Founded in 1952 as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, and then renamed in 1971 in honor of Ernest O. Lawrence, the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is a secure autonomous research institute and scientific testing facility. It is closely affiliated with the Department of Defense, on whose behalf it has designed and developed some of the nation's most cutting edge weapons for potential use in the Cold War.

URIEL maintains its home office deep within Livermore’s enormous campus, in the sub-basement of an obscure archival building.