LAB REPORT

On a historic occasion in the Livermore wine country, the nine living Lawrence Livermore directors gathered on Sept. 8 to mark the Laboratory’s 70^th anniversary, share stories and discuss their vision for the Lab in the coming years.

Hosted by the nonprofit Livermore Lab Foundation, the panel brought past directors John Foster Jr., John Nuckolls, Bruce Tarter, George Miller, Parney Albright and Bill Goldstein together with current director Kim Budil at one table, altogether spanning nearly seven decades of LLNL leadership. Two other previous directors — Michael May and Michael Anastasio — participated in the discussion via prerecorded talks.

More than 200 people were on hand for the event, including many current and retired LLNL employees, dignitaries and local elected officials. Among the guests of honor was Department of Energy Under Secretary of Nuclear Security and Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration Jill Hruby, who opened the event by stressing the importance of preserving the Lab’s legacy as a site for “big ideas.”

“This Lab is a special place,” Hruby said. “We think that these labs will always be here, but yet they’ve (only) been here about the same time as some of us. We have to take care of them — that’s a responsibility that we all share.”

Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) used the largest and most energetic laser in the world — the National Ignition Facility (NIF) — to study the properties of hydrogen at extreme pressures and relatively low temperatures found inside red dwarfs.

Red dwarfs are stars with very low mass. As a result, they are characterized by relatively low pressure, melting rate and temperature. The generated energy comes from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium during the proton-proton cycle. Also, these stars emit relatively little light.

In the study, LLNL scientists proposed a new implosion experiment at NIF to measure hydrogen. An implosion is an inward-directed explosion, as opposed to a conventional outward-directed explosion. During the experiment, it was proposed to reduce its speed, and to study high-density hydrogen using X-ray radiography.

As a result, scientists concluded that it is convection, combined with a slow fusion rate (due to relatively low core temperatures) that may allow some red dwarfs to exist for trillions of years until all hydrogen fuel is used up.

Jose Hernandez first imagined himself flying into space when he was 10 years old and picking crops in the San Joaquin Valley. His dream came true 37 years later, when he lifted off on Space Shuttle Discovery for a 15-day mission.

Hollywood has latched on to this underdog story, with a film set for a 2023 release on Amazon Prime Video. Actor Michael Peña will play the adult Hernandez in “A Million Miles Away,” based on the astronaut’s autobiography.

Hernandez joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1987. While there, he helped develop a digital mammography system that helps with early detection of breast cancer. Hernandez started applying to the astronaut program in 1992. NASA still wasn’t taking him, but it did hire him in 2001 as chief of the Materials and Processes Branch.

Hernandez served as a mission specialist on Discovery’s seven-member crew, in charge of installing and maintaining computer systems. The ship delivered equipment, supplies and scientific experiments to the International Space Station, 254 miles from Earth.

Chemists could more readily study the properties of rare radioactive materials by bonding them to bulky companions^.

Some of the radioactive elements known as actinides are so scarce that just a few milligrams of each become available to researchers annually. To study these elements’ chemistry and properties, scientists create complex actinide-containing molecules that can be crystallized. But this method often uses up an entire year’s supply per sample.

Lawrence Livermore researchers attached polyoxometalates (POMs) — large metal-containing clusters of atoms — around a single ion of the radioactive element. POMs are radiation-resistant, and their complexes with actinides can form crystals. Because POMs are relatively large, the POM–actinide samples require only around one-thousandth of the amount of rare isotope used in previous such experiments.

The team made a range of actinide–POM molecules, including three types containing curium, and analyzed them using various techniques. The tests determined the molecules’ 3D structures and revealed previously unknown features of actinide-containing compounds.

The authors say the method could be used to study elements even rarer than curium, such as einsteinium.

The reality and gravity of the climate crisis is continually setting in, especially as extreme weather events continue to negatively impact economies around the world.

How can each nation do its part to keep global warming from reaching the determined tipping point — 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels? The Paris Agreement has spurred many commitments that will go a long way in reducing GHG (greenhouse gas emissions) as soon as possible, with the hopes of ultimately reaching a “climate neutral world by mid-century.”

The goal is not just to keep the planet inches away from the tipping point but to reach net-zero emissions on a global or near-global scale. Net-zero emissions is a big ask, but the technologies exist to decarbonize electricity and a lot of transport.

Roger Aines, energy program chief scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, believes there are really two issues that need to be addressed, and the second goes beyond just reaching for net-zero emissions. “There are two major problems here, and the first is we have to stop emitting. We have to replace fossil fuels with renewables, and we have to be more efficient,” he explains. “I’m focused on the longer-term problem of cleaning up the atmosphere of what’s already there.”