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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…

NASA’s Psyche mission successfully tested a gamma-ray sensor developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during a Mars gravity assist. The mission aims to study the asteroid Psyche, believed to be an exposed planetary core, with the spacecraft scheduled to arrive in 2029. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

NASA’s Psyche mission tests LLNL-built gamma-ray sensor on Mars flyby

On a multi-billion-mile journey to the asteroid Psyche, a gamma-ray sensor developed by a team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) took its first measurements of a planetary surface after 2.6 years in deep space. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew behind Mars for a gravity assist, with the red planet’s gravitational field acting as a slingshot to change the flight…

Attendees at the UC Science at Scale Summit in Santa Fe, New Mexico

“AI Science at Scale” summit showcases advances in AI-enabled research and innovation

Recently, the University of California (UC), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) convened researchers and leaders from across the UC system in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the first annual AI Science at Scale summit. The summit was planned in recognition of AI’s growing role in scientific discovery and the Department of…

Battery diagram

With machine learning, LLNL researchers embrace the atomic-scale complexity of batteries

For grid-scale energy storage and national energy resilience, the U.S. needs better batteries. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are tackling that challenge in many ways, but one approach is making a significant impact: physics-informed machine learning. In two recent publications, LLNL researchers examined how integrating molecular dynamics…

LLNL researchers studied viruses in grassland soil before and after rapid rewetting. Most remained inactive, with only 22 percent of viruses replicating. (Graphic: Dan Herchek/LLNL)

Isotope probing shows soil is packed with dormant viruses lying in wait

A single gram of soil contains between 10 million and 1 billion viruses. Most of those viruses do not infect plants, animals or people — but they do target bacteria and other microbes. Because of their influence on microbial communities, viruses can affect nutrient cycling and soil health. Understanding how they behave is therefore crucial for supporting agriculture, food…

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…

Target chamber at the OMEGA laser facility at the University of Rochester, New York (Credit: OMEGA Laser Facility)

Laser experiments push helium to record shock pressures

Deep inside gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, hydrogen and helium coexist under pressures millions of times greater than Earth’s atmosphere. At those conditions, helium may separate from hydrogen and influence a planet’s internal heat flow, structure and magnetic field. Understanding these processes and how these materials behave under extreme conditions is essential to…

The Big Ideas Lab podcast takes listeners inside the National Lab Research SLAM competition. Listen to the new episode on Apple and Spotify. (Photo: Blaise Douros)

LLNL’s Big Ideas Lab podcast goes behind the scenes of the National Lab Research SLAM

Finalists representing each of the 17 U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories gathered at the Congressional Auditorium for the first National Lab Research SLAM in 2023. With one slide, three minutes and months of preparation behind them, each scientist stepped up to the microphone to explain their research through compelling storytelling to an audience outside of…

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…

An international cohort gathered at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center for a workshop focused on ideas at the boundary of fusion science. (Photos: Blaise Douros/LLNL)

LLNL, UC San Diego host workshop for innovative fusion concepts

More than 80 attendees recently gathered at the University of California (UC) Livermore Collaboration Center for the Innovative Concepts for Inertial Fusion Energy (IC-IFE) 2026 International Physics Workshop. Hosted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and UC San Diego, the three-day conference was supported by the Japan-U.S. Collaboration Program in Fusion…

LLNL Director Kim Budil and Livermore Mayor John Marchand celebrate Livermorium Day, commemorating element 116. Photo by Scott Wilson/LLNL.

Livermorium Day: celebrating big ideas, team science and partnerships

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the City of Livermore share an honor few places can claim — a spot on the periodic table of elements. Leaders from LLNL and the city came together with students, educators and the community to celebrate this at Livermorium Day. This unique event took place in a unique location: Livermorium Plaza in the city’s downtown. “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…

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…

LLNL teams attended the Energy I-Corps Cohort 22 kick-off in Colorado March 16-20, 2026. Pictured from left to right: Ryan Muir, Leily Kiani, Candice Bila, Clint Frye, and Qinghui Shao.(Credit: Kira Voss)

Two LLNL teams attend DOE’s Energy I-Corps Cohort 22

Continuing a decade of entrepreneurial training and commercializing mission innovation, two teams of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers attended the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy I-Corps (EIC) Cohort 22 in Colorado this spring. The EIC is a key initiative of the DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC). Candice Bila from the…

HPC4 Energy Innovation

DOE opens new HPC4EI call to connect US manufacturers with national-lab supercomputing

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has opened a new call for proposals under the High-Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) program, a national initiative managed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) that connects U.S. manufacturers with the computing power and scientific expertise of DOE’s national laboratories. The program invites companies to…

The AVLIS program began at LLNL in 1973 and was suspended in 1999. Now, the technology is being revived to create a domestic process for enriching lithium and fuel an energy-resilient nation.

Revitalized laser technology captures commercialization grant

Small, modular nuclear fission reactors and fusion facilities could each be the future of resilient and secure energy in the U.S. and around the world. But these technologies rely on isotopes of lithium to cool fission reactors and create fusion fuel. Currently, there is no sustained, domestic production mechanism for lithium isotopes in the U.S. that meets projected…