Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory pursues programs and performs key research in water and environment, energy, carbon and climate, the national nuclear waste repository, and aspects of homeland and national security. Our multidisciplinary programs draw on a broad base of expertise in atmospheric, earth, environmental, and energy science, which resides in a variety of organizations across the Laboratory.
Project sponsors include the U.S. Department of Energy and other federal and state agencies. The Laboratory is engaged in more than 400 projects in the energy and environment area, ranging from multi-million-dollar programs to smaller research assignments. Much of our work is performed in collaboration with others, both in the United States and internationally. For example, we are collaborating with about 80 universities, with industrial companies, and with other national and state research organizations. Most of our work is unclassified.
We work in six major program areas:
Regional climate modeling of rainfall
Carbon Management and
Climate Change—advancing the understanding of climate science, the carbon cycle, and carbon management and especially to advance understanding of the interrelationships between the fate and effects of carbon in the biosphere, atmosphere, ocean systems, and climate change.
Energy
Technology and Security—basic research and technology development for fossil, renewable, and nuclear energy systems.
Fusion
Energy—development, in collaboration with national and international partners, of the science and technology required to pursue fusion energy (both Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) and Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE)).
Materials testing for Yucca Mountain Program
Risk and Response Management— research
and technology development in systems safety, systems security, natural
and anthropogenic hazards, and atmospheric release assessment and modeling.
Water
and Environment—research and development in water security, environmental fate and transport, environmental technologies, and environmental consequence analysis.
Yucca Mountain Program/Repository
Science—materials testing and performance modeling of the storage canister and system of engineered barriers to surround the radioactive waste for the Yucca Mountain project.