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60 - PLACES/MILITARY_INSTALLATIONS/Los Alamos.md
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@ -10,8 +10,14 @@ tags:
- Espionage
summary: "Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the Manhattan Project built the first atomic bomb, and one of the primary U.S. nuclear weapons design facilities."
created: 2026-05-14
updated: 2026-05-14
updated: 2026-10-13
location: "Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States"
relations:
- type: partner_of
with: "[[OpenAI]]"
start: 2025-01-30
role: "o-series reasoning models installed on the Venado supercomputer, moved to a classified network; o3 running by August 2025"
fn: 2
---
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located on a mesa in the Jemez Mountains of northern [[New Mexico]], approximately 35 miles northwest of [[Santa Fe]]. Established as the Manhattan Project's weapons design laboratory (Project Y) in 1943 under scientific director J. Robert Oppenheimer, Los Alamos designed and built the first nuclear weapons, including "Little Boy" (uranium gun-type) and "Fat Man" (plutonium implosion) that were used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The laboratory continues to design and certify nuclear weapons for the U.S. stockpile.[^1]
@ -22,9 +28,15 @@ The Manhattan Project - the American program to develop nuclear weapons during [
The first nuclear test ("Trinity") was conducted at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. The bomb that detonated was a plutonium implosion design identical to "Fat Man."[^1]
### OpenAI Models on the Venado Supercomputer
On January 30, 2025 the laboratory announced that it had entered a partnership with [[OpenAI]] to install the company's latest o-series reasoning models on the Venado supercomputer, which uses NVIDIA Grace Hopper superchips. The announcement stated that Venado "will be moved to a secure, classified network where it will be a shared resource for researchers from Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia national labs."[^2] The laboratory's director, [[Thom Mason]], said: "Artificial intelligence models from OpenAI will allow us to do this more successfully, while also advancing our scientific missions to solve some of the nation's most important challenges."[^2] In August 2025 Mason said: "This is the first time that OpenAI's reasoning models are being used for national security applications on a government computing resource like Venado."[^3]
On August 28, 2025 the laboratory reported that Venado, which had moved to the classified network earlier that year, was running OpenAI's o3 reasoning model. The laboratory described Venado as the 19th-fastest supercomputer in the world and a shared resource for the [[National Nuclear Security Administration]] laboratories. The announcement lists planned Venado work as "studying plutonium aging, ensuring effective guardrails against biological threats, and addressing other pressing national security research areas."[^3] Acting NNSA administrator [[Teresa Robbins]] said that the partnership "will assist Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories with our most pressing national security problems."[^3]
### Espionage and Security Failures
Los Alamos was penetrated by Soviet intelligence during the Manhattan Project through multiple agents, the most significant of whom was [[Klaus Fuchs]], a German-born British physicist who was a Communist Party member. Fuchs provided the Soviets with detailed technical information on the implosion bomb design, information that accelerated Soviet nuclear weapons development by an estimated 2-5 years. Fuchs was arrested in January 1950 and confessed; his confession led to the identification of his American contact Harry Gold and subsequently to [[Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]], who were convicted of espionage and executed in 1953.[^2]
Los Alamos was penetrated by Soviet intelligence during the Manhattan Project through multiple agents, the most significant of whom was [[Klaus Fuchs]], a German-born British physicist who was a Communist Party member. Fuchs provided the Soviets with detailed technical information on the implosion bomb design, information that accelerated Soviet nuclear weapons development by an estimated 2-5 years. Fuchs was arrested in January 1950 and confessed; his confession led to the identification of his American contact Harry Gold and subsequently to [[Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]], who were convicted of espionage and executed in 1953.[^4]
In 1999, Taiwanese-born Los Alamos physicist [[Wen Ho Lee]] was accused of downloading classified nuclear weapons design files to portable hard drives. He was indicted on 59 counts of mishandling classified information; 58 counts were dropped, and he pleaded guilty to one count of downloading classified information to an unsecured computer. The case raised concerns about racial profiling in security investigations.[^1]
