About Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Lawrence Livermor National Laboratory (LLNL) is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory, managed and operated by the University of California, in Livermore, California until September 30, 2007. As of October 1, 2007 the lab will be managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS), a consortium comprised of the University of California, Bechtel National, BWX Technologies, Washington Group International, and Battelle Memorial Institute. Along with Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, it is one of the two United States laboratories whose founding mission was the design of nuclear weapons.

LLNL is self-described as "a premier research and development institution for science and technology applied to national security." It is responsible for ensuring that the nation’s nuclear weapons remain "safe, secure, and reliable" through application of advances in science, engineering, and technology. The laboratory also applies its special expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities to preventing the [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/proliferation proliferation] and use of weapons of mass destruction, and to bolstering homeland security. Those capabilities are also utilized in programs in non-defense areas such as basic science, energy, environmental science, and biosciences.

LLNL is home to many of the most powerful computer systems in the world, according to the TOP500 list — including Blue Gene/L, the world's fastest computer. Since 1978 the laboratory has received a total of 113 prestigious R&D; 100 Awards, including seven in 2006, the most for any institution. The awards are given annually by the editors of R&D; Magazine to the most innovative ideas of the year.

LLNL's main facility is located on a one-square-mile site in Livermore, CA. Site 300, a ten-square-mile remote explosive/experiment testing site, is situated 18 miles to the east. Lawrence Livermore has an annual budget of about $1.6 billion and a staff of over 8,000 University of California employees, as well as 1,500 contract employees. Additionally, there are approximately 100 DOE employees stationed at the laboratory to provide federal oversight of LLNL's work for the DOE."