A brief history of the University of California's involvement with the Department of Energy weapons facilities

For nearly 60 years, the University of California (UC) has managed Department of Energy (DOE) weapons laboratories including Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and and Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories in California.

As part of their duties to DOE, UC is expected to oversee research, design, testing and development of the United States nuclear arsenal. In fact, all weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal were developed by the UC.

UC and DOE have a contract in which DOE "discharges its responsibilities" for the laboratories to UC. These responsibilities include:

• safeguarding all sensitive materials relating to the design and production of nuclear weapons, as well as protecting DOE property and information from espionage and theft.

• performing research and development in support of national defense

• complying with all DOE directives.

Recent allegations of mismanagement by UC have led to a Congressional investigation of UC activities at the national laboratories. Reports of theft and misappropriation of funds at LANL have raised the question of the appropriateness of UC's role in the DOE complex.