in aerospace, typically takes four to six years, and collateral-damage munition and its converge on a production-ready design transportation, provided the manufacturer with most expeditious development was the that optimized performance through and defense. of the tooling needed to assemble product of a long-running munitions iterations of experiments and detailed HPC simulations of material behavior An experiment team including (from left) under extreme conditions. Dennis Freeman, Lee Griffith (behind the Supporting the Warfighter device), and David Hiromoto positions a The BLU-129/B uses a new type of munition case prior to structural testing. explosive charge called multiphase In addition to developing advanced conventional munitions, LLNL This testing was part of LLNL’s rapid blast explosive (MBX). Experiments is providing the DOD Combatant Commands with timely, actionable development of the BLU-129/B munition conducted by the Air Force Weapons intelligence to the warfighter to combat the spread of weapons of mass for the U.S. Air Force, completed in the Laboratory had revealed that a target destruction. In the early 1990s after the Gulf War, LLNL developed the short span of 18 months. The munition subjected to an MBX detonation concept of combining intelligence with engineering assessments of is designed to be more effective against experienced a greater impulse of industrial sites and processes to help in planning military operations the intended target and reduce collateral energy than did targets subjected to potentially involving weapons of mass destruction facilities and other damage—both critical concerns for other explosive compositions. The high- industrial hazards. In 1994, when the U.S. military began extensive warfighting in urban environments. explosive confines damage to a small counterproliferation planning, LLNL was well-prepared to work closely zone near the target location. The use with military planners to establish the Counterproliferation Analysis and of MBX also made it possible to replace Planning Systems (CAPS) program. LLNL operates CAPS and is often metal, which is a source of shrapnel, called upon on short notice by the Intelligence Community, DOD, and with carbon fiber as the case material. the Combatant Commands to respond to urgent science and technology The BLU-129/B’s carbon-fiber composite Combined use of MBX and a carbon queries and taskings in times of crises. case produces no lethal fragments when the fiber composite case greatly reduces munition is detonated. The case also weighs collateral damage. much less than a conventional steel case. Development activities greatly benefited characteristics. LLNL’s HPC modeling This weapon exemplifies a new class from Livermore’s growing expertise in capabilities helped researchers of innovative munitions, integrating modeling and fabricating composite optimize case materials to meet disruptive technologies that significantly materials such as carbon fiber. stringent operational and performance reduce unnecessary loss of life. The Composites are made from two or more requirements. The BLU-129/B’s carbon- ability to couple sophisticated guidance chemically and physically different fiber composite case has the strength systems with weapons that have a materials that when combined can be to withstand penetration into concrete more accurate lethal footprint has been “tailored” to deliver specific effects. The structures and produces no lethal profound. The BLU-129/B has been pattern in which the fibers are wound fragments on detonation. The total in service since 2011, and in 2017, it further control the composite’s precise system weight is also greatly reduced. entered into a third production run.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 132 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 133 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2011 LLMDA

Bioinformatics for Biosecurity and LMAT: Livermore Analysis Toolkit wounds, and studying human archeological remains. Soon it will Today, it is possible to identify microbial pathogens in a sample without Human Health be in the International Space Station any prior knowledge of the organisms present. DNA extracted from the monitoring the presence of microbes sample can be sequenced to recover short genetic fragments, which that might pose health threats. can be compared to accumulated genomic data. The huge challenge, In 2011, researchers reported results rapid, low-cost tests successfully addressed by the developers of the Livermore Metagenomics Analysis from an early application of the newly confirmed the results found by the The heart of LLMDA is a microarray Toolkit (LMAT), is that genomic data is 115 gigabases in size and developed Lawrence Livermore institute’s laborious DNA sequencing of (about one inch square) filled with constantly growing. LLNL researchers successfully addressed the Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA), all the genetic materials in the vaccines. distinct microspots, called probes, big-data search problem using one of the Laboratory’s most advanced a tool for rapid detection of bacteria, where strands of DNA are attached to computers and then devised a means to use cloud computing to make viruses, and other organisms. Working Since then, LLNL has worked with a surface. The latest version of LLMDA, LMAT widely available to other researchers. with the San Francisco-based Blood more than three dozen collaborators the Axiom Microbiome array, can Systems Research