Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory was founded on January 1, 1943 to develop the nuclear fission bomb, and after succeeding in that task it undertook and completed a second assignment to create a “super” weapon powered by the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen, while continuing thereafter as one of the nation’s foremost centers for nuclear weapons development. Its nonmilitary work has also been extensive since 1943, contributing to fundamental scientific knowledge and to peaceful applications of atomic energy; at Los Alamos the world’s first enriched uranium reactor was designed and built and has operated since 1944, the world’s first plutonium-fueled reactor began operation there in 1946 and was also the first fast-neutron reactor, and in later years the laboratory developed for the first time reactors using uranium phosphate fuel and molten plutonium, built and ground tested several rocket propulsion reactors with flight tests scheduled in the following years, and remained a leader in chemistry and metallurgy, biology and medicine, thermionic electricity, plasma physics, instrument development, and electronic computing.

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Los Alamos, New Mexico · USA