How is ASL different from a Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratory?
The DOE Office of Science and Defense Programs are the stewards of 10 national laboratories that support its energy, defense, and environmental missions. The national laboratory system, created over a half-century ago, represents the most comprehensive research system of its kind in the world. These laboratories perform R&D activities that are not well suited to university or private-sector research facilities because of their scope, infrastructure needs, or multidisciplinary nature. These laboratories, with annual budgets ranging between $400 million and over $2 billion, carry out research activities to serve the national needs. A high level of collaboration among all of the national laboratories in the use of world-class scientific equipment and supercomputers, facilities, and multidisciplinary teams of scientists increases their collective contribution to the DOE and the Nation, making the laboratory system more valuable as a whole than as the sum of its parts. As such, the faciliti
