Established over 70 years ago in the high desert of northern New Mexico, the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) primary responsibility is assuring the safety and reliability of our nation's nuclear program. Located 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 36 square miles of Department of Energy (DOE) owned property, LANL develops and applies science and technology to reduce global nuclear threats and solve other emerging national security and energy challenges. The LANL facility includes 1,280 buildings with 47 technical areas, and employs over 10,000 workers.

A key component of the Laboratory is the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, or LANSCE. Considered a multidisciplinary research facility, LANSCE provides the scientific community with intense proton and neutron sources for both civilian and national security research. LANSCE is a national user facility with one of the nation’s most powerful linear accelerators (LINAC). Scientists apply their creative talents for technological innovation by developing suites of powerful precision instruments that exploit the accelerator's unique capabilities.

LANSCE is a mission-critical facility for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Department of Energy (DOE). In 2011, the NNSA renewed the memorandum of understanding that affirms the governance and the importance of LANSCE to the weapons program and other national security science missions. Three of the DOE designated LANSCE facilities are available to researchers from U.S. universities, industry, and other government laboratories as well as to scientists from around the world. This large and active user platform makes LANSCE one of the Laboratory's most important portals to the academic community. LANSCE attracts and retains many of the Laboratory's brightest, early-career scientists.

In 1943, the US government established Los Alamos as site “Y” of the Manhattan Project for a single purpose: to design and build an atomic bomb. It took just 20 months. On July 16, 1945, detonation of the world's first atomic bomb occurred 200 miles south of Los Alamos at Trinity Site on the Alamogordo bombing range. Under the scientific leadership of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the military direction of General Leslie R. Groves, scientists at the Laboratory successfully weaponized the atom.

Allied forces defeated Hitler in Europe, but the Japanese Empire continued to wage an aggressive Pacific war. President Truman chose to employ atomic bombs in an effort to end WWII. Little Boy, a uranium, gun-type weapon, was used against Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Fat Man, an implosion plutonium bomb, was dropped on Nagasaki three days later. On August 14, the war officially ended with the surrender of Japan.

Since the war, the Los Alamos National Laboratory ensures the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear program. Though the world is rapidly changing, this essential responsibility remains the core mission of the LANL, and considers LANSCE its "signature" science facility. DOE designated LANSCE a world-class facility because of the accelerator's record of reliable operation.

LANSCE is currently undergoing a substantial reboot with upgrades including key accelerator and infrastructure components. This investment promises that LANSCE will continue the

national security science work needed to ensure the nation's nuclear deterrent, its energy security, and solving the many other challenges our government brings to the Laboratory. LANSCE will remain a leader on the frontier of national security science for many decades to come.