Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now is sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered privately by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.

[1] The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb during the Cold War.

[3] Lawrence Livermore Lab is primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and it is managed privately and operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (a partnership of the University of California, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, Amentum, and Battelle Memorial Institute in affiliation with the Texas A&M University System).

[5] The Livermore facility was co-founded by Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence, then director of the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley.

[7] Its principal responsibility is ensuring the safety, security and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons through the application of advanced science, engineering, and technology.

The laboratory also applies its special expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities towards preventing the proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction, bolstering homeland security, and solving other nationally important problems, including energy and environmental needs, scientific research and outreach, and economic competitiveness.

The Livermore facility was co-founded by Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence, director of the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley.

It was already home to several University of California Radiation Laboratory projects that were too large for its location in the Berkeley Hills above the UC campus, including one of the first experiments in the magnetic approach to confined thermonuclear reactions (i.e. fusion).

About half an hour southeast of Berkeley, the Livermore site provided much greater security for classified projects than an urban university campus.

York and the new lab embraced the Lawrence "big science" approach, tackling challenging projects with physicists, chemists, engineers, and computational scientists working together in multidisciplinary teams.

Historically, the Berkeley and Livermore laboratories have had very close relationships on research projects, business operations, and staff.

To sustain existing warheads for the indefinite future, a science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) was defined that emphasized the development and application of greatly improved technical capabilities to assess the safety, security, and reliability of existing nuclear warheads without the use of nuclear testing.

[19][20] With no new designs of nuclear weapons, the warheads in the U.S. stockpile must continue to function far past their original expected lifetimes.

Stockpile Life Extension Programs can extend system lifetimes, but they also can introduce performance uncertainties and require maintenance of outdated technologies and materials.

Experiments are being conducted at LLNL and elsewhere to measure the structural, electrical and chemical properties of plutonium and its alloys and to determine how these materials change over time.

[22] The Lab's plutonium research is conducted in a specially designed facility called the SuperBlock, with emphasis on safety and security.

The original date to remove all high-security nuclear material from LLNL, based on equipment capability and capacity, was 2014.

NNSA and LLNL developed a timeline to remove this material as early as possible, accelerating the target completion date to 2012.

In the mid-1990s, Lab scientists began efforts to devise improved biodetection capabilities, leading to miniaturized and autonomous instruments that can detect biothreat agents in a few minutes instead of the days to weeks previously required for DNA analysis.

They combine physical and life sciences, engineering, computations, and analysis to develop technologies that solve real-world problems.

Also known as the "Oscars of invention", the awards are given each year for the development of cutting-edge scientific and engineering technologies with commercial potential.

On October 12, 2016, LLNL released the results of computerized modeling of Mars's moon Phobos, finding that it has a connection with keeping the Earth safe from asteroids.

Their purchase of one of the first UNIVAC computers set the precedent for LLNL's history of acquiring and exploiting the fastest and most capable supercomputers in the world.

A succession of increasingly powerful and fast computers have been used at the Lab over the years in support of the stockpile stewardship mission.

LLNL researchers also use supercomputers to answer questions about subjects such as materials science simulations, climate change, reactions to natural disasters, and other physical phenomena.

The LVOC is modeled after research and development campuses found at major industrial research parks and other U.S. Department of Energy laboratories with campus-like security, a set of business and operating rules devised to enhance and accelerate international scientific collaboration and partnerships with U.S. government agencies, industry and academia.

Ultimately, the LVOC will consist of an approximately 110-acre parcel along the eastern edge of the Livermore Laboratory and Sandia sites, and will house additional conference space, collaboration facilities and a visitor center to support educational and research activities.

[citation needed] For Fiscal Year 2009 LLNL spent $1.497 billion[48] on research and laboratory operations activities: Research/Science Budget: Site Management/Operations Budget: The LLNL director is appointed by the board of governors of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) and reports to the board.

While most of the work performed by LLNL is funded by the federal government, laboratory employees are paid by LLNS, which is responsible for all aspects of their employment, including providing health care benefits and retirement programs.