Institute, Laboratory from seven nations employing LLMDA handle up to 96 samples in separate Laboratory researchers tested the dual use of LLMDA and LMAT in a scientists used LLMDA to test whether in widespread applications: better microarrays. Each microarray has study on microbial infections and the healing of U.S. soldiers’ wounds. The samples of seven live, attenuated understanding diseases, advancing 1.4 million probes and can detect combination of technologies provided an efficient means for associating viral vaccines used for infants were health care, detecting animal diseases, 12,513 different microorganisms, the presence of certain bacteria with the rate of healing, information that contaminated with other viruses. The improving treatment of U.S. soldiers’ including 6,901 bacteria, 4,770 viruses, can help clinicians make more informed treatment decisions. 381 fungi, 370 archaea, and 91 protozoa. And the detection work can be performed within a 24-hour period. LLMDA has been commercialized and is now available in high-throughput format, LLMDA features aggregates of probes arranged processing 96 samples at a time. in a square grid. The grid has hundreds of thousands of squares, and each square holds LLNL’s expertise in bioinformatics millions of copies of a single probe. Several and high-performance computing, dozen squares on the grid contain probes that combined with a biotechnology correspond to unique genetic sequences from advance, led to the invention of LLMDA. a single organism. After the anthrax letter scare in 2001 (see Year 2001), the Laboratory’s bioinformatics group, focused on biosecurity, began to build computer software that would search for unique “signatures”—spanning 100 to 200 DNA bases—in bacterial and viral Illustration by Sabrina Fletcher. pathogens. The application, called KPATH, efficiently tackled the “big data” problem of finding unique signatures which adequate genomic sequences design a microarray in which the large among all other already-sequenced are available. number of probes would have different human and microbial genes. When DNA sequences, providing signatures a sudden outbreak of severe acute The same year as the SARS outbreak, of microorganisms for which there is respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred Thomas Slezak, the bioinformatics interest. Complementary advanced in 2003, the Centers for Disease Control group leader, conceived of LLMDA software could then determine what and Prevention sought help from LLNL, when he learned of an important microbes are in a tested sample based and KPATH produced several candidate technology breakthrough in on sequences that match between signatures in three hours. The team has microarray technology: DNA probes of a probe and sample DNA that has a LLNL biologist Crystal Jaing is preparing to insert the LLMDA array into the microarray scanner. Results are then displayed developed DNA-based signatures for 60 or more bases became possible. fluorescent tag for detection with at nearby computer monitor. virtually every biothreat pathogen for This advance made it feasible to a laser. The idea worked.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 134 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 135 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2012 Livermorium LLNL Director Parney Albright (left) accepts a proclamation from Livermore Mayor John Marchand during the naming of 116 S. Livermore Avenue as New Superheavy Elements for Livermorium Plaza. With the discovery of Livermorium, the city of Livermore is one of only six cities to have an element the Periodic Table named after it on the periodic table.

Livermore entered the history books on day. The name flerovium honors Georgy May 30, 2012, when the International N. Flerov, the head of the Laboratory of Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Nuclear Reactions, later named the Flerov (IUPAC) adopted the name livermorium Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, which Livermore nuclear chemist John for element 116, in honor of the is part of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Despotopulos (below) works with discovery team at Lawrence Livermore Research in Dubna, Russia. Livermore the Laboratory’s automated ion National Laboratory and the City of chemist Ken Hulet met Professor Flerov chromatography fraction collection Livermore. The city and the Laboratory at an international meeting in 1989, system, which can chemically separate jointly celebrate the discovery of and the two agreed to join forces to up to 12 samples simultaneously. The the element on Livermorium Day, create new superheavy elements using capability supports many LLNL missions, May 30th, each year at Livermorium the U400 cyclotron at Dubna. During including studies of the properties of the Plaza (located, coincidently, at 116 S. 40 days of virtually continuous operations newly discovered elements. Livermore Avenue). in November–December 1998, an American–Russian team accelerated Livermorium and flerovium (element 114) ten-thousand trillion calcium-48 (a rare per hour to about 10 percent the speed joined the periodic table on the same isotope of calcium with 48 neutrons) ions of light and bombarded plutonium-244. On November 22, 1998, they created the first atom of flerovium-289, which lived for 30.4 seconds before decaying. In 2000 and 2001, the collaborators performed three sets of experiments with curium-284 targets and produced livermorium-292, once in each campaign.

