Study looks at velocity impact to asteroid Dimorphos

The first peer-reviewed results from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission were published Wednesday by Nature, including contributions from LLNL’s planetary defense team. The DART spacecraft executed a successful hypervelocity impact of 150-meter asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022. Analysis by Earth-based telescopes determined that the impact successfully deflected...

Lab’s Tom Ramos reflects on ‘From Berkeley to Berlin’

Physicist Tom Ramos has had several roles for the past 40 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He served as a member of the nuclear team that developed the X-ray laser for President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, he supported United States arms control negotiations for START, and over a span of seventeen years he created and ran a program for the Department of Defense...

The people of stockpile stewardship are the key to LLNL’s success

The last nuclear test, code-named Divider, took place 30 years ago, on Sept. 23, 1992. That year, President Bush declared a temporary moratorium on nuclear testing, which became permanent during the Clinton administration. This ending of the era of nuclear testing was also the beginning of stockpile stewardship. Leaders from the Department of Energy (DOE), and Lawrence Livermore, Los...

Developing technology to keep the nuclear stockpile safe, secure and reliable

The last nuclear test, code-named Divider, took place 30 years ago, on Sept. 23, 1992. That year, President Bush declared a temporary moratorium on nuclear testing, which became permanent in 1995, during the Clinton administration. This ending of the era of nuclear testing coincided with a Presidential announcement of the beginning of stockpile stewardship. As the decision to...

30 years later, Hunters Trophy participants recall LLNL’s final underground nuclear test

The year was 1992. At 10 a.m. on a balmy September morning in the desolate Nevada desert, a countdown began. And for a few brief moments, the ground violently shook. In a NASA-esque control room at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) engineer Jack Cutting watched as monitors and oscilloscopes began sending back data collected on the blast, the result...

National security community honors Miriam John as 2022 Foster Medal recipient

Department of Energy (DOE) Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Jill Hruby joined fellow luminaries in the national nuclear security community at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on Sept. 8 to honor Miriam “Mim” John, recipient of the 2022 John S. Foster, Jr. Medal. John, vice president emerita of Sandia National Laboratories, became the first woman awarded the prestigious...

Lab internship program bridges gap between degree and military service

Justin Witkowski came to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for a unique internship opportunity, one that would allow him to gain some practical experience during the gap between completing his undergraduate degree and starting his military career in the Navy. Witkowski started his LLNL internship in February under the Academic Cooperation Program (ACP). ACP offers newly...

LLNL and Y-12 partner to accelerate production, innovation for U.S. nuclear deterrent

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Y-12 National Security Complex have teamed up to rapidly modernize legacy technology and production methods of crucial components for the U.S. nuclear deterrent.   A leading example of this collaboration is the recent successful installation and testing of the electron beam cold hearth melter (EBCHM) – a machine that can melt and cast...

Lawrence Livermore takes part in NASA’s first planetary defense test

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is taking part in NASA’s first-ever planetary defense test, which deliberately collides a spacecraft into an asteroid called Dimorphos. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will examine technologies that will prevent an impact of Earth by a hazardous asteroid. DART is the first demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique to change...

R-cubed: Revolutionizing the present, anticipating the future

The Post-Detonation Rapid Response Research Venture — also known as R-cubed or R3 — is combining basic research and development of emergent technologies, predictive capabilities and systems assessment to revolutionize the speed and flexibility of technical nuclear forensic (TNF) response to nuclear events.  The venture is a multi-laboratory collaboration led by Lawrence Livermore...

Lawrence Livermore develops promising antidote for nerve agent exposure

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a new, versatile antidote to counteract exposure to nerve agent poisoning. The work, appearing in the journal Scientific Reports, was the result of a highly iterative process built in collaboration between LLNL’s Global Security Directorate, its Forensic Science Center and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of...

Lab veterans share perspectives of 9/11

Editor's note: The following is part of a series of articles looking back at the Lab's response immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks and our contributions since that day 20 years ago. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has always been a place for veterans looking for a rewarding career, during or after their military service has ended. Many don’t realize that once the dust...

The institutional response to 9/11 – with 'our track shoes on'

Editor's note: The following is part of a series of articles looking back at the Lab's response immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks and our contributions since that day 20 years ago. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) “response” to the tragic events on Sept. 11, 2001, actually began in July 1992 with the formation of the Nonproliferation, Arms Control and International...

NARAC at forefront in a post-9/11 world

Editor’s note: The following is part of a series of articles looking back at the Lab's response immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks and our contributions since that day 20 years ago. From keeping Americans safe at national events to assisting with international disasters, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC)...

How BASIS grew into the BioWatch system

Editor's note: The following is part of a series of articles looking back at the Lab's response immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks and our contributions since that day 20 years ago. Less than a month after 9/11, 14 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employees received calls at their homes at 1 a.m. on a Saturday morning (Oct. 6, 2001) and were asked to report to the...

Lawrence Livermore team captures data from unarmed Minuteman III test launch

A team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) successfully collected data from the recent operational test of an Air Force Global Strike Command unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The purpose of the ICBM test launch program is to validate and verify the safety, security, effectiveness and readiness of...

Simulating nuclear cloud rise anywhere, anytime

For decades, understanding the behavior of a nuclear mushroom cloud was done with careful analysis of observations made during the testing era. Old photos, outdated film and incomplete weather data made precise calculations difficult. Now, with results published in Atmospheric Environment, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are improving our understanding of nuclear...

LLNL earn 'A' grade in OPCW biomedical proficiency test

It wasn’t an easy road, but Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Forensic Science Center scientists earned an “A” grade in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) recent biomedical proficiency test. In addition to the usual complexity of the sample preparations and analysis, the Livermore scientists received their proficiency test samples a week late...

Bradley Wallin selected to lead Weapons and Complex Integration

Bradley Wallin has been named Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) principal associate director (PAD) for Weapons and Complex Integration (WCI), Lab Director Kimberly Budil announced today. In this role, Wallin will lead the Laboratory's nuclear weapons program in its responsibilities to support U.S. strategic deterrence by assuring the safety, security and effectiveness...

LLNL hosts Test Site Verification Team orientation

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) hosted an in-person orientation meeting recently for members of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Test Site Verification Team (TSVT). TSVT is sponsored by NNSA’s Office of Nuclear Verification (ONV) Nuclear Compliance Verification (NCV) Program. The TSVT is led by Kim Knight from LLNL and Emily Schultz-Fellenz from Los...