@ -33,14 +45,16 @@ In 1999, Taiwanese-born Los Alamos physicist [[Wen Ho Lee]] was accused of downl
Several figures who appear in this vault worked at or had connections to Los Alamos:
- [[George A. Cowan]], a nuclear weapons designer at Los Alamos for over twenty years, acknowledged close associations with Israeli physicists from the [[Weizmann Institute]], a connection relevant to Israel's nuclear weapons program
- [[Harold M. Agnew]], Los Alamos director from 1970 to 1979, served on the Nuclear Intelligence Panel and was critical of the suppression of findings from the [[Vela Incident]] satellite detection of an apparent nuclear test off [[South Africa]]
- [[Carl E. Duckett]], CIA Deputy Director for Science and Technology, received intelligence contributed from Los Alamos through the CIA's Office of Science and Technology on nuclear matters[^2]
- [[Carl E. Duckett]], CIA Deputy Director for Science and Technology, received intelligence contributed from Los Alamos through the CIA's Office of Science and Technology on nuclear matters[^4]
### PROMIS
The laboratory enters the [[PROMIS Software Scandal|PROMIS]] literature twice. [[John A. Belton]], a former Canadian stockbroker, told the Justice Department's reviewers in 1994 that "Trans World Arms in Montreal and ORA," the [[Ora Group]] of [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]'s account, had sold PROMIS in 1983 to "a Nuclear Regulatory Commission facility in New Mexico" that he believed was Los Alamos, on the word of an unnamed source and without producing any document; the reviewers found him "unbelievable." The [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] investigator [[Sean McDade]] said in 2000 that a meeting of allied intelligence chiefs on the year-2000 computer problem had been held at the laboratory in December 1999, and that a source had suggested [[Mossad]] might have a two-way back door into the shared system reaching "top U.S. weapons secrets at Los Alamos and other installations." Neither the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s 1992 report nor the 1993 Bua report mentions the laboratory.[^3]
The laboratory enters the [[PROMIS Software Scandal|PROMIS]] literature twice. [[John A. Belton]], a former Canadian stockbroker, told the Justice Department's reviewers in 1994 that "Trans World Arms in Montreal and ORA," the [[Ora Group]] of [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]'s account, had sold PROMIS in 1983 to "a Nuclear Regulatory Commission facility in New Mexico" that he believed was Los Alamos, on the word of an unnamed source and without producing any document; the reviewers found him "unbelievable." The [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] investigator [[Sean McDade]] said in 2000 that a meeting of allied intelligence chiefs on the year-2000 computer problem had been held at the laboratory in December 1999, and that a source had suggested [[Mossad]] might have a two-way back door into the shared system reaching "top U.S. weapons secrets at Los Alamos and other installations." Neither the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]'s 1992 report nor the 1993 Bua report mentions the laboratory.[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Los Alamos National Laboratory," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/topic/Los-Alamos-National-Laboratory
[^2]: Herken, Gregg. *Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller.* Henry Holt, 2002.
[^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report on the Review of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's Report on the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.,* September 27, 1994, interview of John A. Belton; Seymour, Cheri, *The Last Circle,* TrineDay, 2010, as cited on [[Sean McDade]].
[^2]: Los Alamos National Laboratory, "Los Alamos Lab partners with OpenAI to boost national security," January 30, 2025. The release quotes Thom Mason: "Artificial intelligence models from OpenAI will allow us to do this more successfully." https://www.lanl.gov/media/news/0130-open-ai
[^3]: Los Alamos National Laboratory, "Lab launches frontier AI models on the Venado supercomputer," August 28, 2025: "is now running OpenAI's latest o3 reasoning model"; "studying plutonium aging, ensuring effective guardrails against biological threats"; Robbins quotation as above. https://www.lanl.gov/media/news/0828-venado-ai-models
[^4]: Herken, Gregg. *Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller.* Henry Holt, 2002.
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report on the Review of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's Report on the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.,* September 27, 1994, interview of John A. Belton; Seymour, Cheri, *The Last Circle,* TrineDay, 2010, as cited on [[Sean McDade]].