This LLNL–Dubna team has discovered six elements (for some, with additional key collaborators) —113, 114, 115, 116, 117, and 118. All six elements have been officially named: 113-nihonium; of other superheavy elements, typically elements. Many fundamental questions 114-flerovium; 115-moscovium; measured in micro- or nanoseconds. remain about the limitations of matter 116-livermorium; 117-tennessine; and Superheavy elements on the island and its chemical behavior at the far end 118-oganesson. (IUPAC recognized have more spherical shape and should of the periodic table. Japanese scientists at RIKEN as the be more stable. The discovery of official discoverers of element 113, livermorium and flerovium—on the edge Discovery and exploration of the though Russian and U.S. teams found of the island of stability—demonstrated properties of superheavy elements the element a few years earlier.) its existence. Researchers are probing is just one facet of Laboratory core the new elements’ chemical properties capabilities in radiochemistry. Expertise These discoveries are important steps and exploring ways to create more of in radiochemistry provided essential in the quest for the “island of stability,” their isotopes. The Livermore–Dubna support to the nuclear test program, and a predicted region of superheavy team is also awaiting construction of interest in the field is expanding again elements on the chart of nuclides with an additional dedicated accelerator at with applications in national and global half-lives that are longer by several Dubna, which should greatly increase security, energy security, environmental orders of magnitude than the half-lives the production rate of superheavy stewardship, and human health.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 136 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 137 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2013 Self-Heating Progress on the Path to Fusion and Energy Gain On August 13, 2013, researchers These successful shots were part of progress in identifying impediments conducted the first of a series of a “high-foot” campaign. The high-foot to success and exploring ways to experiments at the National Ignition laser pulse is shaped in a way that overcome them. One impediment is Facility (NIF) that clearly demonstrated reduces hydrodynamic instabilities associated with poor control of the self-heating, a mechanism needed to and breakup of the imploding capsule overall symmetry of the x-ray pulse achieve fusion ignition and sustained shell; however, overall compression in created by the laser beam impinging on fusion burn. The shot imploded a tiny the implosion is insufficient for ignition. the walls of the hohlraum, the open- cryogenically cooled deuterium–tritium Experimental results were remarkably ended cylinder containing the target capsule and produced a record number close to simulations that modeled capsule. Drive symmetry is needed to of neutrons (3 x 1015). In March 2014, asymmetries and some engineering implode the target uniformly to about a subsequent experiment increased details. Seeing how these higher 30 times smaller diameter, create a LLNL researchers prepare the neutron yield to 9.3 x 1015. Alpha velocity implosions behaved was central hot spot, and ignite the fuel. for an experiment at NIF. particles (helium nuclei) from fusion important for understanding Photo credit: Don Jedlovec. Every aspect of a shot is reactions further heated the plasma and identifying other issues that To improve target performance, checked and monitored in in a central spot and produced more affect performance. researchers have been investigating A colorized image shows a NIF “big foot” deuterium–tritium (DT) implosion (left) conducted NIF’s NASA-inspired Control than half of the total fusion yield a complex set of trade-offs among on February 7, 2016. The shot used a shortened three-shock pulse, a thinner DT ice layer, Room, where operators (27 kilojoules). The fusion yield was Achieving fusion ignition and energy hohlraum designs and gas fills, and and a subscale diamond ablator. Other experiments are testing whether rugby-ball-shaped access data through a considerably more than the energy gain at NIF is a grand scientific they experimented with high-density hohlraums (right) can better control the drive symmetry on the target capsule. hierarchy of on-screen imparted to the imploding deuterium– challenge. Experimental campaigns, carbon (diamond) target capsules graphics menus. tritium fuel. such as the high-foot shots, are making with a low-level fill of helium in the hohlraum. With less helium, the interaction between the laser light Finding a Balance and Understanding Boost and the helium plasma is reduced so that 20 to 25 percent more x rays As the Stockpile Stewardship Program began, weapon designers faced radiate the capsule. However, the two key scientific challenges: energy balance and boost. Energy balance laser pulse must be shorter so