Los Alamos National Laboratory was established in 1943. A large number of the world's top scientists have gathered here, including Oppenheimer, the father of nuclear bullets, edward tylor, the father of hydrogen bombs, Ernest Lawrence, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, and so on. It invented the world's first nuclear bullet and the first hydrogen bomb, and is a famous science city and high-tech radiation source. Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the largest multifunctional laboratories in the world. 1943 began to operate in secret, when the first task was the Manhattan Project.
Basic introduction Chinese name: Los Alamos National Laboratory mbth: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA Founded: 1943 Achievements: The world's first nuclear bullet was born here. Subordinate: US Department of Energy? Historical evolution, founding origin, operation management, membership evolution, previous directors, personnel composition, research fields, early research, current research, research achievements, experience stories, security issues, and historical evolution The founding origin of the United States * * * There are two national laboratories involved in the design and development of nuclear weapons. In addition to the Alamos laboratory, the other is Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LAWYLVMH), in/kloc. Alamos Laboratory was secretly established during World War II. It is a highly centralized institution responsible for coordinating scientific research and the Manhattan Project, that is, developing nuclear weapons. At that time, the official code name of the laboratory was Site Y. It was established because the primary research of nuclear weapons in several universities encountered difficulties in resource allocation at that time, and it was urgent to establish a laboratory to conduct this research alone. Oppenheimer, the chief scientist of Manhattan Project, spent his childhood in New Mexico. Together with physicists Ernest Lawrence and leslie richard groves, he set up a laboratory at the Ranch School in Los Alamos. After the establishment of the laboratory, Oppenheimer became the first director of Alamos Laboratory. The establishment of Alamos Laboratory is an important milestone in American history. At the same time, it has opened another milestone in the history of human war-mankind has entered the era of nuclear deterrence. During the Operation and Management Manhattan Project, thousands of scientists worked secretly in the laboratory (they only had one mailing address, P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe, New Mexico), and there were many Nobel Prize winners here. At that time, the cooperation between the laboratory and the University of California was only temporary, but it remained for a long time after the war. Until the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the then President of the University of California (Robert proll) didn't know what the main purpose of the laboratory was, thinking it was to invent a kind of dead light. Only one person on the board of the University of California really knows the purpose and geographical location of the laboratory. This person is the US Treasury Secretary Robert Underhill, who is in charge of wartime federal contracts and debts. The U.S. Department of Energy was very dissatisfied with the laboratory managed by the University of California, so it decided to cancel the contract with the University of California in 2003 and invite public tenders for the management and operation of the laboratory. Although there have been many unpleasantness between the University of California and the laboratory in the past, this time the University of California is competing with other bidders for the first time. It decided to set up a company with Bechtel, Washington International Group and BWX Technology Company to bid for the management and operation of the laboratory. This is the Los Alamos National Security Company led by the University of California and Berkeley. At that time, the competitors were the company formed by the University of Texas and Lockheed Martin. June, 5438+February, 2005, the US Department of Energy announced that Los Alamos National Security Company finally won the right to operate the laboratory with a contract term of 7 years. Membership Evolution After World War II, Oppenheimer retired and was succeeded by Norris Blackberry. His first task is to mass-produce nuclear bullets preserved by hand, and the operation of nuclear bombs no longer needs the assistance of scientists. At this time, many excellent scientists in the laboratory chose to leave, and some of them later became blatant opponents of developing nuclear weapons. In 1950s, many scientists, including Dr. Robert Best, left Alamos Laboratory and joined General Atomic Energy Company in San Diego. On June 1 2006, the University of California ended its 60-year-long direct management of the laboratory and handed over the management right to the new company Los Alamos National Security Company. 95% employees got a new re-employment contract from the new company. In the past, three of the 1 1 directors of the laboratory were directly appointed by the University of California. However, the regulations that apply to all branches of the University of California and its two national laboratories directly managed (including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) will no longer apply to Alamos Laboratory, and the laboratory director will no longer report to the board of directors or chairman of the University of California. In addition, the employees of the laboratory will no longer enjoy the endowment insurance and other insurances stipulated by the University of California 403B, and these insurances will be directly transferred to the name of Alamos Laboratory. For those who hold re-employment contracts, there is little difference between the two, but for new employees, the laboratory no longer guarantees insurance programs similar to those of the University of California, and can only get basic old-age insurance as stipulated in 401K. Since the establishment of Alamos Laboratory, there have been nine directors. They are Robert Oppenheimer (1943 to 1945), Norris bradbury (1945 to 1970) and Harold agnew (1970 to1970). Year to 1986) Siegfried heck (1986 to 1997) john brown (1997 to 2003) George Peter nanos (2003 to 2005) Robert Koekkoek (2005) Hael Anastasio (from 2006 to 20 10) and Charles F. McMillan (from 2010 to present) are the largest scientific research institutions and employers in New Mexico, with12,500 full-time employees and 3,300 contract employees. In addition, about 120 people in the US Department of Energy are responsible for the federal supervision of the work and operation of the laboratory. About one-third of the scientific and technological personnel are physicists, one-fifth are engineers, one-sixth are chemists and materials experts, and the rest are mathematicians, computer engineers, biologists, geographers and