Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore
When you think of the University of California-Berkeley; you probably think it’s a hotbed of dope-sucking liberals. And you’re right. But there is another side to Berkeley. It also operates Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory one of the most important research facilities for the Top Secret Government. It began as a facility to develop bigger and badder hydrogen bombs, and today is working on high-powered lasers, supercomputers, Mach 10 aircraft and, of course, bigger and badder atomic weapons.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was the result of the first Soviet atom bomb test in 1949. Two key members of the Los Alamos team that developed the first atomic bomb, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller, believed that a second atomic weapons laboratory, to be operated in competition with Los Alamos, was necessary to spur development of the more powerful hydrogen bomb and other advanced atomic weapons. They proposed establishing such a laboratory to the Atomic Energy Commission, and in 1952 the new laboratory opened on the site of a former naval air station located in the East Bay soul 11 of Berkeley. Livermore occupies 7321 acres near Interstate 580.
Livermore California Map Photo Gallery
Since then, Livermore’s research areas have been expanded to in elude almost any area with possible weapons or defense potential Areas of research currently going on include advanced microchip’. genomes, biological weapons detection, biomedicine, radiographic ini aging, 3-D simulations, supercomputers, and quantum-level physic, In addition to pure research, Livermore also does work on engineerini: projects such as “HyperSoar,” a hypersonic aircraft capable of travel ing Mach 10 and reaching any point on Earth in less than two hour
Key Facilities: Livermore is home to the National Ignition Facility. WIiil* it sounds like some sort of space-age cigarette lighter or spark plur it is actually the world’s largest laser facility. What is it used for Acording to Livermore’s press releases, it “will provide the means foi m vestigating the thermonuclear physics of weapons in the absence of nuclear testing and for exploring the promise of fusion energy.” However, high-powered lasers would be the cornerstone of any space warfare or missile defense system as well.
Another interesting facility is the Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative. As weapons systems become increasingly computer-controlled, powerful computers are as much of an asset as aircraft carriers .ind missiles maybe even more so. This program is meant to ensure that the U.S. military and intelligence agencies have the fastest and most powerful computers in the world.
