The United States Department of Energy National Laboratories and Technology Centers is a system of laboratories overseen by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) for scientific and technological research. The primary mission of the DOE national laboratories is to conduct research and development (R&D) addressing national priorities: energy and climate, the environment, national security, and health. Sixteen of the seventeen DOE national laboratories are federally funded research and development centers administered, managed, operated and staffed by private-sector organizations under management and operating (M&O) contracts with the DOE.The National Energy Technology Laboratory is the only laboratory which is government owned – government operated (GOGO), or managed directly by the DOE. The others are government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO). The National Laboratory system was established in the wake of World War II, during which the United States had quickly set-up and pursued advanced scientific research in the sprawling Manhattan Project.
The laboratories and their research mission
The DOE is the nation's largest sponsor of research in the physical sciences and engineering, and is second to the Department of Defense in supporting computer sciences and mathematics. Most of that research is performed by the national laboratories.
Although the national laboratories form an integrated system, each of them has its individual mission, capabilities, and structure. The chart shows the nature of the research done at each laboratory.
All 17 of the laboratories are listed below, along with the location, establishment date, and the organization that currently operates each.
NameLocation & Establishment dateOperating organizationNumber of employees(FTE)/ Annual budget (FY2023)Office of ScienceLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)Berkeley, California, 1931 (LBNL was integrated as a National Laboratory in 1948)University of California (since 1931) 3,804$1,301 MMArgonne National Laboratory (ANL)DuPage County, Illinois, 1941 (Argonne was named the first National Laboratory in 1946)UChicago Argonne, LLC (UChicago since 1941) 3,994$1,321 MMOak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1943UT–Battelle (since April 2000)Previous management and operations (M&O) contractors for ORNL were founding University of Chicago and the U.S. Army; Monsanto (ca. 1945–1947), Union Carbide (1947–1984), Martin Marietta (1984–1995), and Lockheed Martin (1995–2000) 6,467$2,585 MMAmes National LaboratoryAmes, Iowa, 1947Iowa State University (since 1947) 306$64 MMBrookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)Upton, New York, 1947Brookhaven Science Associates (since 1998)Associated Universities, Incorporated managed Brookhaven from 1947 to 1998 2,754$710 MMPrinceton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)Princeton, New Jersey, 1951Princeton University (since 1951) 752$140 MMSLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryMenlo Park, California, 1962Stanford University (since 1962), Analex Laboratories (since 2016) 1,798$568 MMPacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)Richland, Washington, 1965Battelle Memorial Institute (since 1965) 4,815$1,467 MMFermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL)Batavia, Illinois, 1967Fermi Forward Discovery Group (since 2025)Universities Research Association managed Fermilab from 1967 to 2007. Fermi Research Alliance managed Fermilab from 2007 to 2025. 2,137$655 MMThomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF)Newport News, Virginia, 1984Jefferson Science Associates, LLC (since 2006) 873$205 MMNational Nuclear Security AdministrationLos Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)Los Alamos, New Mexico, 1943Triad National Security, LLC (Since 2018) Previous M&O contractors for LANL were the University of California (1943-2007) and Los Alamos National Laboratory, LLC (2007-2018). See more details at 11,591$3,999 MMSandia National Laboratories (SNL)Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1948 Honeywell International (since 2017)The Z Division of LANL was established as a separate laboratory, Sandia, in 1948. Previous M&O contractors for SNL were the University of California (1948-1949), AT&T Corporation (1949-1993), and Lockheed Martin (1993-2017). See more details at 14,368$4,603 MMLivermore, California, 1956Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)Livermore, California, 1952Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (since 2007)The University of California managed LLNL from 1952 to 2007. See more details at , Analex Laboratories (since 2016) 9,291$3,240 MMOffice of Energy Efficiency and Renewable EnergyNational Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR)Golden, Colorado, 1977Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC (since 2008)The Midwestern Research Institute and MRI Global managed NREL from 1977 to 2008. 3,185$784 MMOffice of Environmental ManagementSavannah River National Laboratory (SRNL)Aiken, South Carolina, 1952Battelle Savannah River Alliance (Since 2021)The Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC managed SRNL from 2008 to 2021. 1,400$436 MMOffice of Fossil Energy & Carbon ManagementNational Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1910Department of Energy 696$1,100 MMMorgantown, West Virginia, 1946Albany, Oregon, 2005Office of Nuclear EnergyIdaho National Laboratory (INL)Idaho Falls, Idaho, 1949Battelle Memorial Institute (since 2005)Bechtel managed INL before 2005. 6,475$1,823 MM
National Scientific User Facilities The DOE Office of Science operates an extensive network of 28 national scientific user facilities. A total of over 30,000 scientific users from universities, national laboratories, and technology companies use these facilities to advance their research and development. The staff of experts at each facility who build and operate the associated instruments also work with visiting scientists to mount experiments with them. This access and support is provided without charge to qualified scientific groups, with priority based on recommendations by expert review panels. All six research offices support scientific user facilities at national laboratories.
