UCRL-CR-153297 Assessment of Eligibility to National Register of Historic Places Building 431 M. A. Sullivan, R. A. Ullrich U.S. Department of Energy Lawrence Livermore May 7, 2003 National Laboratory Approved for public release; further dissemination unlimited This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract W- 7405-Eng-48. Assessment of Eligibility to National Register of Historic Places Building 431 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Prepared by Michael Anne Sullivan with Rebecca Ann Ullrich Corporate History Program Sandia National Laboratories May 7, 2003 1 Executive Summary Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) proposes to demolish the original sections of Building 431 at its main site in Livermore, California. As this action will constitute an undertaking within the regulatory constraints of the National Historic Preservation Act, LLNL arranged for an assessment of the building’s historic significance. This report provides a brief history of the magnetic fusion energy research activities housed in Building 431 and a historic assessment of the building. The final recommendation of the report is that, although Building 431 housed some significant breakthroughs in accelerator technology and magnetic mirror plasma confinement, it lacks integrity for the periods of significance of those developments. It is, therefore, not eligible to the National Register of Historic Places. 2 1 Introduction weapons laboratory, LLNL conducts This report assesses the historic advanced research in physics, chemistry, significance of Lawrence Livermore environmental studies, computation, National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Building engineering, and biomedical science.2 431 within the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act LLNL is located forty miles east of San (NHPA). The report supports the U.S. Francisco in Alameda County, Department of Energy’s (DOE) efforts California. The main site is situated on to evaluate potential historic properties 821 acres and includes approximately at LLNL for NHPA compliance. 500 buildings and structures totaling 6,000,000 gross square feet. LLNL also LLNL proposes to demolish the original maintains a 7,000-acre high explosives sections of Building 431. This action test area designated as Site 300. Located represents a threat to the building and is, fifteen miles southeast of Livermore, in therefore, an undertaking as defined in Alameda and San Joaquin counties, Site the NHPA implementation guidance. 300 includes approximately 200 buildings and structures totaling 400,000 1.1 LLNL gross square feet.3 Building 431 is LLNL is a U.S. DOE national laboratory located at the Livermore main site. operated by the University of California.1 LLNL’s primary mission is 1.2 Building 431 the design and the maintenance of Building 431, built in 1950, is a four- nuclear weapons for the U.S. stockpile. story building with a high bay in the In addition to its function as a nuclear center of the structure. Offices and laboratories surround an open pit on two levels. The pit extends twenty feet below 1 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was ground level and the high bay rises to the originally a branch of the University of top of the roof for a total building height California Radiation Laboratory. From its inception in 1952, the laboratory was identified of 100 feet. A seven-foot-thick wall— as the University of California Radiation part of which is made of numbered, Laboratory, Livermore. In 1958, after the death concrete shielding blocks of varying of Ernest O. Lawrence, the laboratory name was sizes and part of which is seven-foot- changed to Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. In thick poured concrete—surrounds this 1971, it became a separate entity from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and was re- open pit area. The concrete shielding named the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. In blocks are capped with concrete. The 1979, Congress designated it a national laboratory, and it became Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. See University of 2 For an official description of LLNL’s current California, Lawrence Livermore National mission and organization, see LLNL website, Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National www.llnl.gov; and Charles R. Loeber, Building Laboratory: A Concise History, 1952–2000, the Bombs: A History of the Nuclear Weapons UCRL-TB-133100 (Livermore: University of Complex, SAND2002-0307P (Albuquerque: California, Lawrence Livermore National Sandia National Laboratories, 2002), 173. Laboratory, 2000). For clarity, it will hereafter 3 Paul McGuff, “Lawrence Livermore National be referred to as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory World War II and Later Historic Laboratory (LLNL), except when the discussion Context and National Register Assessment: requires more precision for historical Scope of Work” (Livermore: Lawrence understanding. Livermore National Laboratory, 2002), 1. 3 building is steel-framed and covered All experimental equipment has been with sheet-metal-and-asbestos composite removed from the main section of the panels. It has a flat roof. There are building and it is currently empty. The windows on the first, second, and fourth building does contain an eighty-ton floors on the north and south sides of the crane, seven-foot-thick concrete building. Building 431 is approximately shielding blocks, a three-kilowatt 150,366 gross square feet. The exterior cryogenic plant, a partial control room of Building 431 is shown in figure 1. from the Microwave Tokamak Experiment (MTX), some of the power Building 431 was originally Building 57 supplies, a large concrete shielding door of the Livermore Research Laboratory on the first floor, and the outside run by the California Research and platforms for the rough vacuum of the Development Corporation (CR&D), a Mirror Fusion Test Facility Modification subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company B (MFTF-B). The Experimental Test of California. From 1950 to 1954, Accelerator (ETA), a weapons-related CR&D and University of California project, is also still active in the south Radiation Laboratory (UCRL) used the wing of the building. Building 431, with structure to house an AEC-sponsored the exception of the ETA, is slated for project to develop fissionable materials decontamination and decommissioning for nuclear weapons. (D&D) in the coming years. The ETA was installed in 1980; although it is not In 1954, CR&D transferred Building 57 currently threatened, it will be included to UCRL’s new Livermore branch. It in this assessment. became Building 157 of the new UCRL- Livermore nuclear weapons design 2 Methodology laboratory.4 In 1967, in a laboratory- The following standard historical wide re-numbering, it was designated methodologies were used in conducting Building 431. To avoid confusion, this this assessment. report will refer to the structure as Building 431 throughout. 2.1 Building Tour On March 18, 2003, Don Podesta, the From 1954 to 1992, Building 431 engineering contact for Building 431, housed successive generations of fusion gave the authors of this report a building research. The building has been tour. The tour included the exterior, extensively remodeled over the years to interior, and rooftop of Building 431. At accommodate these experiments. In that time, the authors also reviewed the 1998, the last of the fusion research building drawing files that remain in the machines in the building was facility. dismantled. 2.2 Documentary Research 4 Memorandum by Eustace Tombras, “Radiation The authors conducted an extensive Laboratory Building Numbers—Livermore review of both published and manuscript Site,” 27 May 1954, 434-900020, Box 761382, primary sources pertaining to Building File 19, Donald Cooksey Administrative Files, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1954, Lawrence 431. Published scientific literature on Berkeley National Laboratory Archives, controlled thermonuclear fusion proved Berkeley, California. Hereafter cited as LBNL particularly useful, as did documentary Archives. 4 collections in the LLNL Archives, requires the identification of the local, LLNL Reports Library, LLNL Plant state, national, and/or international Engineering Library, and the Lawrence historic contexts that might give a Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) property significance.5 In other words, it Archives. is necessary to determine which broader historical events, themes, or trends give The architectural drawings and floor a property meaning and importance. plans of Building 431 provided information