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{{Image|LANL site.jpg|right|300px|Aerial view of Los Alamos National Laboratory as of 1995}}
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'''Los Alamos National Laboratory''' (LANL) is a [[U.S. Department of Energy]] (DOE) national laboratory located in [[Los Alamos]], [[New Mexico]]. Since 2005, it has been managed and operated by [[Los Alamos National Security]] (LANS)<ref name=LANS/> and is one of the world's leading science and technology institutes.
 
LANL's primary mission is to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear deterrent.<ref name=LANL-Mission/> In addition to its primary mission, LANL's research work serves to advance [[Biology|bioscience]], [[chemistry]], [[computer science]], [[Earth science|earth]] and [[environmental science]]s, [[materials science]], and [[physics]] disciplines.<ref name=LANL-About/><ref name=LANL-Overview/>
 
At various times in the past, LANL has been known as '''''Site Y''''', '''''Los Alamos Laboratory''''', and '''''Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory'''''.
 
==History==
 
===''World War II and the Manhattan Project''===
{{Image|Trinity test.jpg|right|250px|Trinity test of an [[Nuclear weapon|atomic bomb]] on July 15, 1945 at 0.016 seconds after detonation. The fireball was about 200 metres wide.}}
 
The [[Manhattan Project]] was the secret [[United States]] project conducted primarily during [[World War II]], with the participation of the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Canada]], that culminated in developing the world's first [[nuclear weapon]] commonly referred to at that time as an ''atomic bomb''.
 
The project was initiated in 1939 by [[U.S. President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]], after he received a letter from physicist [[Albert Einstein]] (drafted by fellow physicist [[Leó Szilárd]]) urging the study of [[nuclear fission]] for military purposes, under fears that [[Nazi Germany]] would be first to develop nuclear weapons. Roosevelt started a small investigation into the matter which eventually became the massive [[Manhattan Project]] that employed more than 130,000 people at universities across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada as well as at the three major design, development and production facilities at:
 
* The weapons design and development facility at Los Alamos, New Mexico known then as '''''Site Y''''', later to become the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and now the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was here that 90 eminent  scientists (20 of whom were or later became Nobel Laureates)<ref name=Scientists/> from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, Italy and elsewhere worked to develop an atomic bomb. The scientific director of the Los Alamos site was the American physicist [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]].
* The [[plutonium]] production facility at the [[Hanford Site]] in eastern [[Washington (U.S. state)|Washington state]].
* The [[uranium]] enrichment facilities at [[Oak Ridge, Tennessee]].
 
President Roosevelt died in mid-April 1945 and was succeeded by President [[Harry S. Truman]], just a few weeks before the war against [[Germany]] and [[Italy]] in [[Europe]] ended in May 1945.
 
The Manhattan project culminated with the detonation of the first nuclear weapon, known as the [[Trinity test]],
in July 1945 at [[White Sands]], [[New Mexico]]. Since [[Japan]] was still waging an aggressive war in the [[Pacific]], President Truman decided to use atomic bombs on the Japsnese cities of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]]. The atomic bombs were dropped by air on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.  The Japanese surrendered shortly thereafter (August 14, 1945) and the war in the Pacific ended.<ref name=LANL-Overview/><ref name=HiroshimaBombing/> A formal surrender ceremony took place aboard the [[USS Missouri]] in [[Tokyo Bay]] on September 2, 1945.<ref name=TokyoBaySurrender/>
 
===''Post World War II''===
 
As soon as the war ended, many of the scientists returned to their prewar universities. [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]], who had served as the Director of the Los Alamos site for the duration of the Manhattan project and the war, asked physicist [[Norris Edwin Bradbury]] to succeed him. Bradbury accepted and, during his 1945 - 1970 tenure as Director, he became the acknowledged architect of the modern Los Alamos National Laboratory.<ref name=BradburyYears/><ref name=BradburyObituary/>
 
A short four years later, the [[Soviet Union]] detonated their first atomic bomb in August 1949. That event was viewed by the United States and its allies as a new peril facing the world and intensified the era of mutual distrust and antagonism between the Soviet Union and the United States that became known as the [[Cold War]] which lasted until 1991.
 
The atomic bombs that had been developed by the end of 1949 were based on the energy released by [[nuclear fission]] reactions or, more simply, the splitting of atoms. Some research had already begun at the Los Alamos site by physicists [[Hans Bethe]] and [[Edward Teller]] as well as mathematician [[Stanislaw Ulam]] on what became known as [[Fusion device|thermonuclear]] weapons (also referred to as [[Hydrogen bomb]]s or [[H-bomb]]s). Thermonuclear weapons are based on the energy released by [[Fusion device|nuclear fusion]] reactions or, more simply, the fusion of atoms.
 
