Worldwide cryogenics - US Cryogenics at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

• Published in: Cryogenics 1980-10, Vol.20 (10), p.547-557
• Main Author: Keller, W.E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0011-2275; 1879-2235
• DOI: 10.1016/0011-2275(80)90088-0

Although applications to energy systems now provide the major motivation for research and development in low-temperature technology, the initial impetus for this work on a large scale at temperatures below 75 K arose from military and defence requirements. During and shortly after World War II, the evident need for cryogens in rocket and nuclear weapons research spawned, mainly in the US, several large cryogenic research organizations. Among the more prominent of these were, first, laboratories at the Ohio State University and at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) and, later, at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in Boulder, Colorado. The resources of these three laboratories were allied to prepare and operate the cryogenic components for the ‘wet’ hydrogen bomb test in the South Pacific Islands in 1952 (the Boulder cryogenics laboratory was established primarily for this purpose). One result of this cooperation was the creation of a cryogenic industry that ultimately became capable of producing and handling the large amounds of liquid hydrogen, up to the order of 4 000 000 ℓ at a single location, required for the US space programme. From these beginnings as a weapons-related operation, the Cryogenics Laboratory at LASL has substantially changed its directions and expanded its scope.∗ In this article we shall first provide a brief history of LASL's involvement in cryogenics since the weapons work and then outline the Laboratory's current activities in low-temperature physics and engineering.