engineering

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Los Alamos National Laboratory rather than just read about it. In short: Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the American southwest. Best known for its central role in helping develop the first atomic bomb, LANL is one of the world's largest and most advanced scientific institutions.

Key takeaways

Los Alamos National Laboratory belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Los Alamos National Laboratory to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Los Alamos National Laboratory from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the American southwest. Best known for its central role in helping develop the first atomic bomb, LANL is one of the world's largest and most advanced scientific institutions. Los Alamos was established in 1943 as Project Y, a top-secret site for designing and assembling nuclear weapons under the Manhattan Project during World War II. This included both nuclear weapons used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, as well as Trinity, the first nuclear test, a month prior. Chosen for its remote yet relatively accessible location, it served as the main hub for conducting and coordinating nuclear research, bringing together some of the world's most famous scientists, among them numerous Nobel Prize winners. The town of Los Alamos, directly north of the lab, grew extensively through this period. After the war ended in 1945, Project Y's existence was made public, and it became known universally as Los Alamos. In 1952, the Atomic Energy Commission formed a second design lab under the direction of the University of California, Berkeley, which became Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL); the two labs competed on a wide variety of bomb designs. As the Cold War and its nuclear arms race began, Los Alamos remained central to the US effort. Under the "Super" program, Los Alamos physicists including Edward Teller and Stanisław Ulam developed the world's first thermonuclear weapons, Greenhouse George and Ivy Mike.Los Alamos subsequently produced the neutron bomb. The lab was involved in the origins of supercomputers, to further warhead development. Los Alamos also pioneered more fundamental nuclear research, including particle accelerators and nuclear fusion power experiments. With the end of the Cold War and US nuclear testing, Los Alamos took on a central role in the US warhead stockpile stewardship program, via its Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility and Neutron Science Center. Los Alamos also expanded civilian work, and today conducts multidisciplinary research in fields such as national security, space exploration, nuclear fusion, renewable energy, medicine, nanotechnology, and supercomputing. While owned by the federal government, LANL is privately managed and operated by Triad National Security, LLC.

History

The Manhattan Project

The laboratory was founded during World War II as a secret, centralized facility to coordinate the scientific research of the Manhattan Project, the Allied project to develop the first nuclear weapons. In September 1942, the difficulties encountered in conducting preliminary studies on nuclear weapons at universities scattered across the country indicated the need for a laboratory dedicated solely to that purpose. General Leslie Groves wanted a central laboratory at an isolated location for safety, and to keep the scientists away from the populace. It should be at least 200 miles from international boundaries and west of the Mississippi. Major John Dudley suggested Oak City, Utah, or Jemez Springs, New Mexico, but both were rejected. Jemez Springs was only a short distance from the current site. Project Y director J. Robert Oppenheimer had spent much time in his youth in the New Mexico area and suggested the Los Alamos Ranch School on the mesa. Dudley had rejected the school as not meeting Groves' criteria, but as soon as Groves saw it he said in effect "This is the place." Oppenheimer became the laboratory's first director; from 19 October 1942.

During the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos hosted thousands of employees, including many Nobel Prize-winning scientists. The location was a total secret. Its only mailing address was a post office box, number 1663, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Eventually two other post office boxes were used, 180 and 1539, also in Santa Fe. Though its contract with the University of California was initially intended to be temporary, the relationship was maintained long after the war. Until the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, University of California president Robert Sproul did not know what the purpose of the laboratory was and thought it might be producing a "death ray." The only member of the UC administration who knew its true purpose—indeed, the only one who knew its exact physical location—was the Secretary-Treasurer Robert Underhill (younger brother of Marine Corps general James Underhill and Army colonel Lewis Underhill), who was in charge of wartime contracts and liabilities. He first visited the site in mid-March 1943 and was informed of the project objective by Ernest Lawrence in November 1943.

The work of the laboratory culminated in Los Alamos assembling several atomic devices, one of which was used in the first nuclear test near Alamogordo, New Mexico, codenamed "Trinity," on July 16, 1945. The other two were weapons, "Little Boy" and "Fat Man," which were used in the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Laboratory received the Army-Navy "E" Award for Excellence in production on October 16, 1945.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Los Alamos National Laboratory

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Los Alamos National Laboratory claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Los Alamos National Laboratory before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Los Alamos National Laboratory ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Los Alamos National Laboratory

In research: Los Alamos National Laboratory appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Los Alamos National Laboratory in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Los Alamos National Laboratory is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 establishments in New Mexico, Bechtel, Buildings and structures in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Los Alamos National Laboratory outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Los Alamos National Laboratory in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Los Alamos National Laboratory means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Los Alamos National Laboratory out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Los Alamos National Laboratory in simple terms?

Why does Los Alamos National Laboratory matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Los Alamos National Laboratory?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Los Alamos National Laboratory.