Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Orb 1981

On March 17, 1981, a glowing orb appeared over Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California — the Department of Energy facility responsible for the design of the majority of the United States' nuclear warheads. The orb hovered at 300 feet altitude directly over the main research complex for 15 minutes. Department of Energy security personnel and Sandia National Laboratories security staff, who shared the security responsibility for the facility, both filed classified incident reports. Given the extraordinary sensitivity of Livermore's work — designing the nuclear devices that gave the US its strategic deterrent — the orb's presence triggered the highest-priority security response available to non-military DOE facilities. AFOSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) was called to coordinate with DOE security on the incident. The Livermore case is part of the documented pattern of UAP appearances over nuclear design, storage, and testing facilities and represents the only documented case in the pattern involving the nation's primary nuclear warhead design laboratory.