as not pertains to “missing energy” in the sophisticated simulation codes used to to be partially blocked by the faster design weapons. Nuclear tests had gathered data used to adjust for this ingress of the expanding hohlraum missing energy. One of the most notable accomplishments of science- walls that are less restrained by helium. based stockpile stewardship was a theoretical explanation, modeled Because of diamond’s high density with high-performance computing (HPC) and validated by experiments, compared to other capsule materials, including shots at NIF. the capsules work with the shorter pulse length and produce higher efficiency, Livermore physicist Omar Hurricane won the Ernest O. Lawrence Award more symmetric implosions. The for creating the energy balance model and leading a team over a 10- experiments are enabling a closer look year effort that solved the mystery of missing energy. Subsequently, he at engineering features that impact the led the “high-foot” campaign. Boost, the use of thermonuclear reactions implosion, such as the fill tube and the to enhance the yield of a weapon’s primary, also needs to be better capsule support. understood. That will require continued advances in HPC and future experiments at NIF including progress toward achieving ignition. Hydrodynamic instabilities in the imploding capsule present another set of issues—they can perforate the confining shell and they can “tent”—an ultrathin membrane that significant sources of material mixing contaminate the hot spot through supports the target capsule inside the that reduce neutron yield. Researchers the mixing of materials into the fuel. hohlraum— and the tube that fills the are considering design options to Experiments demonstrated that the target with deuterium–tritium fuel are reduce these effects.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 138 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 139 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2014 Additive Manufacturing LLNL researchers have made graphene aerogel microlattices with an engineered architecture using direct ink writing. 21st-Century Production of Tailor-Made The material’s exceptional properties will make for better energy storage and Materials and Components nanoelectronics. based cushions and pads. The LLNL’s Laboratory Directed starting materials—that are important Laboratory then partnered with Kansas Research and Development Program for mission applications and not City National Security Campus to investments in the early 2010s commercially available. bring the technology into the NNSA launched an explosion of interest manufacturing enterprise. The team and remarkable advances in additive By integrating manufacturing expertise, received an NNSA Award of Excellence Illustratiion by Ryan Chen. manufacturing (AM). Often in the precision engineering, materials science, in 2015 for exceptional creativity in form of 3D printing, AM typically adds and high-performance computing, developing the AM process for cushions successive layers of materials to LLNL’s AM research has led to innovative carbon fiber composites to precision development, assist in production and pads. LLNL researchers have precisely fabricate objects that may multifunctional materials for stockpile optical glass; from blood vessels to high certification, reduce manufacturing also made DIW-printed engineered be designed to have very complex stewardship, global security, and explosives; and from polymers to metals costs, and improve quality and graphene aerogel microlattices— geometries. The focus has been energy security. Materials of interest and ceramics of all sorts. performance of components. An strong, lightweight, and compressible to advance those technologies— have ranged from aerogels with special example is the advance of direct ink materials for use in high-performance together with “ink” and “dry powder” structural properties to actinides; from A principal driver behind the focus on writing (DIW) to manufacture cushions supercapacitors. AM was Livermore’s responsibility to and pads, which are used in nuclear lead for NNSA the next two warhead weapons to absorb shocks and fill gaps The combination of well-diagnosed life-extension programs (LEPs, see between components. experiments and high-performance Year 2016). The combination of computing simulations of material thorough integration of simulation and At first, LLNL researchers collaborated behavior is critical to many advances. experiments (see Year 2010) and AM with the inventor of DIW to adapt the For example, Laboratory scientists promises to accelerate design and technology for printing the polymer- have made key discoveries about defect formation in the 3D printing of metals and ways to prevent it. Researchers have also succeeded in printing aerospace-grade carbon fiber composites. They mastered the flow of carbon fiber filaments through the DIW nozzle and the chemistry for curing the material quickly.

