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Strategic Deterrence
Lab engineer receives Air Force award
Lab engineer Scott Couture has received an award for Meritorious Civilian Service from the U.S. Air Force for his work as principal adviser for Nuclear Plans and Policies to the Under Secretary of the Air Force.Under Secretary of the Air Force Eric Fanning presented the award to Couture during a Lab ceremony on Friday, Oct. 24."Scott has done a good job of teeing up the…
STEM women part of tri-lab team cutting boundaries
The Department of Energy's 17 national laboratories employ brilliant minds, addressing the greatest science and technology issues facing our planet from climate change and energy solutions to space exploration to national security. Amid these are three nuclear weapons laboratories that share the critical responsibilities of ensuring the safety, security and effectiveness…
Laboratory publishes national security book
LLNL has published its first electronic book, or e-book. The 139-page book, "Strategic Latency and World Power: How Technology is Changing Our Concepts of Security," has been published by the Lab through its Center for Global Security Research (CGSR). Book editors are Zachary Davis, a senior fellow at CGSR; Ron Lehman, a former CGSR director and an adviser to the director;…
Celebrating 25 years of high explosive research
This year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) High Explosives Applications Facility (HEAF) celebrates a milestone - 25 years as a center of excellence for the research, development, synthesis, formulation and characterization of explosives. The creation of HEAF stemmed from the recognition that the high explosives (HE) facilities at the Lab were old and…
Lawrence Livermore receives prestigious defense industry recognition
LIVERMORE, Calif. - The Precision Strike Association (PSA) has awarded the 18th annual William J. Perry Award to the BLU-129/B team, which includes researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The award honors the immediate and long-term impact the BLU-129/B has had and will have on combat operations. The team includes contributors from LLNL, United…
White captures second award for nuclear forensics work
For the second time, Lab physicist Roger White, a designer in B-Division from the Weapons and Complex Integration (WCI) Directorate, has received an award from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) for his work in post-detonation nuclear forensics.White was named the "top contributor of the quarter" for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2013 (April-June, 2013) for…
Physicist Jim Hammer receives prestigious Edward Teller Award
Jim Hammer, a physicist in the Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate (WCI) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is a recipient of the 2013 Edward Teller Medal.The Fusion Energy Division of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) presented the award recently during the International Inertial Fusion Science Applications (IFSA) conference in Nara, Japan. Hammer was…
Laser fusion experiment yields record energy at LLNL's National Ignition Facility
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- In the early morning hours of Aug.13, Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility (NIF) focused all 192 of its ultra-powerful laser beams on a tiny deuterium-tritium filled capsule. In the nanoseconds that followed, the capsule imploded and released a neutron yield of nearly 3x10 15 , or approximately 8,000 joules of neutron energy -- approximately…
Charles Verdon selected as Lawrence Livermore principal associate director for Weapons & Complex Integration
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Parney Albright has selected Charles Verdon as principal associate director for Weapons & Complex Integration . Verdon has served in this position in an acting capacity since April 2013."Charlie brings an extraordinarily broad national security technical leadership background and expertise to this…
'Route 66 to the Atomic West' class visits the Lab
It's the road trip of a lifetime. One professor and 19 students traveling through 11 states in 27 days across the American West to develop an in-depth understanding of western Cold War, urban and cultural history."Route 66 to the Atomic West" is a class offered by the University of West Florida (UWF) in Pensacola, Fla. Taught by Patrick Moore, UWF public history program…
Lab scientist and engineers train to be inspectors for Test Ban Treaty Organization
The Laboratory's Don Felske, Walter Dekin and Sean Ford have traveled to the corners of the globe to train as on-site surrogate inspectors for the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Training has been held in Austria, Jordan, South Korea and, most recently, Hungary. Of the five U.S. surrogate inspectors selected for…
Nine scientists named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff
Nine Laboratory scientists have joined the ranks of 14 other researchers by being named members of the Lab's Distinguished Members of Technical Staff (DMTS) for their extraordinary scientific and technical contributions to the Laboratory and its missions as acknowledged by their professional peers and the larger community. Maya Gokhale of the Computation Directorate, Ernst…
Plutonium at 150 years
The article below presents a summary of ongoing work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The work is to assess how radioactive decay in plutonium affects its material properties as they relate to the performance of nuclear weapons. This work is a continuation of the joint plutonium aging study done by Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National laboratories. That…
LLNL technology wins award
A new technology developed by LLNL researchers for detecting nuclear materials has won a first place award in Government Security News magazine's fourth annual Homeland Security Awards competition. The Livermore technology -- the first plastic material capable of efficiently distinguishing neutrons from gamma rays -- was honored in the "best nuclear/radiation detection"…
Iraq strengthens commitment to safeguards agreement
Iraqi Ambassador to Austria Surood Rashid Najib has submitted an official letter from the Iraqi Foreign Minister to Yukiyo Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), announcing the ratification and entry into force of the Additional Protocol to its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement. For LLNL's Jonathan Essner of Global Security, this is…
NARAC to more quickly predict haz mat releases
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Monday announced that it recently sponsored the installation of a 336-processor computing cluster at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC). This new cluster allows consequences predictions for hazardous material releases to be completed approximately 50…
Observations on arms control and tactical nuclear weapons in Europe
Most people are probably unaware of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) and this agreement is nowhere near the top of the priority list for Congress, but CFE is regarded by many in the arms-control community as a cornerstone of European stability.As explained by Jeff McCausland, distinguished visiting professor of research and Minerva chairholder at the…
Henderson is lone American in CTBT field test
John Henderson of Global Security was the sole U.S. participant in a May international field test for the on-site inspection division of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization's (CTBTO) Provisional Technical Secretariat. The event was sponsored by the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority and took place on a military base near…
DHS intern helps develop portable virus detection
When Cesar Ambriz's father discovered a tomato-farming job in northern California, he and his family left their relatives and crossed the Mexican border to establish a life ripe with promise. "In Mexico it's really tough for anyone to go to college, especially to get financial aid. It's a challenge if you don't have money," Ambriz says. After obtaining a high GPA and…
Breath analysis workshop set for biomedicine and national security
The Laboratory, in collaboration with the University of California, Davis and the Canterbury Respiratory Research Group, will host the 2012 International Breath Analysis Meeting, Oct. 28-Nov. 1 at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn in Sonoma, Calif.The event, titled "Breath Analysis for Biomedicine and National Security: Sensor Design Issues and Strategies for Biomarker…
