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LLNL collaborated with Rocket Lab and the U.S. Space Force to rapidly deploy an advanced optical payload for the VICTUS HAZE mission, demonstrating a new inspection capability for space domain awareness. (Photo: Garry McLeod/LLNL)

LLNL supports successful demonstration of a new space inspection capability

Over the past decade, global space launch cadences have grown dramatically, frequently placing multiple payloads into orbit on a single booster. Robust Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and precise characterization of resident space objects are vital to safeguarding the orbital environment. To confront this emerging national security risk, a team of scientists at Lawrence…

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Collaborative Heavy-lift Aerial unManned Propellor Systems (CHAMPS) team participated in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Lift Challenge held in Dayton, Ohio. CHAMPS team left to right: Claire Knight, James Reimer, Marcus Worsley, Brian Wihl, Giovanna Bucci, Kenneth Entrom and Erika Ramos. Additional team members include Marissa Wood, Afolabi Olayiwola and Victoria Trang. (Photo: Garry McLeod)

LLNL CHAMPS team selected to develop a heavy-lift drone for DARPA competition

A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers pushed the limits of unmanned aerial systems to earn a place at the DARPA Lift Challenge, hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The LLNL Collaborative Heavy-lift Aerial unManned Propellor Systems (CHAMPS) team ranked among the 132 teams selected from more than 480…

Attendees at the first Decision Superiority Summit hosted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

First Decision Superiority Summit explores making better decisions faster

“The history of failure in war can almost be summed up in two words: too late.” General Douglas MacArthur’s warning underscored the urgency and importance of the first Decision Superiority Summit, hosted this summer by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), where Department of War (DOW) decision makers, scientists, engineers and analysts explored how computer…

LLNL researchers 3D-printed a transparent ceramic waveguide based on ytterbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet, or Yb:YAG. This approach could be used to greatly increase the power of fiber laser systems. (Image: Osborne et al.)

3D-printed ceramic waveguide lasers could surpass the power of glass fiber lasers by 10 times

At the bottom of the ocean, optical fibers transmit telecommunications and internet data across the world. Waveguides make that feat possible by channeling and amplifying the light — and therefore the data within — over enormous distances. And the technology goes beyond undersea cables. Waveguiding optics are among the most important advances in photonics since the…

Genesis Mission graphic

LLNL selected to lead 10 projects under DOE’s Genesis Mission

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers have been selected to lead 10 Phase I projects under the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Genesis Mission, applying AI to challenges spanning high-performance computing (HPC), fusion energy, Earth systems science, materials discovery, biology, quantum technologies and fundamental physics. LLNL…

The 220 LRUs delivered to the Nevada National Security Sites will support the Integrated Test Stand in North Las Vegas, where the ASD teams will operate the injector and two accelerator modules in a scaled version of Scorpius. Middleware hardware, shown in the third row from the bottom, provides communication between the hardware and the control systems. Together, these components help evaluate system performance before installation in the underground facility.

Milestone shipments power next phases of Scorpius accelerator project

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has completed delivery of the first 220 line-replaceable units (LRUs) to the Integrated Test Stand (ITS) at Nevada National Security Sites (NNSS), as well as the first 100 LRUs to be used at NNSS’s underground facility, the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation (PULSE). The two major hardware delivery…

LLNL scientists Dylan Kline (front) and Justin McAlister evaluate finished, mock high-explosive materials produced using a modern pharmaceutical manufacturing process called extrusion-spheronization. (Photo credit: Garry McLeod/LLNL)

Modernizing high-explosives manufacturing

For decades, manufacturing plastic-bonded high explosives, or PBXs, has relied on legacy processes like slurry coating. In this method, explosive crystals are mixed with a binder, a polymer that helps hold the material together, to form small granules called prills. Those prills are then pressed into dense explosive parts. This process is difficult to control, inefficient…

Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the NNSA Livermore Field Office and project management teams cut the ribbon marking the completion of the Digital Infrastructure Capability Expansion facility on June 9. The event celebrated a major milestone in a decade-long effort to modernize one of the Lab’s most critical infrastructure systems. Photo: Glenn Silva/LLNL

NNSA, LLNL officials celebrate completion of critical Lab digital infrastructure upgrade

Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) celebrated the completion of the Digital Infrastructure Capability Expansion (DICE) facility on June 9, marking a major milestone in a decade-long effort to modernize one of the Lab’s most critical infrastructure systems. The 13,000-square-foot facility,…

Aires Tide brings together expertise across design, manufacturing and flight testing in a single cross-enterprise effort

LLNL helps advance AI-driven design and simulation for NNSA Aires Tide collaboration

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is contributing AI-enabled payload optimization and advanced modeling and simulation expertise to Aires Tide, a collaborative National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) demonstration exploring new ways to design flight test vehicles. Developed in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National…

Flash X-Ray

Meet the machines that matter: the Flash X-Ray

At your dentist's office, an X-ray machine fires a brief pulse of radiation, enough to find a cavity. Now imagine scaling that concept up by billions, producing a flash powerful enough to see through more than a foot of solid steel and capture a stop-motion image of an explosive experiment in progress. That's the Flash X-Ray machine, or FXR, at Lawrence Livermore National…

The MC-15 portable neutron detector, developed for rapid deployment in emergency scenarios, utilizes advanced neutron multiplicity counting to identify and assess nuclear materials, providing crucial data for investigating potential radiological threats. (Artist rendering: Dan Herchek)

Meet the machines that matter: the portable neutron detector

Nuclear materials are rarely quiet. Even when hidden inside a sealed container, they emit a kind of heartbeat through streams of particles and radiation that carry critical information about its contents. In a laboratory, scientists have the tools and expertise to read that heartbeat. But in an emergency, first responders need a way to interpret it quickly, without highly…

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Strategic Deterrence leaders gather at Site 300 during the site’s 70th anniversary Open House celebration (Photo by Randy Wong).