The growing AM effort has attracted many talented scientists and engineers to Livermore, including more than 40 postdoctoral researchers. More than 80 invention disclosures and 50 patent applications have been filed. Many academic collaborations are under way, as are nearly a dozen cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) and industry- related projects. In 2016, construction Livermore AM technician Manuel Iniguez holds a metal part produced in partnership of the 13,000-square-foot Advanced Engineer Eric Duoss examines models of new ultralight structures Laboratory researchers have fabricated by AM. The team with the Y-12 National Security Complex. This match drill fixture is the first additively Manufacturing Laboratory began at has developed, for example, micro-architected metamaterials—artificial materials with properties not found in nature—that manufactured part to be qualified for NNSA production and takes one-fifth the labor hours the Livermore Valley Open Campus to can withstand a load of at least 160,000 times their own weight. to produce as compared with previous manufacturing methods. further expand collaborations.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 140 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 141 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2015 Neural Implants Neural Implants, Plus a Human- LLNL’s tiny thin-film electrode In 2014–2015, LLNL’s Neural traumatic stress disorder. The system will array, compared to the size on-a-Chip of a dime, uses complex Technologies Group launched several be capable of autonomous, closed loop flagship projects under the White House sense-and-stimulate therapy. electronics connections to BRAIN initiative. The initiative aims to stimulate and record neural build the next-generation brain interfaces In collaboration with Case Western signals. The implantable for human therapeutic use and for Reserve University, Laboratory device offers a wide range advancing fundamental understanding engineers also began building a of treatment applications, of the brain. Supported by the Defense prototype neural system to enable from Parkinson’s disease to Advanced Research Projects Agency naturalistic feeling and dexterous seizures or depression. and the National Institutes of Health, control of prosthetic limbs for wounded LLNL engineers and researchers warfighters. Additionally, an LLNL– brain cells simultaneously. The ultimate for exposure to agents whose effects four major biological systems vital from the University of California at UCSF team started work on an goal is to develop arrays with 1,000- are unknown to humans. Its use in to life: the central nervous system San Francisco (UCSF) began to design electrode array system for studying plus channels that can be expanded to testing new pharmaceuticals could (up to four different types of brain and build an advanced, human- brain activity at unprecedented 10,000 channels. dramatically accelerate the drug cells), peripheral nervous system, implantable neuromodulation system resolution. They are designing and development process. the blood–brain barrier (which keeps to treat neuropsychiatric conditions, building electrode arrays that can The keys to success in these projects potential toxins outside the brain), such as anxiety, depression, and post- record from hundreds to thousands of are LLNL’s expertise in nano- In 2014, LLNL scientists used the iCHIP and the heart. Future work includes and microtechnologies and their platform to expose isolated human the integration of these systems— development of novel materials that dorsal root ganglia nerve cells, which and the addition of other organs—to make devices biocompatible and form part of the peripheral nervous create a complete testing platform. A fully implantable for long-term use, system, to capsaicin (responsible for new bioprinting facility is facilitating supported by a dedicated Medical the burning sensation in chili peppers) work on 3D printing of biological Device Fabrication Facility. Laboratory and quantified cell response. By 2017, tissues and organ structures with researchers have continued to improve researchers reproduced on iCHIP novel bioinks. key technologies since their first major success in 2009: LLNL led a multi- institutional team in the design and fabrication of an artificial retina—a fully implantable neural prosthetic that restores a sense of vision to people who have lost their sight because of ocular disease. LLNL engineers were responsible for systems integration and contributed three major components to the artificial retina program.

