Livermore National Lab Report Shows Off Work Around the World

From the Deepwater Horizon oil leak to the START nuclear weapons treaty, the annual report of the  describes the crucial behind-the-scenes roles its staff played in some of the most memorable and important events of 2010.

Founded by physicist Edward Teller in 1952 to develop hydrogen bomb technologies for the U.S. military, the lab’s mission covers homeland and global security, energy independence, environmental science, computer engineering and industrial development.

LLNL is Livermore’s largest employer by far. Its $1.57 billion budget supported the work of more than 6,500 scientists, engineers and other personnel in the 2010 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security were its biggest funding sources.

The 28-page report notes that the National Ignition Facility, a project involving the world’s largest array of high-powered lasers for nuclear defense and alternative energy research, was supported by the largest budget at the lab last year. It spent $305 million.

LLNL spent an additional $224 million for projects contracted by the Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community. Advanced simulations and computing accounted for $200 million. Its work associated with nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards, and security accounted for $138 million and $137 million respectively.

MOTHER OF INVENTION

In fiscal year 2010, LLNL received 54 U.S. patents, filed 122 patent applications and submitted 160 records of invention. The lab signed 13 new cooperative research and development agreements with industrial partners and 24 new commercial licenses for its technologies and software.

Six technologies developed by LLNL researchers and partners were the recipients of R&D 100 Awardsfrom R&D Magazine.

LLNL’s staff laid the groundwork for the anticipated birth next year of the Sequoia, the world’s fastest super computer. The Sequoia can lay claim to that title if it reaches the planned peak speed of 20 petaflops per second. A petaflop is equivalent to one quadrillion floating-point operations per second.

At that speed, the Sequoia would perform calculations 10 times faster than the Chinese computer that now holds the title of “world’s most powerful computer.”  The Chinese Tianhe – 1A at the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin, China, is rated at 2.57 petaflops per second.

NUCLEAR ARSENAL MANAGEMENT

The lab plays a key role in national security by modernizing and affirming the reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Lab physicians evaluate the effects of aging on the components of nuclear weapons and use supercomputers for simulations certifying their readiness.

In fiscal 2010, the Air Force conducted two successful flight tests of simulated nuclear weapons, according to the report. One was delivered to its target by a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. Another was dropped by a B-2 bomber. The removal of more than 75 percent of special nuclear material from the Livermore site also was listed as a major accomplishment.

At the ignition facility, the National Ignition Campaign successfully conducted the first integrated fusion ignition experiment. It is considered a milestone event in the scientific pursuit of attaining sustained, man-made nuclear fusion. Achieving the objectives of this experiment were essential for moving toward the ultimate goal of producing more energy from the device than it consumes, while achieving a sustained fusion reaction, according to the report.

Additional steps were taken for the first integrated fusion-ignition experiment and future projects using potentially hazardous materials and creating radioactive products, the report said. Safety plans and procedures were developed. Staff was trained and new equipment was installed for radiation protection. Forty-four shield doors, some weighing five tons, were installed, for example.

GLOBAL AND HOMELAND SECURITY

LLNL analysts provided technical support for negotiations leading to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) and Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama in December. LLNL scientists advised U.S. negotiators during talks and made sure the Russian and English versions of the treaty accurately expressed the intentions of both sides engaged in negotiations, the report said.

LLNL personnel received two 2010 R&D 100 Awards for radiation detection technologies for homeland security. The Statistical Radiation Detection System (SRaDS) can noninvasively tell the difference between dangerous plutonium and uranium and nonthreatening radioactive materials identified at border crossings. Its engineers also developed a new material permitting very compact devices (worthy of fictional master spy James Bond) for analyzing radiation during covert operations.

ADDRESSING GULF OIL DISASTER

More that two dozen lab engineers and scientists provided technical assistance to the Department of Energy’s emergency-response team in efforts that shut down the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

To address global warming, LLNL staff helped develop a material that captures carbon dioxide – a major contributor to global warming – from industrial smoke stacks for deep underground storage. Its engineers also devised an early warning system for detecting leaks of carbon dioxide stored 10,000 feet underground.

To help reduce fuel consumption, LLNL engineers worked with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Air Force and private industry to find ways to reduce the aerodynamic drag of semi-trailer trucks on the nation’s highways. Wind-tunnel tests found fuel efficiency rose 12 percent with better drag reduction.

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES

The annual report highlighted LLNL staff involvement with discoveries that are likely to have historic implications for future scientific inquiry. The discoveries included:

• Element 117, the sixth super-heavy chemical element found during on-going collaborations between LLNL and Russian scientists;
•  A new species of hominid, Australopithecus sediba, thought to be nearly two million years old. Field scientists were led to the fossils in South Africa with the help of an accelerator mass spectrometer. It was modified in Livermore to track the long-term changes of the African landscape affecting where the fossils were buried;
• Evidence suggesting that comets could have produced amino acids, the building blocks of life, when they crashed on Earth billions of years ago;  
•  Findings that revealed how living organisms manipulate the shape of growing crystals during the development of bones and teeth. The ability to speed up, slow down or completely stop crystal growth could lead to ways to speed up bone growth for shattered limbs or to halt the growth of kidney stones.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Through its Entrepreneurs in Readiness program, the lab worked with eight Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to convert research ideas into marketable products. One example, according to the report, involves using the lab’s ultrawide bandwidth radar technology to monitor brain-injury patients for hematomas (pooling of blood between the skull and brain).

Planning moved forward for construction of a Livermore Valley Open Campus on a 100-acre parcel on the eastern edge of the Lawrence Livermore and Sandia/California sites. The open campus will serve as a launching pad for research and development collaborations between LLNL, industry and academia.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

The lab’s annual Helping Others More Effectively (HOME) charity drive raised more than $3 million for nonprofit organizations, mainly in the Tri-Valley area.

More than 6,000 people attended LLNL’s popular Science on Saturday lecture series. The 12 lectures covered issues such as fighting antibiotic resistance, discovering new solar systems and understanding climate change.

More than 300 middle- and high-school students participated in March in the 14th annual Tri-Valley Science and Engineering Fair, sponsored by LLNL.