Big Ideas Lab - History of the Lab

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

In the wake of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb test, the looming threat of nuclear war sent shockwaves through the United States. Air raid sirens blared, bomb shelters were built, and schoolchildren were drilled in "Duck and Cover" tactics. But the U.S. government knew preparation wasn’t enough—they needed a breakthrough, something far more powerful to shift the balance of power.Their answer was nuclear deterrence: the idea that the best protection against a nuclear attack is the fear of retaliation. This sparked a race to develop a weapon so powerful that the Soviets wouldn’t dare challenge it.At the center of this effort was physicist Ernest Lawrence, whose visionary leadership not only pushed the boundaries of nuclear science but also laid the foundation for a lab that would revolutionize both national security and scientific discovery. This is the story of how Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was born—and how it began to change the world.---Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series. Executive Produced and Written by Lacey Peace.Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Daniel Brunelle.Story Editing by Daniel Brunelle.Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell.Narrated by Matthew Powell.Video Production by Levi Hanusch.Guests featured in this episode (in order of appearance):Tom Ramos, LLNL Physicist & Author of From Berkeley to Berlin Bruce Tarter, Former LLNL Director & Author of The American Lab Rob Neely, Associate  Director for Weapon Simulation and Computing at LLNLBrought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

It was 5.55 a.m. on August 29, 1949. Igor Kurchatov peered out from his command post. He and his team of scientists were in a desolate region of Kazakhstan. Across from them in the distance was a metal tower that they had spent the last several months planning and building. Hoisted at the very top of this tower was what the USSR had nicknamed First Lightning. Around Igor, scientists hustled to do final checks. As they got closer to launch time, a countdown began. And at 6 a.m. sharp, Igor gave the signal.

First Lightning was released. The tower holding the device was immediately overtaken by a blinding light. Within seconds, Igor knew they were successful. The Soviets had successfully detonated their first atomic bomb. Suddenly, the Cold War was burning hot. The weapon was 50% more destructive than the Soviets had expected and came four years sooner than Western security experts had anticipated. Russia had caught up to the U.S. faster than anyone predicted.

And in an instant, the stakes of the Cold War were raised. On that fateful day in 1949, the nuclear arms race was born. Welcome to the Big Ideas Lab, your weekly exploration inside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hear untold stories, meet boundary-pushing pioneers, and get unparalleled access inside the gates. From national security challenges to computing revolutions, discover the innovations that are first lightning, the threat of a Soviet nuclear attack hung over the heads of all Americans. Air raid sirens were raised, family homes were built with bomb shelters,

and schoolchildren were taught to dive under their desks if they saw a flash of a nuclear explosion. The U.S. government, however, was determined to find a stronger response than simply duck and cover. The response was nuclear deterrence, or the idea that the only protection from nuclear attack is fear of retaliation. So the hunt was on for a stronger weapon that the Soviets wouldn't dare challenge. Both the Soviet and American weapons were built using plutonium, but this design had a limit to its explosive power. U.S. scientists would have to develop a wholly new type of weapon with a hydrogen core. The hydrogen bomb was discussed in scientific communities as possible in theory, but unproven. Scientists would have to fuse two hydrogen atoms,

a much more difficult proposition than uranium or plutonium, but a thousand times more powerful. Washington was convinced that the U.S. needed to be first to the H-bomb. The theory seemed sound, but it would take a brilliant mind and the right team to turn theory into reality. Luckily, Washington knew just who to ask. Physicist Ernest Lawrence. There's Ernest Orlando Lawrence. His grandparents were immigrants from Norway. From the earliest years, he was just intrigued with technical things and science. He made a radio with a friend of his when they were just kids.

That's Tom Ramos. Tom has been a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 1981, authored a book about its role in nuclear deterrence, and has more than a few stories about Ernest Orlando Lawrence. In high school, he was recognized as being a really super student, the University of Minnesota, the University of Chicago, and finally Yale University, where he got his PhD. Doing his research, he had a phenomenal ability to do complex experiments and make them work. And so luminaries in Europe, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg,

Niels Bohr, all these great giants of physics, they all recognized Lawrence as a young man. This is a special man. It was going along fine when Robert Sproul, who was the chancellor, president of the University of California, wanted to take Berkeley from being a scientific backwater. He wanted to make it a world-class institution in science research. And so his big goal was to recruit Lawrence, get Lawrence to the West Coast. So he gave him an offer he couldn't refuse, and Lawrence comes out, and he doesn't disappoint. In the late 1920s, Lawrence joined the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley, where he conceived of a new kind of particle accelerator, a device that Lawrence called his proton merry-go-round.

Within 18 months, Lawrence invents a machine that can accelerate particles to penetrate atoms. This is the preview of what we now call supercolliders, like in Geneva and CERN, these great supercolliders. Lawrence invented one, came to be known as the cyclotron. His original one was only four and a half inches in diameter. Hold it in your hand, but he started building bigger and bigger ones. The design of the cyclotron was unique, as it spun particles many times around a spiral to boost their energies, then cast them toward a target, like stones from a slingshot, to smash open atomic nuclei. The cyclotron, the atom-smashing machine.

Lawrence's most important scientific contribution was his development of the cyclotron. Before deciding on uranium, which contained atoms easiest of all to crack. Which proved instrumental in the production of fissionable isotopes and success of the Manhattan Project. With global war, the government stepped into the picture. General Groves, head of the project. This eventually would get him the Nobel Prize, but Sproul gave him a building at Berkeley to house a new cyclotron. It was getting too big for where he was. And Lawrence then created a laboratory in that building, and he called it the Penetrating Radiation Laboratory, but people soon called it the University of California Radiation Lab or just simply the Rad Lab. And the Rad Lab, then, just like Sprout had wished,

the Rad Lab became a world center of nuclear research. And it was based, frankly, on Lawrence's leadership, his ability to do experiments, and his charisma. So you had the leading experimental students in the nation coming out to Berkeley to work at the Rad Lab. Five individuals who came out there would win the Nobel Prize. The Rad Lab quickly attracted talented scientists from around the world. But the growing notoriety of the lab also attracted the attention of officials in the U.S. defense establishment. Everything was going fine. Then his life changed. December 1938, in Nazi Germany, nuclear fission was discovered. And Lawrence immediately realized

that that could lead to an atomic bomb. And he started trying to mobilize the U.S. government, wake up government officials in Washington, that there was a huge threat steamrolling its way, and that Hitler might be able to make an atomic bomb. In 1938, the German army was rapidly intensifying its military and investing in scientific discovery, all in preparation for what would become World War II. The weapons technology in play far surpassed what anyone had seen before. Tanks, airplanes, and submarines. The widespread adoption of these advancements set the stage for a more mobile,

mechanized, and devastating conflict than any war in history. But no developments were more potentially devastating than that of an atomic weapon. Recognizing the potential military applications of nuclear fission, Lawrence encouraged the United States government to launch an effort to build atomic arms before Germany or any other potential adversary. And so he got the United States, almost single-handedly got the United States to wake up and to then start an atomic program of its own, which eventually would become the Manhattan Project. The head of the Manhattan Project, General Leslie Groves, came out to Berkeley and said, Professor Lawrence, we need a laboratory to design this thing. Lawrence said, I got my hands full. So he

introduced him to his assistant, Robert Oppenheimer. During World War II, Lawrence, his team at the Rad Lab, and their work with the cyclotron to study uranium and plutonium reactions played a crucial role in contributing to the Manhattan Project. This research helped shape the outcome of the war while demonstrating the practical applications of nuclear physics. But then came that day in August 1949. World War II had come to an end, but the Cold War was just beginning.

They had to find a way to beat the Russians to the H-bomb. On the morning of September 9th, 1949, the Director of Central Intelligence, Admiral Roscoe Hillenkuder, stood outside President Harry Truman's office. In his hand was a letter that would change the course of United States national security forever. Admiral Roscoe was called in. He handed the report to President Truman. As Truman read the words, the gravity of what was on the page sunk in.

