Livermore.
The Laboratory began to support a program for athermomonuclear weapon or superbomb.
The Laboratory also began a
project for a prototype accelerator, Mark I, after the Presi-
dent’s decision to pursue the Super in 1950,
duction machine,
Mark II.
Mark
and to design a pro-
I was designed to produce polo-
nium for weapons and radiological warfare while Mark II was
designed to produce
tritium and plutonium.
The reorganization of the AEC in the 1950s led to the support
of environmental research and non-nuclear energy development. The
Berkeley Rad Lab began new programs in energy, environment,
earth, and other sciences, nuclear waste disposal, and investigation of geothermmal energy, as well basic physical and accelerator research. In contrast, the
Livermore Laboratory was established to develop the Super Bomb and the Mark series
of production machines (code named Material Testing Accelerator or MTA)
for
use in the weapons program and radiological warfare.
In 1952, the AEC established the Livermore laboratory as a
branch of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, an administrative
arrangement which lasted until 1971.
This arrangement allowed
the Berkeley laboratory to concentrate on basic nuclear research
and reduced classified research there.
Livermore took most of
the Radiation Laboratory’s work in applied science, including
nuclear weapons development and the nuclear rocket project,
Pluto; the peaceful application of nuclear explosions, Plowshare;
and the Sherwood Program for controlled thermonuclear reactions.
In 1955, the AEC acquired Site 300, located fifteen miles
east of Livermore, as a staging ground for Livermore’s non-
nuclear tests.
During 1956-1960, Livermore was assigned the
crash program to design a new warhead for small, submarinelaunched nuclear missiles, Polaris.
In 1957, Plowshare began as
a multifaceted effort, stemming from discoveries of underground
nuclear bomb tests for excavation, geological research, gas and
oil extraction and storage.
The declassification of Project
Sherwood in 1958, opened up research in non-explosive fusion
energy.
In 1960, Livermore’s computer facility began major expansionin order to "simulate" nuclear tests during the 1958-1961 nuclear
moratorium.
The Biomedical Research Program at Livermore was
established in 1963, under John Gofman (of Donner Laboratory), to
study the effects of radioactive fallout on humans, and later
expanded to study the possible harmful effects on all biological
systems.
LRL conducted non-nuclear tests at Site 300, both
nuclear and non-nuclear tests at NTS,
and participated in test
operations at PPG. In 1971, Livermore was officially made a separate national laboratory from Berkeley.