In addition to the development of neural implants, LLNL researchers applied their expertise and unique capabilities to create a “human- on-a-chip.” The in vitro chip-based human investigational platform (iCHIP) Illustratiion by Ryan Chen. combines living primary human cells, tissue engineering, and microfluidics Through “heart-on-a-chip” technology—modeling a human heart on an engineered chip Laboratory engineer Vanessa Tolosa holds up an implantable flexible electrode array. Capable of monitoring and stimulating thousands of to reproduce the body’s physiological and measuring the effects of compound exposure using microelectrodes—Laboratory neurons for years, the technology leverages LLNL work on the groundbreaking artificial retina project (top), which developed and applied response under an array of conditions. researchers hope to ensure potentially lifesaving new drugs are safe and effective while biologically compatible micro-technologies to restore eyesight. The iCHIP serves as a testing platform reducing the need for human and animal testing.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 142 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 143 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2016 W80-4 LEP

A critical need for the Extending the Stockpile Life of an W80-4 LEP is to qualify and remanufacture additional insensitive high explosives to be used in the Aging Warhead refurbished warheads. Work on the processing (e.g., The W80 thermonuclear warhead Standoff Missile being developed shaping and machining) of entered service in 1982 with a 20-year in parallel by the U.S. Air Force. batches of high-explosive design life. Its delivery system, a long- Designated the W80-4, this will be the materials for testing range cruise missile developed by the first warhead designed for use with a purposes is conducted in U.S. Air Force, had a 10-year design new missile or delivery system since facilities at the Laboratory’s Hydrodynamic experiments performed life. After more than three decades in nuclear testing ended in 1992. The remote Site 300. at Livermore’s Contained Firing Facility service, researchers are now working in design options being considered for (CFF) and at Los Alamos provide essential earnest to extend the life of the warhead the W80-4 are cost-conscious and offer support to the W80-4 LEP. A recent and replace the missile. improvements to weapon safety, security, upgrade for the Flash X-Ray machine and effectiveness. First production of the (below) in the CFF provides the capability LLNL is partnered with Sandia National W80-4 is planned for 2025. to take two images during a single Laboratories to develop and certify experiment, enabling researchers to follow the refurbished W80 warhead, which In 2016, the W80-4 life-extension Phase 6.2, during which the project the time evolution of implosions. is designed for the new Long-Range program (LEP) was in the midst of team must down-select among options generated in Phase 6.1. A mature set of requirements has been defined, business systems put in place to track schedule and budget, and NNSA made significant investments to recapitalize critical infrastructure at the Laboratory. In support of the LEP, researchers have initiated the first sets of major non-nuclear experiments, and LLNL’s exceptional high-performance computing capabilities are being LLNL engineers and materials scientists developed a method to additively manufacture heavily used to study and refine cushions and pads that protect and position components within a nuclear weapon. Use design options. of AM lowers production costs and allows for precise control of the material properties, which improves the predictability of performance. A major challenge of extending the life of the W80 is refurbishing materials and The design and certification process the fiscal year provided important components that cannot be produced will require innovations and extensive data in support of an option for the exactly as originally manufactured. For use of world-class computational W80-4 using AM. instance, the main explosive charge and experimental resources. An area needs replacing; however, the original of significant innovation at LLNL is As efforts on the W80-4 LEP continue, producers of the high-explosive the use of additive manufacturing Livermore scientists and engineers constituents are either no longer in (AM) to improve the quality and are looking ahead to resuming work business or have made production reduce the cost of parts for weapons on the LEP for the first interoperable process changes. Accordingly, LLNL has undergoing LEPs (see Year 2014). warhead (IW1) for ballistic missile been working with the current material Major achievements in 2016 included systems in the stockpile. These two manufacturers to reconstitute the facilities producing AM parts for testing and LEPs offer opportunities to introduce and modify processes necessary for developing refined capabilities to processes and technologies into the production, and researchers have started control the microstructure and physical NNSA nuclear weapons complex to the process of reformulating the material properties of these parts. Two major speed up design-to-production and (see Year 1976). hydrodynamic tests conducted during lower costs.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 144 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 145 NATIONAL LABORATORY 2017 Sierra Sierra, the Future of Supercomputing, and the Laboratory

