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LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY

Chemistry, Materials, Earth, and Life Sciences Directorate

The Chemistry, Materials, Earth, and Life Sciences (CMELS) Directorate, formerly the Chemistry and Material Science Facilities, began in 1952 as a chemistry department. Many activities, buildings, and laboratories were consolidated due to shrinking budgets. Its current facilities include:

The Forensic Science Center (FSC), created in 1991, is one of two U.S. laboratories internationally certified to identify chemical-warfare agents. It supports LLNL's chemical, nuclear, and biological counterterrorism programs.

The Energetic Materials Center conducts research and development on high explosives for advanced conventional weapons, rocket and gun propellants, and industrial applications of energetic materials. Experimental work is conducted at LLNL's HEAF and Site 300.

The Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS), which started in 1987, has a 10-MV FN tandem Van de Graaff accelerator, a NEC 1-MV tandem accelerator, and a nuclear microprobe. Located at CAMS is the National Resource for Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (BioAMS), a national user facility researching biomedical uses of isotopes.

The Nanoscale Synthesis and Characterization Laboratory (NSCL), formed in 2004, specializes in nanoscience and nanotechnology, working on advanced synthesis, fabrication, and atomic-scale characterization.

The Center for National Security Applications of Magnetic Resonance, created in 2003, conducts research on the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to biological characterization.

The Glenn T. Seaborg Institute (GTSI), founded in 1991, is the CMELS education center.

The Joint Genome Institute, supported by the DOE Office of Science, unites Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and and Pacific Northwest national laboratories, and Stanford University.

The BioSecurity and Nanoscience Laboratory (BSNL) specializes in biochemical and biomaterial research. It has the capabilities to detect, identify, and characterize harmful biological pathogens and chemical toxins, aiding the fight against biological weapons.

The Livermore Microarray Center (LMAC) is a service center for gene expression, comparative genomics, and gene resequencing analyses.

Chemistry and Material Science Facilities

Before becoming the CMELS Directorate, the chemistry and materials science facilities were engaged in a wide range of research and development projects. Support facilities included:

Building 151 was involved with isotopic sciences studies.

Building 222 primarily operated laboratories involved in a variety of research projects and chemical analysis activities. There were 75 laboratories and 97 offices in this facility. It was anticipated that Building 222 was to be vacated in early 1997. Originally Building 101, the Building 222 complex (B-222S, B-222C, and B-222N) was constructed between 1952 and 1954. It was LLNL's first experimental laboratory facility. It was an analytical chemistry foundation for the LLNL's weapons program and its research benefited the Project Plowshare program. It later became LLNL's center for high-explosives research and development. It was also the beginning of the Chemsitry & Materials Science (CMS) Environmental Services (CES) laboratory. In the mid-1990s, it was consolidated into modern laboratories, primarily in Buildings 132 and 235. Bldg. 22 was deactivated, decontaminated, and ultimately demolished between 2002 and 2004.

Building 235 contained electron beam laboratories, wet chemistry laboratories, hoods for metallography, and administrative offices. There was a 4 MeV accelerator in this facility for ion implantation and a number of small lasers.

Building 241 housed a wide variety of activities associated with materials science research. Activities included ceramics development, x-ray tomography, x-ray diffraction, and electro-chemistry studies (corrosion).