At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, researchers are
doing more than just science
experiments. They are fighting the war on terrorism.
In his recently released budget proposal for 2005, President
Bush recognized the importance of the work Livermore and other
laboratories around the country are doing by granting a substantial
amount of money to their research and other projects that combat
terrorism.
The laboratory is part of the Department of Energy, and last
year it was added to the Department of Homeland Security.
It is managed by the University of California and has a loose
affiliation with all the campuses. As a result, the UC receives a
sum of money for oversight and management of the laboratory, and UC
students receive access to the laboratory’s resources.
While this access primarily refers to students at UC Davis,
students at all the UCs, including UCLA, are eligible to apply to
utilize the laboratory.
The Livermore laboratory is a national security laboratory, and
its scientists work on projects focused on countering weapons of
mass destruction. Such weapons fall into five different categories
including biology, chemistry, radiation, nuclear technology and
high explosives.
The UC-run labs have a history of dealings with the federal
government in issues of national security. The first atomic bomb
was developed in part by the UC-managed Los Alamos National
Laboratory, though the UC Board of Regents were not told about the
project at the time.
Last year, the Bush administration set aside $15 million for
scientists at Los Alamos to research the development of a new
bunker-busting bomb that would be able to penetrate thousands of
feet beneath the earth’s surface to destroy buried
targets.
Recently, the university’s management of the labs has
fallen into tough times. A series of administrative scandals at the
Los Alamos labs led to overhauls of the UC management system.
Though the UC says it has largely fixed the problems, the U.S.
Department of Energy is putting the labs up for bid in 2005.
Increasingly, the war against terrorism is fought as a war of
technological resources and advancements, and the Livermore
laboratory is focused on helping the United States remain one step
ahead of the game.
“We have a comprehensive program to try to prevent the
attacks from taking place,” said Harry Vantine, deputy for
programs in Livermore’s homeland security organization.
“Then, if you can’t prevent an attack and it’s
already happened, you do consequence management.”
The preventative program is found in many forms around the
country. Livermore has been a key player in developing detectors to
look at both people and containers entering the United States at
primary entry points.
One project the laboratory developed is known as the Biological
Aerosol Sentry and Information System. It was used both at the 2002
Winter Olympics and the one-year anniversary ceremonies for the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
BASIS is a type of alarm system that monitors the environment
for signs of biological weapons so people can be evacuated and
treated before too much damage is done. The other part of the
project focuses on determining what biological weapon was released
in order to respond properly.
“We find ways using genomics and other technology to find
what that biological fingerprint is so that we can rapidly detect
what it is to let the authorities know,” said Lynda Seaber, a
spokeswoman for the laboratory. “Right now the only way to
know if something is released is when someone gets sick.”
Researchers are continually working to improve their systems and
are occasionally putting the energies of UC students to use.
UC Davis has a department of applied science in which students
will often work for the laboratory, conducting research on a
variety of projects and occasionally on homeland security
issues.
“There is restricted access to certain things, especially
things for national defense or national security,” said Ann
Orel, chairwoman of the applied science department at UC Davis.
“But there are some homeland security things that students
have been involved in.”
Such projects typically will include taking ideas developed by
Livermore researchers and making them marketable for private
corporations and usable for organizations such as fire
departments.
But with the amount of research and money being poured into the
effort to combat terrorism, there are still no fail-safe plans to
avoid attack.
“We don’t know where the next threat is coming
from,” Vantine said. “You can’t protect against
everything, and that everything may change because the terrorists
may have new capabilities. But I think eventually that we will win
this war.”