National Security Science; February 2014, LALP-14-003]
Ethan Frogget (Photographer), Kelly Parker ( Desig Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2014. Presumed First Edition/First Printing thus. Wraps. 2, 42 pages and covers. Illustrations (many in color). Cover has slight wear and soiling. National Security Science magazine showcases the importance, breadth, and depth of the Lab's scientific and technical work for solving challenges to national security to policy makers, the general public, academia, and scientific and technical experts. This issue is in celebration of the first Los Alamos Primer lectures, which took place 71 years before in the spring of 1943, These lectures were held in conjunction with the start-up of "Project Y," which was part of the Manhattan Project. This issue provides to the reader highlights from the 2nd Los Alamos Primer Lectures which were held in honor of the Laboratory's 79th anniversary. Project Y would eventually become Los Alamos National Laboratory. This issue was also dedicated to Harold Agnew, the Laboratory's third director. Nacia Grant Cooper was the Science Writer/Editor. Eileen Patterson, Lisa Inkret, and Dominic Martinez were contributing writers and editors. Los Alamos National Laboratory (or LANL; previously known at various times as Project Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) is one of two laboratories in the United States in which classified work towards the design of nuclear weapons has been undertaken (the other being Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory). LANL is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security (LANS), located in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The laboratory is one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world. It conducts multidisciplinary research in fields such as national security, space exploration, renewable energy,[4] medicine, nanotechnology, and supercomputing. 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. The work of the laboratory culminated in the creation of 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. After the war, Oppenheimer retired from the directorship, and it was taken over by Norris Bradbury, whose initial mission was to make the previously hand-assembled atomic bombs "G.I. proof" so that they could be mass-produced and used without the assistance of highly trained scientists. Many of the original Los Alamos "luminaries" chose to leave the laboratory, and some even became outspoken opponents to the further development of nuclear weapons. In the years since the 1940s, Los Alamos was responsible for the development of the hydrogen bomb, and many other variants of nuclear weapons. In 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was founded to act as Los Alamos' "competitor", with the hope that two laboratories for the design of nuclear weapons would spur innovation. Los Alamos and Livermore served as the primary classified laboratories in the U.S. national laboratory system, designing all the country's nuclear arsenal. Additional work included basic scientific research, particle accelerator development, health physics, and fusion power research as part of Project Sherwood. Many nuclear tests were undertaken in the Marshall Islands and at the Nevada Test Site. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Nuclear Weapons, Los Alamos, Los Alamos Primer, Weapon Designers, Harold Agnew, Paul Bracken, Cold War, B61 Gravity Bomb, Life-extension Program, Test Ban Treaty, Hydrotest, Jas Mercer-Smith, John Pedicini, Gary Wall, Bob Webster, Dual-Axis Radiograp
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