Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is an American federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States, founded by the University of California in 1952. A Federally Funded Research and Development Center, it is primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and managed and operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, a partnership of the University of California, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, AECOM, and Battelle Memorial Institute in affiliation with the Texas A&M University System. In 2012, the laboratory had the synthetic chemical element livermorium named after it.BackgroundLLNL is self-described as "a premier research and development institution for science and technology applied to national security." Its principal responsibility is ensuring the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons through the application of advanced science, engineering and technology. The Laboratory also applies its special expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities to preventing the proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction, bolstering homeland security and solving other nationally important problems, including energy and environmental security, basic science and economic competitiveness.