experts in other fields. University professors and students often participate in some laboratory projects as visiting scholars. In order to maintain America's leading position in science and technology in the future, laboratory scientists often cooperate extensively with universities and other industrial institutions in the fields of basic science and applied science. Alamos Laboratories has an annual budget of $2.2 billion. Early research in the field of research After the end of the Cold War, the changes in the international political structure made the US nuclear weapons development plan no longer the primary task. In order to cope with this change, the two laboratories work together. The task of Alamos Laboratory now is to use computers to conduct simulated nuclear tests and manage the national nuclear arsenal. Using experimental facilities, a nuclear explosion can be completely simulated without actually detonating a nuclear bomb. Since its establishment, Alamos Laboratory has also been responsible for the design and development of hydrogen bombs and other forms of nuclear weapons. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, founded in 1952, has become a veritable competitor. The idea of the United States is to continuously explore the innovative spirit of the two laboratories in nuclear weapon design and research and development through competition. These two laboratories occupy a leading position in the national laboratory system of the United States, and * * * undertakes the heavy responsibility of designing various nuclear bombs in the US nuclear arsenal. After Manhattan Project, Sherwood Project was implemented, including basic scientific research, the development of particle accelerators, life physics, thermonuclear fusion and so on. Most nuclear tests in the United States were conducted at nuclear explosion test sites in Marshall Islands and Nevada. Today's research laboratory is a multi-project research institution jointly managed by the Department of Energy and the University of California. Research work is divided into two categories, weapon research and non-weapon research. 1) weapons research, including developing nuclear warheads to meet current military needs, designing and testing advanced technical schemes, and maintaining innovative weapons research plans through experiments and theoretical research in related scientific and technological fields; 2) Non-weapon research Non-weapon research includes nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, moderate physical acceleration, superconductivity, biomedicine, non-nuclear energy and basic energy science. Research results 1) Alamos laboratory has developed three kinds of nuclear bullets, the first one is an experimental bomb. On July 1945, the United States successfully conducted its first nuclear test near Alamogordo, New Mexico, codenamed "Trinity". The other two are named "Little Boy" and "Fat Man", one is Hiroshima and the other is Nagasaki. 2) In 2065438+2005 10, 165438+2005, Los Alamos National Laboratory announced that it would join hands with two other national laboratories under the US Federal Department of Energy, namely Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory, to establish the ultimate scale (computing) performance for high-performance computing with advanced technology in the future. Experience story in recent years, the laboratory has also been plagued by scandals. Li Wenhe, a scientist from China in 1999 Laboratory, was charged with 59 crimes of abusing confidential information, including downloading confidential information of computer simulation nuclear test to hard disk and taking it out of the laboratory. After 65,438+00 months of imprisonment, Li Wenhe admitted only one charge, and the other 58 charges were considered completely wrong. At that time, Judge James Parker of the United States District Court apologized to Li Wenhe for imprisoning him. During this period, Li Wenhe was suspected of leaking nuclear weapons secrets to China, but the subsequent investigation proved his innocence. In 2000, two computer hard disks containing secret documents disappeared in the secret area of the laboratory, and were later found behind a color copier in the secret area. In 2003, two informers in the laboratory claimed that there was widespread theft in the laboratory. Later, John Braun, director of the laboratory, and the deputy director fired the two informers. Two directors of the laboratory were forced to resign because of the leak. In addition, a serious forest fire in 2000 completely destroyed several buildings in the laboratory, including staff apartments, and the laboratory had to be closed for many days. In July 2004, a list of confidential nuclear weapons information showed that four computer hard disks were lost, two of which were found illegally transferred to other buildings, and the other two have not been found so far. To this end, Peter Nanos, the director of the laboratory, immediately closed most of the facilities and publicly reprimanded the scientists working there for taking a very serious attitude towards confidential procedures. In the monthly report of the laboratory in August, he wrote that this contempt for rules must stop. For this reason, I don't care how many people are fired. He went on to write that even if I only had 10 people to manage the laboratory, I would still like to. However, in a report dated June 5438+ 10, 2005, it was found that these two hard disks were actually errors in the inventory list. The report concluded that a group of hard disks were given 12 barcodes, but in fact there were only 10 in this group, and the extra two were mistaken for being lost. The report went on to say that the so-called losses did not exist at all and confidential information was destroyed. This incident reflects that most people in the laboratory don't trust the management. In May 2005, director Nanos left. The reason for safe public bidding is that the US Department of Energy is not satisfied with the safety, preservation and financial management of laboratories. As for whether this new contract can effectively solve these problems, many people have expressed different opinions on the lab blog. In addition, many people are concerned about Bechtel's lack of transparency in operating and controlling the national nuclear weapons facilities as a private company. With the support of the National Science Foundation, Alamos Laboratory cooperates with two branches of the University of Florida to jointly manage the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. He is also a partner of the United Gene Society in Walnut Creek, California. During the period of 1997, it was established to integrate professional knowledge and resources and put them into projects such as gene recombination, DNA sequencing, gene technology development and information science. The research of these projects is mainly concentrated in three national laboratories in the United States, namely Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.