The following report describes the Astron Thermonuclear Program initiated at Livermore, California in 1957.

The Bevatron/Bevalac is operated, maintained, and continually improved as a national research facility for studies in nuclear science and in biology and medicine. Recent modifications have brought the 21-year-old synchrotron to the threshold of tremendously exciting new studies as the world's most powerful heavy-ion accelerator. In its Bevalac configuration, the machine capitalizes on the coupling of the SuperHILAC to the Bevatron via a 175-meter beam line. The SuperHILAC acts as an injector to provide the Bevatron with high-intensity beams of ions as heavy as argon. At the same time, the SuperHILAC is capable of delivering heavy-ion beams to its own group of experimenters through a computer-linked, time-share system of operation. Research efforts using the Bevalac have included a broad spectrum of nuclear science and cosmic-ray-simulation experiments, as well as intensive studies in biology and medicine aimed principally at diagnostic techniques and preclinical therapy studies for some forms of cancer.