A thermonuclear weapon generate vastly more energy, per unit of weight of the physical weapon, than does a pure fission bomb. In January of 1950, faced with the fact that the Soviet Union had successfully detonated an atomic bomb, President Truman announced that the United States was going to develop thermonuclear weapons of all kinds.<ref name=BradburyColleagues/> Almost three years later, on October 31, 1952 (local time), the United States detonated its first full-scale thermonuclear test device, code-named [[Operation Ivy|Ivy Mike]], on [[Enewetak Atoll]] located in the [[Marshall Islands]] of the Pacific Ocean. The test device was based on a design developed by Hans Bethe and Stanislaw Ulam and it produced an energy yield of 10.4 megatonnes of [[TNT equivalent]]<ref name=TNTequiv group=note/> which was equal to the energy yield of 800 atomic bombs such as had been used on Hiroshima.<ref name=NucWpnsJournal/> The Ivy Mike thermonuclear device was specifically designed as a a test device to validate the the concept of creating a nuclear fusion weapon. It weighed about 74 [[tonne]]s (82 [[U.S. customary units|short tons]]) and was much too large and unwieldy to be used as a deliverable bomb or weapon.<ref name=NucWpnsJournal/>
 
Two years later, the United States conducted their first test of a deliverable thermonuclear hydrogen bomb. The test was code-named [[Castle Bravo]] and it took place on March 1, 1954 (local time) on [[Bikini Atoll]] in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean. The bomb weighed 10.70 tonnes (11.75 short tons) and had an energy yield of 15 megatonnes of TNT equivalent. The Bravo crater in the atoll had a diameter of 1.98 km, with a depth of 76 m. Within one minute, the mushroom cloud had reached 15 km, breaking 30 km two minutes later. Eight minutes after the test the cloud had reached its full dimensions with a diameter of 100 km, a stem 7 km thick, and a cloud bottom rising above 16.5 km. It was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated by the United States.<ref name=NucWpnsJournal/><ref name=CastleBravo/>
 
The success of the Ivy Mike and Castle Bravo thermonuclear tests inaugurated a new era of developing smaller nuclear weapons having increased destructive power. From the mid-1950s until the early 1970s, the focus was upon miniaturizing the thermonuclear weapons to make them deliverable by aircraft and, later, to fit into long-range missiles.<ref name=LANL-Postwar/>
 
By the early 1970's, the focus on designing and building new weapons began to wane and the emphasis shifted to the stewardship and upgrading of the weapons already in the stockpile. It became important to make sure that nuclear weapons would only detonate on command and not by accident. Many of the underground nuclear tests conducted by the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s were safety tests of of stockpiled weapons.<ref name=LANL-Postwar/>
 
==LANL Organization==
 
LANL is led by a Director and a Deputy Director assisted by an Executive Director and an Executive Office Manager<ref name=OrgChart1/>. As shown in the organization chart below, five operating divisions, each headed by a Principal Associate Director, report to the Director's office:<ref name=OrgChart2/>
 
{{Image|LANL Organization.png|center|906px|LANL Organization Chart}}
 
In addition, these twelve administrative functions report to the Director's office:<ref name=OrgChart1/>
 
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break|width=35%}}
* Audits & Ethics Director
* Community Programs Office
* Chief Prime Contracts
* Office of Equal Opportunity and & Diversity
* Ombudsman Office
* Government & Community Affairs
{{col-break}}
* Contractor Assurance Office
* Chief Information Security Officer
* Chief Information Officer
* General Counsel
* Chief Financial Officer
* LANS, LLC Executive Staff Director
{{col-end}}
 
==Personnel and operating costs==
 
As of May 2011, there were a total of 11,782 personnel in the Los Alamos National Laboratory, with the following breakdown:<ref name=FastFacts/>
 
* 9,685 Los Alamos National Security (LANS) personnel
* 477 contract guard force personnel
* 524 personnel working for various other contractors
* 1,116 students
 
The operating costs for the fiscal year of 2010 was about $2,000,000,000 with the following breakdown:<ref name=FastFacts/>
 
* 51% for [[National Nuclear Security Administration]] (NNSA) weapons programs
* 8% for nonproliferation programs
* 11% for environmental management programs
* 4% for the U.S. Department of Energy's [[Office of Science]]
* 5% for energy and other programs
* 6% for safeguards and security
* 15% for other work
 
==Participation in collaborative programs==
 
LANL participates in a number of collaborative programs such as:
 
*The LANL's ''Center for Nonlinear Studies'', in conjunction with the [[University of New Mexico]] and others, organizes the annual [[International q-bio Conference on Cellular Information Processing]] held at [[St. John's College]] in [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]]. The annual conferences are intended to advance predictive modeling of cellular regulation. The emphasis is on modeling and quantitative experimentation for understanding and predicting the behaviors of regulatory systems that occur in many biological systems, as well as the  general principles of cellular information processing.<ref name=q-bio/>
 
