Global Security

Infrastructure assurance, global energy supply, climate change, and U.S. national security are inextricably interwoven to an unforeseen extent with international, national, and regional implications. Furthermore, this complex system of dependencies is stressed simultaneously by challenges that range from climate change and resource depletion to pandemic disease and regional conflicts.

According to one national intelligence estimate, conflicts for traditional energy and resources will intensify in the near future. Traditional dominance by the United States in energy- and infrastructure-related technologies will gradually fade, with the European Union and Japan assuming key leadership roles. Technology globalization will continue to embolden rogue states and terrorists to exploit vulnerabilities in America’s critical infrastructure, as well as the infrastructure of the nation’s allies. Arguably the greatest challenge facing the nation today is to resolve these national security concerns without catastrophic consequences to climate, society, and the world economy.

To meet this challenge, the United States must reinvigorate fundamental research so that scientists and engineers can develop technologies capable of creating “smart and resilient” infrastructures at national and global scales. These infrastructures will readily withstand terrorist, natural, and anthropologic tests.

Core Capabilities

LANL has a historic intersection of recognition, need, and capability that enables smart and resilient infrastructure transformation at the national and global scale. Key capabilities include the following:

• Computationally Based Analyses and Multidisciplinary Team Assessment: LANL currently supports the Department of Homeland Security's infrastructure protection mission by providing computationally based analyses of the potential consequences of large-scale natural or manmade events. Multidisciplinary teams across LANL perform the analysis. Core capabilities include biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics, statistics, economics, and computational science, all of which are augmented by expertise in in-depth infrastructure and socio-technical system domains. This combination of expertise enables LANL to understand and model the extraordinarily complex systems that comprise the nation’s critical infrastructures. The resultant combination of high-performance computing resources and broad analytical capabilities enables LANL to address this complex and vitally important mission.
• Advanced Critical Infrastructure Modeling: LANL possesses some of the most advanced of these models, including some that are part of National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center . These models have been used extensively by the DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory to design U.S. Electric Grid 2030. Researchers have also used these models to protect America’s critical infrastructure from terrorist threats or to enhance national preparedness for handling large-scale disasters. Los Alamos plans to merge these models with the latest global-asset-level data and imagery to enable game-changing simulations that have sufficient fidelity and resolution.
• Advanced Simulations Enabled by LANL’s High-Performance Computers: Advanced simulations play a vital role in assessing global strategies for inserting smarter and more sustainable technologies into the nation’s infrastructure networks. Such large-scale simulations are also critical for making decisions regarding the impending global greenhouse gas treaty and for actions related to stabilizing failed and failing nations. Without such simulations, the United States would rely on traditional approaches, such as to design, demonstrate, and re-engineer—an expensive and time-limiting approach to engineering.
• Discovery, Development, and Deployment of Innovative Technologies: Although infrastructure technology development is the domain of private enterprise, LANL can readily partner with industry to accelerate the pace of innovation. Los Alamos has a proven track record in designing and building innovative technologies that meet the national need for energy. Products include small and compact nuclear reactors and large-scale energy-storage devices. LANL also continues to lead the way in integrating information technologies into an electric grid that in turn has led to innovative smart-grid technologies.

National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC)