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The United States Department of Energy National Laboratories and Technology Centers is a system of facilities and laboratories overseen by the
United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States ...
(DOE) for scientific and technological research. Sixteen of the seventeen DOE national laboratories are federally funded research and development centers administered, managed, operated and staffed by private-sector organizations under management and operating (M&O) contract with DOE (with the National Energy Technology Laboratory being the exception).


History

The system of centralized national laboratories grew out of the massive scientific endeavors of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, in which new technologies such as
radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...
, the
computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...
, the
proximity fuse A proximity fuze (or fuse) is a fuze that detonates an explosive device automatically when the distance to the target becomes smaller than a predetermined value. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such as planes, missiles, ships at sea, an ...
, and the atomic bomb proved decisive for the Allied victory. Though the United States government had begun seriously investing in scientific research for national security in
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, it was only in late 1930s and 1940s that monumental amounts of resources were committed or coordinated to wartime scientific problems, under the auspices first of the National Defense Research Committee, and later the Office of Scientific Research and Development, organized and administered by the MIT engineer Vannevar Bush. During the Second World War, centralized sites such as the Radiation Laboratory at MIT and
Ernest O. Lawrence Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American nuclear physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation fo ...
's
laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physi ...
at Berkeley and the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago allowed for a large number of expert scientists to collaborate towards defined goals as never before, and with virtually unlimited government resources at their disposal. In the course of the war, the Allied nuclear effort, the
Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
, created several secret sites for the purpose of bomb research and material development, including a laboratory in the mountains of
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...
directed by Robert Oppenheimer ( Los Alamos), and sites at Hanford, Washington and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Hanford and Oak Ridge were administered by private companies, and Los Alamos was administered by a public university (the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...
). Additional success was had at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in reactor research, leading to the creation of Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago, and at other academic institutions spread across the country. After the war and its scientific successes, the newly created Atomic Energy Commission took over the future of the wartime laboratories, extending their lives indefinitely (they were originally thought of as temporary creations). Funding and infrastructure were secured to sponsor other "national laboratories" for both classified and basic research, especially in
physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...
, with each national laboratory centered around one or many expensive machines (such as particle accelerators or nuclear reactors). Most national laboratories maintained staffs of local researchers as well as allowing for visiting researchers to use their equipment, though priority to local or visiting researchers often varied from lab to lab. With their centralization of resources (both monetary and intellectual), the national labs serve as an exemplar for Big Science. Elements of both competition and cooperation were encouraged in the laboratories. Often two laboratories with similar missions were created (such as Lawrence Livermore which was designed to compete with Los Alamos) with the hope that competition over funding would create a culture of high quality work. Laboratories which did not have overlapping missions would cooperate with each other (for example, Lawrence Livermore would cooperate with the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, which itself was often in competition with Brookhaven National Laboratory). The idea of regional laboratories to work with local universities for nuclear development originated with
Arthur Compton Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for his 1923 discovery of the Compton effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radia ...
and
Charles Allen Thomas Charles Allen Thomas (February 15, 1900 – March 29, 1982) was a noted American chemist and businessman, and an important figure in the Manhattan Project. He held over 100 patents. A graduate of Transylvania College and Massachusetts Institute ...
, though Leslie Groves later claimed the idea as his own. The national laboratory system, administered first by the Atomic Energy Commission, then the Energy Research and Development Administration, and currently the Department of Energy, is one of the largest (if not the largest) scientific research systems in the world. The DOE provides about a third of the total national funding for
physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...
,
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...
, materials science, and other areas of the
physical sciences Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences". Definition Phy ...
. Many are locally managed by private companies, while others are managed by academic universities, and as a system they form one of the overarching and far-reaching components in what is known as the " iron triangle" of
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
,
academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
, and industry. The National Labs can work directly with private industry through Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) agreements.


List


National Laboratories

The United States Department of Energy currently operates seventeen national laboratories which fall under six of the department's divisions:


Technology Centers

* Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory* at West Mifflin (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania (1949) * Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory* at Niskayuna, New York (1946) : In addition Knolls operates the Kenneth A. Kesselring site at
West Milton, New York West Milton is a hamlet in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York, United States at an elevation of 440 feet (134 m). Nearby lies the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) is an American research and developmen ...
* New Brunswick Laboratory**, at Argonne National Laboratory * Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education* at Oak Ridge, Tennessee *
Radiological and Environmental Sciences Laboratory The Radiological and Environmental Sciences Laboratory (RESL) is a government-owned and government-operated laboratory operated by the U.S. Department of Energy Idaho Operations Office. It reports directly to the DOE-ID Assistant Manager for Techni ...
** * Savannah River Ecology Laboratory* * GOCO (Government-owned, Contractor-operated)
** GOGO (Government-owned, Government-operated)


List of scientific user facilities

* Accelerator Test Facility * Advanced Light Source *
Advanced Photon Source The Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory (in Lemont, Illinois) is a storage-ring-based high-energy X-ray light source facility. It is one of five X-ray light sources owned and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office o ...
* Alcator C-Mod * Argonne Leadership Computing Facility: IBM Mira *
Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator System The Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) is a U.S. Department of Energy scientific user facility at Argonne National Laboratory. ATLAS is the first superconducting linear accelerator for heavy ions at energies in the vicinity of the ...
* Atmospheric Radiation Measurement *
B-Factory In particle physics, a B-factory, or sometimes a beauty factory, is a particle collider experiment designed to produce and detect a large number of B mesons so that their properties and behavior can be measured with small statistical uncertainty. T ...
* Bates Linear Accelerator Center * Booster Neutrino * Center for Functional Nanomaterials * Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies *
Center for Microanalysis of Materials Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...
*
Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences is the first of the five Nanoscale Science Research Centers sponsored by the United States Department of Energy. It is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and is a collaborative research facility for the s ...
* Center for Nanoscale Materials * Combustion Research Facility *
Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), commonly called Jefferson Lab or JLab, is a US National Laboratory located in Newport News, Virginia. Its stated mission is "to provide forefront scientific facilities, opportunities an ...
* DIII-D Tokamak Facility *
Electron Microscopy Center for Materials Research The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers the United States Department of Energy sponsors. The Center is at Argonne National Laboratory location in Lemont, Illinois. The Center for Nanoscale Materials ...
* Energy Sciences Network * Energy Systems Integration Facility *
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL, pronounced em-zul) is a Department of Energy, Office of Science facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, United States. Research EMSL scientists and collabor ...
* Final Focus Test Beam * Free Air CO2 Experiment * High Flux Isotope Reactor Center for Neutron Scattering * Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility * James R. Macdonald Laboratory * Joint Genome Institute * Linac Coherent Light Source *
Main Injector Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been opera ...
* Laboratory for Laser Energetics *
Los Alamos Neutron Science Center The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), formerly known as the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF), is one of the world's most powerful linear accelerators. It is located in Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in Technical Ar ...
* Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center * Materials Preparation Center *
Molecular Foundry The Molecular Foundry is a nanoscience user facility located at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, and is one of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers sponsored by the United States Department of Energy. Ove ...
* National Center for Electron Microscopy * National High Magnetic Field Laboratory * National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center *
National Ignition Facility The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research device, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, United States. NIF's mission is to achieve fusion ignition w ...
* National Spherical Torus Experiment *
National Synchrotron Light Source The National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York was a national user research facility funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Built from 1978 through 1984, and officially shut down ...
*
National Transportation Research Center ''For the sigma N-transcription factor activator protein in prokaryotes, see NtrC'' The National Transportation Research Center (NTRC) is an institution, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, that conducts research and development aimed at increasing t ...
* Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator * Neutrinos at the Main Injector * Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory *
Pulse Radiolysis Facility In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the ne ...
* Radiochemical Engineering Development Center *
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC ) is the first and one of only two operating heavy-ion colliders, and the only spin-polarized proton collider ever built. Located at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York, and used by a ...
* Shared Research Equipment Program *
Spallation Neutron Source The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is an accelerator-based neutron source facility in the U.S. that provides the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development.In 2007, SNS was entered into th ...
* Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory *
Structural Biology Center A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such ...
*
Synchrotron Radiation Center The Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC), located in Stoughton, Wisconsin and operated by the University of Wisconsin–Madison, was a national synchrotron light source research facility, operating the Aladdin storage ring. From 1968 to 1987 SRC wa ...
*
Tevatron collider The Tevatron was a circular particle accelerator (active until 2011) in the United States, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (also known as ''Fermilab''), east of Batavia, Illinois, and is the second highest energy particle collider ...
* Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute * Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory *
University of Washington Tandem Van de Graaff A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
* Yale University Tandem Van de Graaff


In popular culture

* In the
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
web series '' Stranger Things'', a fictional laboratory called Hawkins National Laboratory run by the DOE is located in the fictional town of Hawkins,
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
. The laboratory is later shut down after it is revealed that a portal to another dimension called the "Upside Down" is opened and inhumane experiments are performed on children to turn them into weapons against the
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...
. * In the AMC show '' Breaking Bad'', Walter White works for Sandia National Laboratories prior to Season One.


See also

* University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System


References


Further reading

* Westwick, Peter J. (2003)
''The National Labs: Science in an American System, 1947–1974''
Cambridge:
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
. .


External links


Energy.gov: Department of Energy National Laboratories website

Science.energy.gov: U.S. Department of Energy; Ten-Year Plans for the Office of Science's National Laboratories

Energy.gov: DOE Budget Page, with link to National Laboratories budgets
{{coord missing, Washington, D.C. DOE national lab Energy research institutes Department of Energy laboratories
Laboratories A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physi ...
Department of Energy National Laboratories National Laboratories Department of Energy National Laboratories National Laboratories