The administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget request for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been released, and it is staggering. The one-year funding request for $3,202,772,000 is the highest ever for LLNL.
After last year’s elimination of LLNL’s Energy Efficiency and Renewables Program, this year’s budget contains a large reduction (-32%) in the “science” budget compared to what was enacted over the last two years.
LLNL announced in 2025 its proposal to “enhance plutonium utilization,” to increase the allowable quantities of plutonium at the lab, showing its intent to increase the centrality of nuclear weapons activities to its mission, and repositioning itself as a full-service nuclear weapons laboratory, despite any potential security concerns. Civilian science that could help or solve some of the world’s problems, like preventing climate change, biodiversity collapse, renewable energy technologies and contaminant remediation, are no longer pursuits of this national lab. Those areas are not given any priority. The priority is clearly nuclear weapons.
With nearly 90% of the Lab’s budget going for nuclear weapons activities ($2,836,353,000), the lab is positioning itself both as the primary new nuclear warhead research and design laboratory and as the production coordinator of those warheads.
Despite these massive increases in nuclear weapons activities funding, the amount requested for the cleanup at LLNL remains stubbornly flat, at just .06% of the budget request. The lack of prioritization of the directly affected community surrounding the site is reflected in the lack of budgetary prioritization of the cleanup, which currently has an infinite timeline until completion.
Members of Tri-Valley CAREs, a local environmental nonprofit, have been raising the alarm federally and locally about these concerns. Our work in the coming future will seek to change what gets funded at LLNL, and achieve a safer, healthier future for our community.