Global Security
The Global Security Principal Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) applies multidisciplinary science and technology to anticipate, innovate and deliver responsive solutions to complex global security needs. This includes support of the efforts to:
- Advance our nation's security through the production, development, and deployment of diverse, secure and sustainable energy resources and technology, while understanding and reducing their environmental impact.
- Develop technologies and expertise that significantly enhance the U.S. military's agility, survivability and lethality.
- Provide analytic, operational, and science- and technology-related support to the intelligence community, other federal agencies, and state, local and private-sector customers.
- Develop and deploy transformational technologies and expertise to secure the U.S. homeland, with a particular emphasis on catastrophic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive threats.
- Serve as an important national resource for addressing nonproliferation challenges through innovative technical solutions.
NIF & Photon Science
NIF & Photon Science is a principal directorate of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California. We operate the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world’s largest and highest-energy laser.
NIF’s 192 laser beams routinely create temperatures and pressures similar to those that exist only in the cores of stars and giant planets and inside nuclear weapons. The facility is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and is a key element of NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program to maintain the reliability and safety of the U.S. nuclear deterrent without full-scale testing.
Weapons & Complex Integration
Weapons and Complex Integration (WCI) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory works to establish a science-based understanding of nuclear weapons performance and assesses the safety, security and effectiveness of the stockpile. We integrate science, technology and engineering services with other laboratories within the National Nuclear Security Administration Complex, and we operate many state-of-the-art experimental and computer facilities essential for program success.
Computation
Computing: It's in our DNA. Since 1952, when LLNL was created, our computation efforts have been essential to R&D, science and technology, and operations.
We’re making the world safer by shaping the frontiers of high performance computing (HPC), data sciences and computer science. We design, develop and deploy HPC capabilities not only in support of Livermore’s mission and program goals, such as the nation’s Stockpile Stewardship Program, but to improve national security and advance U.S. economic competitiveness. We partner with industry, foreign governments and nontraditional government sponsors to drive technology advancements, speed development of new applications, and help cultivate other collaborations. HPC powers scientific discovery. We’re advancing the most complex modeling, simulation and analysis as a peer to theory and experiment. We believe in the power of HPC to drive technological innovation.
Engineering
The Engineering Directorate has been developing, building and applying cutting-edge technology innovations for national security missions for more than 60 years. Our staff of nearly 1,600 world-class engineers, scientists and technicians, organized into five divisions, is the foundation for most of our core programs in stockpile stewardship, advanced laser systems, global security and science and technology. We are meeting our nation’s needs to enhance national security, reduce global threats, and tackle scientific and engineering challenges of national importance.
Physical Life Sciences
Our Physics Division staff members lead and support a wide array of leading-edge research and development efforts at LLNL. From astrophysics and planetary science to atomic and plasma physics, our research explores matter at all length scales, under diverse and often extreme conditions. Using Lawrence Livermore’s remarkable tools—from some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to remarkable laser platforms such as the National Ignition Facility and the Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF)—and those of collaborating institutions, our researchers undertake precision laboratory experiments, develop complex computer simulations, and grapple with the theory underpinning various natural and human-made phenomena. We also develop sophisticated technologies, such as detectors, optical components and imaging systems. Through the High Energy Density Science Center and JLF, we build collaborations with the broader research community and help train future generations of physicists for exciting careers.
Whatever the project, our physicists are making important contributions to Livermore’s missions in foundational science, defense technology, stockpile stewardship, space science and security, and nuclear threat reduction.