An abnormal radioactive contamination had been detected by U.S. spy planes in the northern Pacific. While there was no concrete conclusion as to its cause, the DCI's first hypothesis was, quote, an atomic explosion on the continent of Asia. The race was on, and the U.S. government turned to Lawrence to help once more. He had a passion for science, but he had a passion for the defense of the country. He had a passion for America. When he saw threats, like first with Nazi Germany, and then with communist Russia, he just saw these threats coming and he couldn't stand

still. A commissioner for the Atomic Energy Commission, he flew out to Berkeley. He met with Lawrence and he said, Lawrence, I'm afraid the Russians are going to overtake us. And just as much as we were afraid of Hitler having an atomic bomb all by himself, how disastrous that would be, we're now afraid that Stalin will have a thermonuclear weapon all by himself, a weapon a thousand times more powerful. The government seemed to always go back to Lawrence and said, help. Once again, they said, help. We need help.

And Lawrence agreed to start one more laboratory. So he went around asking Pentagon, well, do you have any government property that I can create another laboratory? And they said, we'll take over any World War II facility. So Lawrence went around. They showed up at the Naval Air Station in Livermore. And there was an indoor Olympic-sized swimming pool there that was used to train Navy pilots in survival.

And Lawrence steps into the building, and he looks at this indoor swimming pool. He turns around and says, Louis, we found a home. On the second day of September, 1952, they put up a sign, the University of California Radiation Lab, the Rad Lab, Livermore Campus.

So that's a square mile, and Lawrence is in charge. And Lawrence takes about 100 physicists out of Rad Lab and ships them and says, OK, you're now working at Livermore. It was 1952 when this lab was established. At this new campus, Lawrence proved himself to be a decisive leader, a founder who was willing to challenge the boundaries of traditional work structures in favor of something more open and collaborative. Bruce Tarter, former lab director and author of The American Lab, tells us more. Almost every one of the first hundred people through the gate on opening day

had been a part of Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. And so the entire culture was Lawrence's. And Lawrence's culture still maintains today to some extent. He's very proper, always well-dressed. He always seemed to have an even heel. He just had this charisma that incredibly talented young men and women just flocked to him and would work with him. And he was a no-nonsense guy. When he had his laboratories, he would be walking around day and night. I heard the story more than once where a physicist would be working on an experiment on a Sunday night at 10 o'clock, getting ready for an experiment that

was going to go on Monday. And right in the middle of where they're fidgeting with something, they would hear something behind them. They turn around, it's Ernest Lawrence standing there and said, what are you up to? Then Lawrence would make some suggestions. He just had this presence. It spurred you full of energy. However, charisma and energy alone can't solve every problem. In the early days of the laboratory, they had a really difficult time. They were failing the first three tests for failures, and everyone was a bit nervous.

In 1953, not even a year after the founding of the lab, scientists conducted their first nuclear explosive test in Nevada, called the Ruth event. One young engineer, after witnessing the Ruth event, said, quote, When it was fired, all we could see was a small speck of light on the horizon. No mushroom cloud, no nothing. End quote. The blast was so subdued that even the 300-foot tower that had been used to test the device was still standing after the experiment. They reset, modified the design, and tried again. And it failed again. So they tweaked the design for a third time and tried again. And it failed again.

So they tweaked the design for a third time and tried again. And it failed again. I talked to an individual who was there in an auditorium where they were going to discuss the latest failure. People in Washington and Los Alamos are calling to shut down the lavatory. This was a waste of money. It was a big failure. And Lawrence came and he steps up in the front and he just starts talking to them. He says, look, what's important is what did we learn from these experiments? How do we move forward? Lawrence was in there with you. You know, you were all in this

together and it's just a huge amount of confidence you got. He was bigger than life. Sure enough, a breakthrough wasn't far off. It's a testament to their grit that they didn't give up. Lawrence certainly didn't give up. And by the fourth test, they struck a home run. That was a Johnny Foster test. The fifth test was a Harold Brown test. They both worked, and they never looked back,

