Carmelina Hart of LANL’s Communications and External Affairs Office and LANL Director Thom Mason at the final virtual town hall of the year on Dec. 3. Hart served as moderator while Mason provided an end-of-year recap of the laboratory’s operations and took questions from attendees. Courtesy/LANL

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

Looking at the present and future for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), it is clear artificial intelligence (AI) is taking a significant role in its operations.

As LANL Director Thom Mason said during his final virtual town hall of the year on Dec. 3, there is a lot going on in artificial intelligence.

For instance, he mentioned that the laboratory’s supercomputer, Venado, is being moved to a classified environment and on that system, ChatGPT advanced models from Open AI are being deployed for national security missions.

“It turns out that machine was very well suited to that sort of work because it has some of those prized NVIDIA GPUs that are used for doing training and inference for artificial intelligence in addition to really wonderful capabilities for modeling simulation, which is sort of the traditional work that we’ve done in areas like biology …,” Mason said.

He added that in October, there will be a replacement of the current generation of supercomputers. Venado’s sister machine will be used for the laboratory’s core deterrence mission as well as modeling, simulation and artificial intelligence.

“These are the kind of next-generation versions of architecture that we have … they also feature NVIDA chips ….,” Mason said.

Furthermore, there is collaboration between NVIDIA and Open AI.

“The goal there is to harness the power of really what is the next evolution of high-performance computing – something the lab has done since computers were people in the ‘40s – and apply it to our national security science and technology,” Mason said. “A big development on that front was the recent announcement of something called the Genesis Mission. An executive order signed by the President identifies the Department of Energy (DOE) as really the lead agency in the government’s efforts to harness the power of artificial intelligence … the National Nuclear Security Administration plays an important component because it is in our mission that the linkage between artificial intelligence and national security becomes real.”

During the question-and-answer period of the town hall, Mason was asked to elaborate on the Genesis Mission, which he said could very well be the thing that people remember about the lab in 80 years.

“This is a really exciting new initiative on the part of the government,” he said, adding that it has been in the works for several years.

“The labs collectively … have been holding workshops, looking at opportunities to use AI to basically increase the pace of scientific progress,” Mason said. “The goal of the Genesis Mission is to essentially build a platform for science where artificial intelligence combined with the scientific tools that the labs have … really set up a system where in a close loop we could be using artificial intelligence as a tool to assist scientists and engineers in coming up with hypotheses, testing them computationally and experimentally using these exquisite scientific instruments that we have. The goal is to first double the productivity of research investments by the country in 10 years and in order to do that we want to double the productivity of the investments in research in the Department of Energy within five years.”

Right now, Mason said, the country spends 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product in research between industry and the government. It would be great, he said, if it went up to 7 percent but the hope is to get the equivalent scientific benefit of 7 percent within that 3.5 percent investment.

Strong results are already seen from the Venado supercomputer, Mason said. For example, artificial intelligence could be used to develop molecules that could deliver a therapeutic isotope to a cancer cell with high specificity so that when it goes into radioactive decay, the decay products kill the cancer cell, he said.

The Los Alamos Daily Post asked how LANL compares with the rest of the world in terms of its advancement of artificial intelligence research.

“This is something that we have been leaning into … the thing that has changed recently in the last two years or so is the scale at which it has been done and the recognition that with very large volumes of data you get much, much better capabilities,” Mason said.

As result, LANL has made a lot of investments into AI.

“So, I think we’re actually pretty situated …,” he said.

Traveling throughout the world, Mason said, “I think in general we are probably a bit ahead at Los Alamos and in the U.S. in general.”

He added that the one exception is China.

AI isn’t the only major issue within LANL.

Other significant activity includes LANL’s pit production at its PF4 facility.

Operations at PF4 have been ramped up, Mason said. About a year ago, he said the facility went from operating 10 hours a day, four days a week, to 24 hours a day, four days a week. Then in the spring it moved to working 24 hours, seven days a week.

This isn’t always full-on operations, Mason said, but the extra time is needed due to the volume of work, which includes infrastructure and facility improvements.

He emphasized that while the laboratory can no longer report how many pits are being manufactured because it is making war reserve pits and the number of weapons being made is classified, the laboratory is meeting its pit production goals.

LANL’s budget is another big focus.

Mason noted that while there is a new administration and new leadership, support in the laboratory’s mission is bipartisan and consistent.

In terms of budget, Mason said LANL managed its way through the lapse in appropriations when Congress didn’t pass a continuing resolution.

It was able to avoid any furloughs because it finished the year with funds on hand that were sufficient to get it through to the point in time when a continuing resolution was put in place to carry LANL through to January.

Furthermore, there were no significant impacts made to the lab’s operations during the government shutdown.

“Hopefully we will get a full budget passed before the end of January,” Mason said. “Of course that means we don’t know precisely what the funding will be for 2026… but based on the budget request … we would anticipate that the funding will be increasing; it kind of leveled off for two years … because there was a budget agreement that kind of capped the budget – that’s now expired and our mission drivers are causing us to get back on a growth trajectory that means our procurements are projected to increase. We awarded about $1.8 billion in FY25; over $750 million of that was with New Mexico business and almost $4 million was in small businesses.”

2025 also marked quite a few achievements for LANL.

These include:

• The laboratory delivered some custom instruments for NASA’s new IMAP probe. The probe is moving toward the sun to look at solar winds and solar flares.
• LANL completed the last production unit of the B61-12 gravity bomb that is actually not only part of the U.S. deterrence, but also NATO’s deterrent sharing arrangements with other NATO allies to give confidence that what is happening in Ukraine won’t spread to NATO countries, Mason said. In addition, the lab shifted to the B61-13 and achieved the first production unit ahead of schedule.
• LANL successfully vented and shipped flanged tritium waste containers. Mason explained that these containers of waste needed to be disposed of but before shipping them it was needed to be proven that they are not pressurized and are safe to ship. “It was a miniscule release of radiation associated with that,” he said. “In fact, in the time you’ve spent listening to me since I started speaking you will have received more radiation from the air you breathe in the room you are in than anyone in Northern New Mexico would have received from that venting operation…”
• The improvements at the N.M. 4 and truck route intersection have been completed. “It’s made a big difference in terms of the flow of traffic …,” Mason said, noting that there has been steady improvement because of that project.
• The electric power capacity upgrade project was started. This is a key component for enabling the high performance computing and artificial intelligence needs of the future, Mason said. “We were becoming limited by the amount of power that’s available in Los Alamos and that entails not just a new distribution line from Santa Fe up to Los Alamos, which was a subject of a lot of public discussion, but also the distribution system for that electricity around the lab is aging and in need of replacement …”
• LANL continued to strive to be a valued partner in the region. To do this Mason said there’s been large investment in workforce development. There’s a federal program that supports those efforts in universities and colleges. More than 1,100 students have been impacted by the federal program’s $18 million investment. Students are getting trained and programs are preparing them for the lab’s important work. It instituted two mentor protégé agreements with regional small businesses. Additionally, LANL is offering a program to assist businesses interested in getting a sub-contract at the laboratory. One of the things beneficial to the lab’s growth is the state’s manufacturing tax credit, which incentivizes job hiring in manufacturing. “That’s what we do in the PF4 facility … these jobs that we have been filling through the pipeline programs with colleges and universities are exactly the kind of high-paying, high quality jobs that the state is seeking to incentivize with that tax credit program….,” Mason said.