Image by Mouser Williams, LANL

About Los Alamos

Los Alamos National Laboratory is a premier national security research institution, delivering scientific and engineering solutions for the nation's most crucial and complex problems. Our primary responsibility is ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear deterrent.

The Los Alamos of today emphasizes worker safety, effective operational safeguards & security, and environmental stewardship, while outstanding science remains the foundation of the Laboratory.

In addition to supporting the Lab's core national security mission, our work advances bioscience, chemistry, computer science, earth and environmental sciences, materials science, and physics disciplines.

Global Leadership

Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel play leading roles worldwide in basic and applied scientific research and technology. Whether it's conducting crucial experiments in space and at our linear accelerator in Northern New Mexico or developing breakthroughs in nanotechnology and determining how best to prevent the spread of
HIV and avian flu, the men and women of Los Alamos help lead the way.

Lab R&D helps curb a wide variety of threats to U.S. interests—whether it's the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the spread of deadly diseases, inadequate supplies of energy, or the effects of climate change.

What's on Tap

The Laboratory has a proud past, and our future is filled with promise:

• Advances in high-performance computing may lead to the first petascale computer, named Roadrunner, based on "accelerator" video game technology. Computer scientists will reach for the elusive petaflop—a million billion calculations per second�in 2008.
• The second axis of the Laboratory's Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrotest (DARHT) facility will become operational in 2008 and add a high-energy four-pulse, 3D capability to the Lab's mix of experimental resources.
• Construction continues on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement facility, key to supporting the nation's ability to replace existing plutonium pits, the triggers for nuclear weapons.

As broad, deep, and complex as the Laboratory's activities may be, 12 Labwide goals convey their essence, and recent achievements toward them demonstrate our commitment.

News & Information—Science & Technology

Please see our latest news and, in the Laboratory's 1663 magazine, some of our more interesting science and technology features.