and they just were extremely successful. Within 10 years, the strategic deterrent force of the United States was based on designs that came out of Livermore. I mean, we're talking the submarines, the Polaris submarine, the Minuteman missile. Those were all Livermore designs. The latest incarnation of this design was conceived in 1956, named Polaris,

a system in which 16 compact missiles would be placed vertically aboard a submarine for launch. The plan was to deliver a strong and highly mobile nuclear deterrent. On May 6, 1962, the U.S. conducted a complete operational test of the Polaris A-1 missile system, culminating with the successful detonation of the Megaton-class warhead. President John F. Kennedy was on site for the successful test. That shot, fired in 1962 from USS Ethan Allen, quite literally was heard around the world, for it fully demonstrated beyond any rational question the credibility of what President

Kennedy called our crucial deterrent, the fleet ballistic missile weapon system. The president's television address to the nation on the Cuban situation. Just months later, in October 1962, an unbelievably tense 13-day stretch put the world at the brink of nuclear war. Good evening, my fellow citizens. Unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviets built missile silos just 90 miles off the coast of Florida in Cuba,

well within striking distance of most major U.S. cities. After a rapid and intense succession of military escalations, the U.S. and Soviet Union were poised to strike at will. Catastrophe at the press of a button. The world held its breath, hoping that the back and forth between superpowers would come to a peaceful conclusion. We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the course of worldwide nuclear war. Thank you and good night. Thankfully, the leaders realized the magnitude of what was happening and the devastation that could result from one errant decision. After a two-week standoff, nuclear weapons were removed from the island. An

agreement was reached, and both leaders realized the need to reduce tensions between the superpowers. As Communist Party leader Nikita Khrushchev said, the two most powerful nations had been squared off against each other, each with its finger on the button. To which Kennedy replied, it is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization. Something had to change. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory invites you to join our diverse team of professionals where opportunities abound for engineers, scientists, IT experts, welders, administrative

and business professionals, and more. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, your contributions are not just jobs, they're a chance to make an impact from strengthening U.S. security to leading the charge in revolutionary energy solutions and expanding the boundaries of scientific knowledge. Our culture at the lab values collaboration, innovation, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. We're committed to nurturing your professional journey within a supportive workspace and offering a comprehensive benefits package designed to ensure your well-being and secure your future. Seize the opportunity to help solve something monumental. Dive into

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's wide variety of job openings at llnl.gov forward slash careers, where you can also learn more about our application process. This is your chance to join a team dedicated to a mission that matters. Make your mark. Visit llnl.gov forward slash careers today to discover the roles waiting for you. Remember, your expertise might just be the spotlight of our next podcast interview. Don't delay. Uncover the myriad of opportunities available at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Yesterday, a shaft of light cut into the darkness. Negotiations were concluded in Moscow on a treaty to ban all nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater.

For the first time, an agreement has been reached. On October 7, 1963, President Kennedy announced a joint agreement with the Soviet Union, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Suddenly, labs would be limited in how they could test these weapons. The treaty called for a ban of all underwater and atmospheric testing. While underground testing still remained, this was the first indicator that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was about to enter a new phase. For the first roughly 20 years of the laboratory's existence, from 52 up through around 71 or 72, it was almost a complete nuclear weapons research and development enterprise. The lab was founded to develop and test nuclear devices.

But as this testing ban went into effect, the scientists at Livermore had to pivot. In 1992, they had to pivot again, when President George H.W. Bush signed into law a moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing. Without the ability to conduct full-scale tests, how would the lab continue to research these devices further and ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the existing nuclear stockpile? But I think what's special about Livermore

is that we basically have reinvented ourselves on at least two occasions in a complete way. This ushered in a new era. And to meet these new national security challenges, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory would have to develop new tools, technologies, and teams. Tune in next time to learn about what would become one of the most important pieces of equipment in their arsenal, a technological advancement that has revolutionized

not only how we approach national security work, but has changed how we process information forever. How can we make these codes so accurate that we have enough confidence to say to the president, our stockpile is safe and secure, or begin to field some new weapons without ever needing to revert back to underground testing. That and more next week on the Big Ideas Lab.

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