Office of Science National Scientific User Facilities Sponsoring program officeType of facilityUser facility name & laboratoryNumber of staff (approx.)/ number of scientific users (2021) Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR)The Advanced Scientific Computing Research program provides support for four user facilities, three high-performance computing centers and a high-volume research network. High-performance computing (HPC) facilities The DOE operates 5 of the top 20 HPC systems in the Top 500 ratings of supercomputers, including the top ranked system. Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) @ ANL 170/1,168National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) @ LBNL130/8,751 Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) @ ORNL 180/1,696High-performance research networkEnergy Sciences Network (ESnet) @ LBNL 135/ Biological and Environmental Research(BER)The Biological and Environmental Research program provides support for three user facilities. Facility for atmospheric observations Atmospheric Radiation Measurement facility (ARM) @ PNNL (lead lab) 100/960 Facility for environmental molecular sciences Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) @ PNNL 180/801 Facility for integrative genomic science The Joint Genome Institute (JGI) @ LBNL 250/2,180 Basic Energy Sciences (BES)The Basic Energy Science program provides support for twelve user facilities, principally for the study of chemistry and materials: five x-ray light sources, five nanoscale research centers, and two neutron scattering centers. X-ray light source facilities The Advanced Light Source (ALS) @ LBNL 200/1,159The Advanced Photon Source (APS) @ ANL 450/3,686National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) @ BNL 375/1,022The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) @ SLAC 326/720The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) @ SLAC 150/1030 Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs) The Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) @ BNL 65/571 The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) @ LANL & SNL 100/721 The Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) @ ANL 54/702 The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) @ ORNL 108/656 The Molecular Foundry (TMF) @ LBNL 67/654 Neutron Scattering Facilities The High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) @ ORNL 100/202 The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) @ ORNL 450/483 Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)The Fusion Energy Sciences program provides support for two user facilities. Fusion Facilities The DIII-D (tokamak) National Fusion Facility @ General Atomics NA/429 National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) @ PPPL 300/358 High Energy Physics (HEP)The High Energy Physics program provides support for three user facilities, one multi-stage accelerator complex supporting a broad physics program, and two accelerator test facilities. Accelerator complex supporting physics experiments The Fermilab Accelerator Complex @ FNAL 500/1,725Accelerator test facilities The Accelerator Test Facility @ BNL 16/80 The Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests (FACET) @ SLAC 25/111
History
The system of national laboratories started with the massive scientific endeavors of World War II, in which several new technologies, especially the atomic bomb, proved decisive for the Allied victory. Though the United States government had begun seriously investing in scientific research for national security in World War I, it was only in this wartime period that significant resources were committed to scientific problems, under the auspices first of the National Defense Research Committee, and later the Office of Scientific Research and Development, organized and administered by Vannevar Bush.
During the Second World War, centralized sites such as the Radiation Laboratory at MIT and Ernest O. Lawrence's laboratory at Berkeley and the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago allowed for a large number of expert scientists to collaborate towards defined goals as never before, and with government resources of unprecedented scale at their disposal.
In the course of the war, the Allied nuclear effort, the Manhattan Project, created several secret sites for the purpose of bomb research and material development, including a laboratory in the mountains of New Mexico directed by Robert Oppenheimer (Los Alamos), and sites at Hanford, Washington and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Hanford and Oak Ridge were administered by private companies, and Los Alamos was administered by a public university (the University of California). Additional success was at the University of Chicago in reactor research, leading to the creation of Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago, and at other academic institutions spread across the country.
After the war and its scientific successes, the newly created Atomic Energy Commission took over the future of the wartime laboratories, extending their lives indefinitely (they were originally thought of as temporary creations). Funding and infrastructure were secured to sponsor other "national laboratories" for both classified and basic research, especially in physics, with each national laboratory centered around one or many expensive machines (such as particle accelerators or nuclear reactors).
Most national laboratories maintained staffs of local researchers as well as allowing for visiting researchers to use their equipment, though priority to local or visiting researchers often varied from lab to lab. With their centralization of resources (both monetary and intellectual), the national labs serve as an exemplar for Big Science.