Site 300 of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is located in northern California, approximately 15 miles southeast of the Laboratory's Main Site and 10 miles southwest of the City of Tracy. The site occupies 11 square miles. Site 300 was purchased from local ranchers in the 1950s. Originally, Site 300 was called Site 3. Site 1 was the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was designated Site 2. LLNL Site 300 is about 15 miles southeast of the Livermore main site. Many years ago, LLNL and LBL were known as the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, after the founder Ernest O. Lawrence (Nobel prize winner and inventor of the cyclotron).

The site's former and current mission is the research and testing of non-nuclear high-explosive components for the Department of Energy nuclear weapons program. Past operations involving the processing, testing, and deactivation of explosive materials have resulted in soil and ground water contamination at the site. Several plumes of contamination were also detected in ground water offsite. In 1990, Site 300 was placed on the Environmental Protection Agency National Priorities List.

Site 300 Chemical Processing Facilities

These facilities consist of laboratories for processing energetic materials and components. Three types of HE are formu- lated at Site 300: plastic bonded, extrusion cast explosive, and paste.

Building 825 is an explosive processing facility.

Building 826 is used for formulating small quantities of explosives and formulation work on extrudable (paste or cured) explosives.

The Building 827 complex is the primary facility used for HE formulation. The complex consists of five structures:

• 827A contains the control room used to direct remote HE operations.
• 827B contains rooms for a conventional machine shop and one to perform small-scale inert assembly work.
• 827C is used for large-scale explosive formulation and for mixing, paste extrusion, and filtering of HE.
• 827D is used for scaling up material synthesized at the HE activity and for mixing and casting lower viscosity extrudable explosives.
• 827E is used for pressing, melting, and casting HE.

Site 300 - Mechanical Processing Facilities

Site 300 mechanical processing facilities prepare explosive test assemblies. They include:

• Building 805, used for office work, metal machining, and explosives waste handling and storage
• Building 806, the primary machining area for making complex HE shapes
• Building 807, a backup machining facility that contains a remotely operated lathe
• Building 809, which makes complex HE shapes and is also used for radiographic inspection of HE components
• Building 810, used to assemble HE parts in preparation for testing
• The Building 817 complex, built in the 1960s, which has two operating cells and performs isostatic pressing of HE charges
• Building 823, used as needed, and has a 9 MeV x-ray machine for radiography
• Building 829, a burn facility with 3 open pits and an iron horse to treat waste HE and HE residue (will shut down when Building 845 becomes operational)
• Building 845, an old firing facility that will be modified to become the new explosive waste treatment facility (EWTF). Several explosive storage magazines have been converted to waste storage to support this process in accordance with a RCRA permit. The permit for the new EWTF is expected in spring 1997 from the State of California.

Site 300 Firing Facilities

The Site 300 Firing Facilities are used for "hydrodynamic testing" of HE. The term hydrodynamic testing refers to the fact that when HE is detonated, such high pressures are produced that solid materials (even when not melted) flow like fluids. The firing facilities capture the dynamics of material in motion at ultrahigh speeds using x-ray and electro-optic pictures. Firing tests are run from control bunkers associated with each firing facility. There are observation posts near the firing facilities to spot people, animals, aircraft, and other things that might interfere with testing. Although the firing facilities continue to be principally used for nuclear weapons research, tests of conventional weapons are also conducted. Facility improvements have focused on adding capabilities to record test data (flash x-ray machines, high speed optical cameras, the gamma ray camera, and multi-beam laser velocimeter. The laboratory expects to construct a contained firing facility at Building 801 in the future.

A Contained Firing Facility at Site 300 is currently in the conceptual design phase. Serious consideration is being given to reassignment of high explosive manufacturing from Pantex to LLNL and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Building 801, built in the early 1950s, supports explosives tests for the nuclear weapons program. This facility has a flash x-ray for recording HE detonation tests. This one-of-a-kind machine produces high-resolution x-ray pictures of high density objects. It can penetrate more than a foot of steel, and its digital imaging camera can record the material structure of an explosively driven implosion.

Building 812 is a backup firing facility that is also used for storage.

Building 851 supports explosives tests, including most of the experiments for the advanced conventional weapons program. It has the same type of diagnostic capabilities as Building 801, and includes the new multi-beam velocity systems.

Building 850 is a backup firing facility also used for camera repair.

Site 300 Materials Management Facilities

The materials management facilities have overall control of receiving, shipping, storage, and accountability of HE. About 50,000 pounds of HE is stored in Site 300 magazines. Most of this HE is classified as "1.1" (mass detonating high explosive). The major problem with materials management operations is that Site 300 is running out of magazine storage due to siting problems. In addition, a good deal of the HE is more than 20 years old and has lost its Department of Transportation shipping classification. Site 300 management is developing a master plan for future siting of magazines and other facilities.

Building 818, a staging and short term storage area, serves as the central point for HE materials management and site delivery.

Building 824 is currently used for storing medium caliber munitions.

Building 857 is used as a storage magazine.