U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright visited Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on May 28, experiencing firsthand the cutting-edge science and technology that power the Lab's mission to protect the nation and advance the frontiers of discovery.
Hosted by Lab Director Kim Budil, Wright's day-long visit - his first to LLNL since being appointed Energy secretary - included behind-the-scenes tours of some of LLNL's most advanced facilities and machines, from the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to El Capitan, the world's most powerful supercomputer.
In his all-hands for Lab employees, Wright called the nuclear stockpile the "ultimate character of the sovereignty of our nation," and commended Lab staff for their dedication to the ideals of "peace through strength."
"Everybody has stresses and things we have to worry about in our lives - our family, our jobs, our relationships - these are normal human worries," Wright said. "But the work you do every single day takes another huge worry off our table - our national security. We've seen dramatically reduced conflict among major powers … and that's in no insignificant part due to what you do every day in securing our stockpile for the next generation."
The use of AI at the DOE labs was another centerpiece of the day's proceedings. Wright spoke of the need for a "Manhattan Project 2.0" for AI, a large scale coordinated effort to ensure the U.S. maintains global leadership in a rapidly evolving technology with "great national defense implications."
"It's a race in which getting second has massively negative ramifications for ourselves, for our families and for our future," Wright said. "There are many ways to lose this race, but the only way to win the race and keep the United States in the lead of AI is for all of us working in concert - industry, the labs and the government."
The visit kicked off with a welcome from Budil and other LLNL leaders, followed by an overview of the Lab's mission, history and role within the DOE national lab ecosystem. Wright interacted with LLNL directorate leaders and scientists working to ensure the safety, security and reliability of the stockpile and learned more about the Lab's context within the National Nuclear Security Administration's Tri-Lab system and national security enterprise.
"It was an honor to welcome Secretary Wright and share with him the incredible accomplishments from across the Lab," said Budil of the visit. "LLNL is a place where frontier science is used to address urgent national security needs, and our dedicated team shows up every day ready to tackle these important and complex challenges."
Wright then toured NIF, where LLNL made global headlines in 2022 for achieving fusion ignition, a scientific milestone six decades in the making. NIF recently reached a record-breaking energy yield of 8.6 megajoules. During the tour, NIF experts discussed the path forward for inertial confinement fusion, fusion energy collaborations with the private sector and the implications of fusion research for national security and long-term energy solutions.
During a working lunch, Lab experts briefed Wright and guests on key initiatives and LLNL's contributions to national resilience and emerging threats in space, cyber and infrastructure domains, demonstrating the Lab's critical role in strategic partnerships that strengthen homeland and national security.
In the afternoon, Wright toured the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory, where he was introduced to the Lab's efforts in materials science, additive manufacturing, industrial partnerships, tech transfer and leading-edge work in volumetric additive manufacturing and metal 3D printing, using AI to discover new metal alloys and developing self-driving labs and AI agents to accelerate scientific discovery.
"We need to augment our human scientists with these modern tools to really have a fundamental paradigm shift in the way we do science," said LLNL staff scientist Aldair Gongora, who presented Wright with his team's work on AI with advanced robotics. "A big part of our effort and our vision is to bring in these tools - to not only develop self-driving labs for different areas in the experimental sciences - but also bring in these robotic 'co-pilots' with AI at the center, to help us orchestrate that. It's really a way of amplifying the work that scientists do in very manual and labor-intensive processes."
One of the day's most forward-looking stops came during a visit to the Livermore Computing Center - where Wright met with Lab leaders in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI to discuss the integration of HPC and AI in national security missions. Wright also toured El Capitan, where he ceremoniously signed his name on the exascale machine.
Months into performing classified mission work for the nuclear stockpile, El Capitan is already enabling vital simulations at unprecedented resolutions - a critical step for modernizing the deterrent and tackling complex national security challenges, said Weapon Simulation and Computing Associate Director Rob Neely.
"For the first time in my 30-year Lab career, we're finally able to realize our ultimate dream of being able to run full 3D, full system models at high resolution with our best fidelity physics and ensembles to really understand our uncertainties," Neely told Wright. "We have not been able to say that before."
AI Innovation Incubator Director Brian Spears then discussed how AI is accelerating the national security enterprise through the combination of advanced reasoning models with the Lab's powerful scientific assets. Spears explained how LLNL has developed mutually beneficial partnerships with AI companies like Anthropic, xAI and OpenAI, adding that the additional funding is needed for a "national security AI platform" and more public-private partnerships to build a "superior AI ecosystem" and avoid falling behind adversaries in defense science.
Other experts presented on LLNL's AI projects in critical energy infrastructure, biology and drug discovery, including partnerships with companies such as BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, which has resulted in novel cancer drugs now undergoing clinical trials.
The visit concluded with an all-hands meeting for Lab staff. Wright delivered his remarks and participated in a fireside chat with Budil, where they discussed topics including public-private partnerships, regulatory reform, streamlining processes and the role of the national labs in spurring innovation.
"There will be commercial applications [in fusion] generations from now, but that's not something commercial businesses will do, and it's probably not something of the scale and scope that universities can do," Wright said. "The assemblage of scientific, engineering and technical talent and long-term thinking at this campus here is pretty unique - I would say it only exists at this scale at other national labs. So I view the labs as essential to not just our country, but really ultimate to the mission of being humans."
An entrepreneur and self-described "tech nerd," Wright also fielded questions from employees on topics including challenges to AI implementation, the role of digital twins in manufacturing and the future of scientific research at the DOE labs.
"On digital twins, on AI, fusion - on all of these things, we are all lucky right now," Wright said. "This is really going to be a golden era of very rapid technical progress and innovation, and I think history shows way more good things come from that than bad things. But all of you and your colleagues around the national lab system will play front-of-the-line roles in where this is going to go. It's an incredibly exciting time."
As LLNL enters a new era of scientific capability with exascale supercomputing, accelerating fusion and AI initiatives, advanced manufacturing and a host of other mission-related areas, Wright's visit marked a key moment of alignment between DOE leadership and the Lab's vision of turning bold ideas into real-world impact.
"This was a valuable opportunity to share with Secretary Wright the breadth and impact of the work we do at Livermore," said Budil. "This Lab is not just imagining the future - we're creating it - in partnership with DOE, for the benefit of the nation."
Secretary Wright also visited the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab during his trip to the state. Wright plans to visit all 17 DOE national laboratories in 2025.
