Facility Focus: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL, Liver-more, CA) was established in 1952 at the height of the Cold War to meet urgent national security needs by advancing nuclear weapons science and technology. One of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) laboratories, LLNL made its first major breakthrough with the design of a thermonuclear warhead for missiles that could be launched from highly survivable submarines. The lab went on to develop the first high-yield warheads compact enough that several could be carried on each ballistic missile. Programs in fusion energy and advanced computations also were part of the lab's initial research portfolio. In the 1950s, LLNL acquired one of the first UNIVAC computers as well as “first editions” of the increasingly more powerful and faster computers that followed.