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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Site 300

Key Facilities

These facilities consist of laboratories for processing energetic materials and components. Three types of HE are formulated at Site 300: plastic bonded, extrusion cast explosive, and paste.

Building 825 is an explosive processing facility.

Building 826 is used for formulating small quantities of explosives and formulation work on extrudable (paste or cured) explosives.

The Building 827 complex is the primary facility used for HE formulation. The complex consists of five structures:

• 827A contains the control room used to direct remote HE operations.
• 827B contains rooms for a conventional machine shop and one to perform small-scale inert assembly work.
• 827C is used for large-scale explosive formulation and for mixing, paste extrusion, and filtering of HE.
• 827D is used for scaling up material synthesized at the HE activity and for mixing and casting lower viscosity extrudable explosives.
• 827E is used for pressing, melting, and casting HE.

Site 300 mechanical processing facilities prepare explosive test assemblies.
• Building 805, used for office work, metal machining, and explosives waste handling and storage
• Building 806, the primary machining area for making complex HE shapes
• Building 807, a backup machining facility that contains a remotely operated lathe
• Building 809, which makes complex HE shapes and is also used for radiographic inspection of HE components
• Building 810, used to assemble HE parts in preparation for testing
• The Building 817 complex, built in the 1960s, which has two operating cells and performs isostatic pressing of HE charges
• Building 823, used as needed, and has a 9 MeV x-ray machine for radiography
• Building 829, a burn facility with 3 open pits and an iron horse to treat waste HE and HE residue. It was shut down after Building 845 becomes operational)
• Building 845, an old firing facility that will be modified to become the new explosive waste treatment facility (EWTF). Several explosive storage magazines have been converted to waste storage to support this process in accordance with a RCRA permit. The Building 845 Complex also houses the Explosives Waste Treatment Facility (EWTF) located at the Building 845 Complex at Site 300. The EWTF has three units: the detonation pad, the burn pan, and the burn cage. Two locations, Building 812 Complex and Building 895 are for bystander workers, not conducitn EWTF operations.

The materials management facilities have overall control of receiving, shipping, storage, and accountability of HE. About 50,000 pounds of HE is stored in Site 300 magazines. Most of this HE is classified as "1.1" (mass detonating high explosive). The major problem with materials management operations is that Site 300 is running out of magazine storage due to siting problems. In addition, a good deal of the HE is more than 20 years old and has lost its Department of Transportation shipping classification. Site 300 management is developing a master plan for future siting of magazines and other facilities.

Building 818, a staging and short term storage area, serves as the central point for HE materials management and site delivery.

Building 824 is currently used for storing medium caliber munitions.

Building 857 is used as a storage magazine.