The history and the future of Lawrence in April 1953. On the 65th anniversary Livermore National Laboratory and of LLNL, computer scientists are busy supercomputing are deeply intertwined. adapting their simulation codes so that Before the doors opened for business they run proficiently on Sierra, which is on September 2, 1952, the Laboratory’s being delivered to Livermore and will Sierra (left), built by IBM and being delivered in 2017–2018, is the next in a long line of supercomputers at LLNL. The Laboratory and IBM founders ordered delivery of a Univac-1, be one of the world’s most capable Research are exploring another approach to supercomputing with the 16-chip TrueNorth platform (right), delivered in 2016. It is a first-of-a- the world’s most powerful computer supercomputers when fully operational kind brain-inspired platform for deep learning for complex cognitive tasks such as pattern recognition. at the time. After taking a crash in 2018. course in the new art of computer programming, Livermore scientists The remarkable advances the Laboratory with U.S. industry to push the state of the Computer used the machine while it was at the has made in nuclear weapons design art in high-performance computing (HPC) scientists Adam vendor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and engineering stem from a continuing and then effectively integrate scientific Bertsch (left) untill the Univac’s delivery to Livermore unchanged practice: work hand-in-hand and engineering simulations with more and Pythagoras expensive, time-consuming testing to Watson examine move innovative ideas to final products. components of This approach to problem solving the Sierra early- permeates all mission areas at LLNL. access machine, It is particularly essential for stockpile which is being stewardship. In the absence of explosive used to help nuclear testing, experiments test aspects prepare codes of nuclear weapons performance. They to run on the full also provide data to validate simulation version of Sierra models used to support integrated as soon as it assessments of the condition of aging comes online. nuclear weapons and extend their stockpile life. Sierra is expected to provide four to six Sierra is an important next step toward Sierra, the next-generation times the sustained performance and exascale computing, an essential goal supercomputer built by IBM, is a result handle five to seven times the workload for long-term success in stockpile of DOE’s Collaboration of Oak Ridge, of Sequoia. Sited at Livermore and stewardship. LLNL is one of six Argonne, and Livermore (CORAL) serving the needs of the three NNSA laboratories helping to execute the initiative, a three-laboratory partnership laboratories, Sequoia is NNSA’s fastest Exascale Computing Project (ECP), of NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and supercomputer at 20 quadrillion (1015) a collaborative effort between DOE’s Computing (ASC) Program and the floating-point operations per second. and NNSA, that is Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific With its advanced architecture that performing the necessary research Computing Research Program. In 2018, includes graphics processing units, and development for efficient exascale- with support from ASC and institutional the new machine is five times more class systems. Benefiting from the LLNL scientists (from left), Vladimir Tomov, Tzanio Kolev, and Veselin Dobrev examine a simulation that is representative of funding, LLNL will also take delivery of energy efficient than Sequoia; however, results of ECP, current plans are the type of computing methods that will be needed on future supercomputers. As part of the DOE’s Exascale Computing a smaller, unclassified companion to restructuring existing and designing for NNSA to fund the delivery of an Project, Livermore is leading a co-design center, the Center for Efficient Exascale Discretizations. Co-development of Sierra to provide the most advanced new software to run efficiently on exascale computer to LLNL in 2023. It the software ecosystem, the hardware technology, and a new generation of applications is necessary to ensure all the computing capabilities to all program Sierra—and anticipated future is an exciting prospect for the future of components work together as a system. and mission areas at the Laboratory. supercomputers—is a challenge. HPC and the Laboratory.

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 146 NATIONAL LABORATORY LAWRENCE LIVERMORE 147 NATIONAL LABORATORY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writers Contributors

Gorgiana Alonzo Paul Brown Steve Azevedo Beverly Bull Breanna Bishop Hriar Cabayan Sheri Jay Chase Cindy Cassady Paul Chu Paul Chrzanowski Fred Coensgen T. R. Girill Tom Crites Arnie Heller Roger Cunning Kate Hunts Ken Kent Johnson Sybil Francis Don Johnston Karl Freytag Pamela MacGregor Dave Fuess Nolan O’Brien Dave Goerz Ann Parker Groseclose Elizabet Rajs Rose Hansen David Schwoegler John Holzrichter Lynda Seaver Omar Hurricane Jeffrey Sketchley Joe Keller Anne M. Stark Ron Kerst Sue Stephenson Rod Kramer Sue Stull Michael MacCracken Cynthia Talaber Michel McCoy Jeremy Thomas Chuck Meier Katie Walter Edmund Miller Stephen Wampler Milo Nordyke Gordon Yano Mike Ong Jesse Yow Andrew J. Poggio Richard Post Terri Quinn Karen Rath Douglas Rotman Robert Schock Eric Schwegler Robert Sharpe Dawn Shaughnessy Michael Thelen Carl Walter Ian Watson Bing Young