*The [[Joint Genome Institute]] (JGI) in [[Walnut Creek, California]], supported by the DOE Office of Science, combines the expertise of [[Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory]] (LBNL), [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]] (ORNL), and [[Pacific Northwest National Laboratory]] (PNNL) as well as the [[HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology]] in [[Huntsville, Alabama]] to provide fundamental data on key [[gene]]s that may link to biological functions including microbial metabolic pathways and enzymes used to generate fuel molecules, affect plant biomass formation, degrade contaminants, or capture [[carbon dioxide]] (CO<sub>2</sub>).<ref name=JGI/>
 
*LANL operates one of the three [[National High Magnetic Field Laboratories]] (NHMFL) in collaboration with two other sites located at the [[Florida State University]] in [[Tallahassee, Florida]] and the [[University of Florida]] in [[Gainesville, Florida]]. The NHMFL operates state-of-the-art, high-magnetic field facilities for researchers and engineers. High magnetic fields are important to fundamental research in a diverse range of disciplines including biology, biochemistry, bioengineering, chemistry, engineering, geochemistry, materials science, medicine and physics.<ref name=NHMFL/>
 
==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|refs=
 
<ref name=TNTequiv group=note>The yields of nuclear weapons are commonly expressed in units of ''TNT equivalent'', meaning the energy yield from the explosion of a stated amount of trinitrotoluene (TNT). The commonly used units are a kilotonne or a megatonne of TNT equivalent. A kilotonne (kt) of TNT equivalent is equal to 10<sup>12</sup> joules and a megatonne (Mt) of TNT equivalent is equal to 10<sup>15</sup> joules. The kilotonne and megatonne are often taken to be synonymous with kiloton and megaton.</ref>
}}
 
==References==
{{reflist|refs=
 
<ref name=LANS>[http://www.lansllc.com/about.htm About LANS] From the website of Los Alamos National Security, LLC.</ref>
 
<ref name=LANL-Mission>[http://www.lanl.gov/history/overview.shtml LANL History Overview]] From the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.</ref>
 
<ref name=LANL-Overview>[http://www.lanl.gov/news/factsheets/pdf/LANL_Overview.pdf Los Alamos Overview]. From the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.</ref>
 
<ref name=Scientists>[http://www.mphpa.org/classic/HF/scientific_directory.htm Manhattan Project Hall of Fame Directory] From the website of the [[The Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association]].</ref>
 
<ref name=LANL-About>[http://www.lanl.gov/about.shtml About LANL] From the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.</ref>
 
<ref name=HiroshimaBombing>[http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/WW2/Atomic%20Bombing%20of%20Hiroshima.htm The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima]</ref>
 
<ref name=TokyoBaySurrender>[http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq69-1.htm Tokyo Bay: The Formal Surrender of the Empire of Japan on Board USS Missouri, 2 September 1945] From the website of the [[Naval History & Heritage Command]].</ref>
 
<ref name=NucWpnsJournal>[http://www.lanl.gov/science/weapons_journal/wj_pubs/12nwj1-06.pdf Nuclear Weapons Journal, Issue 1, 2006] Scroll down to pdf page 31 of 31 pages.</ref>
 
<ref name=CastleBravo>[http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Castle.html Operation Castle: 1954 - Pacific Proving Ground] Scroll down to "Castle Bravo" section.</ref>
<ref name=LANL-Postwar>[http://www.lanl.gov/history/postwar/postwarworld.shtml Postwar World] From the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.</ref>
 
<ref name=OrgChart1>[http://www.lanl.gov/organization/docs/current/bw_org_chart.jpg Organization Chart 1] From the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory</ref>
 
<ref name=OrgChart2>[http://www.lanl.gov/organization/docs/current/org_chart.jpg Organization Chart 2] From the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.</ref>
 
<ref name=FastFacts>[http://www.lanl.gov/news/releases/index.html Fast Facts] From the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.</ref>
 
<ref name=q-bio>[http://www.cvent.com/events/q-bio-conference-2011/event-summary-78111db4eac9483e89432ffafc0e65be.aspx The Fifth Annual q-bio Conference on Cellular Information Processing]</ref>
 
<ref name=JGI>[http://www.jgi.doe.gov/whoweare/JGI_Fact_Sheet.pdf The DOE Joint Genome Institute]</ref>
 
<ref name=NHMFL>[http://www.nsf.gov/news/nsf09013/nsf_09013.pdf NSF-Supported Research Structure] From the website of the [[National Science Foundation]] (NSF). Scroll down to pdf page 70 of 148 pages.</ref>
 
<ref name=BradburyYears>[http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/bradbury.shtml The Bradbury Years, 1945 - 1970]  Norris Bradbury was the architect of the modern Los Alamos National Laboratory. Bradbury served until his retirement in 1970. (From the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory).</ref>
 
<ref name=BradburyObituary>[http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php?fuseaction=home.story&story_id=1641 Former Los Alamos Director Norris Bradbury dies] Obituary and biography of Norris Edwin Bradbury, from the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.</ref>
 
<ref name=BradburyColleagues>[http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/pdf/brad_remember.pdf Bradbury's colleagues remember his era] From the website of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.</ref>
 
}}

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