Monday, July 9, 2012
Garamendi: BE PATIENT ON NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY
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Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor
Morning Briefing
July 9, 2012
CALIFORNIA LAWMAKER: BE PATIENT ON NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY
Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), whose 10th District includes Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is urging patience with the lab’s struggle to achieve fusion ignition at the $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility. The National Nuclear Security Administration revealed last week that the facility had missed a key milestone on the path to ignition, with a spokesman acknowledging that it is “unlikely” that the lab will meet expectations to achieve ignition by the end of the fiscal year. “Science doesn’t always follow the timelines of mankind, but we would be centuries behind if we gave up after every scientific hiccup,” Garamendi said in a statement provided to NW&M Monitor. “America may still lead the world in scientific advances, but every day we are reminded that other countries are nipping at our heels—and chipping away at the economic windfalls that occur in countries that embrace public research.”
Garamendi added: “The experiments done at the National Ignition Facility and similar research facilities are complex and require an investment of time, effort, and patience, but they pay off in the end. NIF conducts work that is crucial to our national defense and energy security. The NIF facility is more than just a fusion energy research, it is a critical element in maintaining safe, secure, and reliable weapon systems. Just think, ‘Where would our economy be today if we gutted the public research that led to the Internet?’ ”
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10 comments:
Does Garamendi think $5B spent this far is a scientific hiccup? It's become very clear mother nature isn't ready or our predictions are very screwed-up. We need to start dismantling this colossal mistake. Maybe we can dismantle NIF and stuff it in the empty Supercollider tunnels in Texas.
Another hugely expensive LLNL failure sold with lies and snake oil. One of many, just look at the history.
As someone not at either Lab, the crazed, bitter venom psychotically directed at one another makes me think very poorly of both. Hopefully this site is just populated by low-life malcontents. If not, the National Labs are clearly no longer of any real use to anyone.
What is the problem of giving NIF more time? A complex new machine like this is bound to have some hickups.
Let's look at the LHC, which a week after startup had a catastrophic failure, which required it to be shutdown for a year. Here DOER would probably have said " milestone missed, we shut you down". In Europe however, they got to work and fixed it and announced the Higgs last week.
But maybe that is the reason why Europe is having success in science and here we are loosing any technological edge we might still have since we are like spoiled brats who want to have immediate gratification. Plus the risk averesness on all levels, starting at DOE HQ all the way down to mamgt at the labs.
Be Patient: it takes us time to suck this much money out of the taxpayers.
"As someone not at either Lab, the crazed, bitter venom psychotically directed at one another makes me think very poorly of both. Hopefully this site is just populated by low-life malcontents. If not, the National Labs are clearly no longer of any real use to anyone."
As someone with co-workers and good friends at both Labs for many years, makes me recall that the reason Congress forced the changes in contract was due to the repeated screwups at Los Alamos. Those at Livermore that remember this do hold a strong grudge about it. Not making excuses here, just stating the facts.
On the other side, many of the most bitter Los Alamos workers seem to hang onto the philosophy that every local idea is flawless and all outside ideas are flawed. While this is not the reality of the world, it often emerges as a bully attack on the closest available target which is often Livermore.
the reason Congress forced the changes in contract was due to the repeated screwups at Los Alamos.
July 15, 2012 6:21 AM
Revisionist history. The fact is that LLNL was always better at hiding its "screwups" while LANL always confessed before being accused.
As someone with co-workers and good friends at both Labs for many years, makes me recall that the reason Congress forced the changes in contract was due to the repeated screwups at Los Alamos.
July 15, 2012 6:21 AM
X-ray laser, Brilliant Pebbles, Magnetic Fusion Test Facility (MFTF), and now NIF. All repeated LLNL success stories!
Win Ho Lee, Mustang Sally, missing disk drives, laser in student's eye, hot gold theft, environmental fines, more missing disk drives, plutonium inventory differences, berylium contamination, classified information found in drug raid, missing computers, chemical explosion, copper theft, building blown up in accident, another chemical explosion, more environmental fines. All repeated LANL business as usual, from the pages of the Los Alamos Monitor.
Almost half of those things actually happened too!
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