Site 300 marks 70 years with employee appreciation event, open house

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) marked Site 300’s 70th anniversary in May with two events celebrating the Experimental Test Site’s history, mission and people: an Employee Appreciation Day and a family-focused open house. Although Site 300 reached its 70-year milestone last fall, celebrations were delayed due to a lapse in federal government funding. The…

The Electron Beam Ion Trap works like a scalpel, isolating the emission from a single ion species or probing specific atomic processes with surgical precision. (Graphic: Dan Herchek)

Meet the machines that matter: the Electron Beam Ion Trap

Imagine listening to an orchestra: overlapping notes, blended timbres and complex harmonies coming together into a cohesive symphony. Now try to isolate a single instrument and the sounds it produces. Nearly impossible, right? The same is true for collections of ions, charged particles that have gained or lost electrons. Each ion — from hydrogen to lithium to lead and…

As hydrogen reacts with uranium, it creates blisters (a) that burst (b) and release uranium hydride powder. The interaction results in surface degradation (c) that can impact material safety and lifetime.

Roll the tape: LLNL captures inception of hydrogen-uranium reaction for the first time

When hydrogen gas interacts with uranium metal, the combination creates a chemically reactive powder and a runaway reaction that is difficult to stop. The result can impact the safety and lifespan of technology critical for fusion energy, hydrogen storage and nuclear fuels. In a recent study published in npj Materials Degradation, researchers from Lawrence Livermore…

A diagram of the plasma flow reactor that can be used to examine particles as they move from a hot plasma (left) to a cooler condensed state (right). (Courtesy image)

LLNL scientists use controlled experiments to better understand nuclear fallout

In less than a millionth of a second after a nuclear detonation or a severe nuclear reactor accident, an enormous burst of energy heats the surrounding air and materials. Everything in the vicinity is vaporized into a hot, glowing cloud of gas and plasma. As that nuclear fireball expands, it mixes with air, begins to cool and condenses into tiny solid particles — creating…

FODI at work inspecting an optic between experiments at the National Ignition Facility. Image by Daniel Herchek/LLNL

Meet the machines that matter: the Optics Inspector

LLNL tackles the nation’s toughest security challenges through bold, multidisciplinary science powered by advanced facilities and instruments. In this new series, meet the machines that work behind the scenes at the Laboratory to drive discovery, push boundaries and enable excellence. From inspecting optics and trapping ions to cooling supercomputers and detecting…

Big Ideas Lab genesis mission graphic

Big Ideas Lab explores how the Genesis Mission aims to accelerate scientific discovery

Scientific discovery has always moved through a familiar cycle: question, hypothesis, experiment and a result. In the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) explores how the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Genesis Mission aims to accelerate that process by uniting AI, high-performance computing (HPC), experiments and the…

On May 7, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Director Kim Budil, fourth from left, joined a public-private panel on AI for science, where she highlighted LLNL capabilities and AI focus areas, including the National Ignition Facility, El Capitan, high-fidelity modeling and simulation and advanced materials and manufacturing. (Photo: Jeremy Thomas)

LLNL showcases AI-enabled science, national security and energy innovation at AI+ Expo

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) leaders, scientists and engineers joined national voices at the Special Competitive Studies Project’s (SCSP) AI+ Expo May 7-9 in Washington, D.C., highlighting how AI is reshaping science, security and energy innovation. The public Expo brought together government, industry, academic and Department of Energy (DOE) national…

LLNL’s advanced optics system for Ocula, featuring the Lab’s state-of-the-art monolithic telescope, will capture high-resolution ultraviolet and visible images of the lunar surface onboard Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft in lunar orbit. (Photographer: Gary McLeod)

LLNL optics system set to fly to the moon with Firefly Aerospace for Ocula imaging service

A team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently delivered a high-resolution optics system to Firefly Aerospace in support of Firefly’s Ocula commercial lunar imaging service. The payload is scheduled to fly onboard Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft in lunar orbit as part of Blue Ghost Mission 2, targeted to launch no earlier than late 2026. The…

Sonny Ly, deputy group leader for the Laser Material Interaction Science Group in LLNL’s Materials Science Division, conducts hands-on work supporting laser physics and laser-material interactions research. (Photo: Garry McLeod/LLNL)

Meet LLNL: Laser Material Interaction Deputy Group Leader Sonny Ly

Sonny Ly has built a career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) combining laser physics, materials science and mentorship. A deputy group leader in the Laser Material Interaction Science Group within the Materials Science Division under Physical and Life Sciences, Ly first came to the Lab in 2010 as a graduate student from the University of California, Davis…