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Double whammy blow to US nuclear science

Anonymously contributed:


** Double whammy blow to US nuclear science **

RSC Chemistry World - 08 March 2012

Nuclear science in the US has been dealt a double blow with the announcement of huge budget cuts at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) coming hard on the heels of the mothballing of a multi-billion dollar research facility at the lab. Actinide scientists in the US and abroad are dismayed by the news and warn that nuclear safety and technological advances could be compromised in the long run....

...Actinide scientists elsewhere are unhappy with the developments. 'Development of a highly trained workforce in actinide chemistry is expensive and time-consuming. Yet, such people are extremely important in a wide range of issues important to humanity, including development of an advanced nuclear energy system, proper handling and disposal of high level nuclear waste, remediating environments contaminated by actinides, nuclear forensics for attribution purposes and maintenance of the nation's nuclear stockpile,' says Peter Burns of Notre Dame University in Illinois, US. 'This postponement will reduce the capacity to train a workforce, and will reduce the employment opportunities for such a workforce. Once a workforce of this sort has been diminished, it will be hard to rebuild.'

www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2012/March/
lanl-los-alamos-budget-cuts-
actinide-chemistry.asp

Comments

Anonymous said…
Soon to be followed by a triple whammy, a quartro-whammy, a pento-whammy.
Anonymous said…
The funny disconnect in the article is that CMRR got bloated over the years for a production mission, not science.
Anonymous said…
Barrack is neither smart enough to understand the risk of this decision nor humble enough to follow others leads.

Typical of a weak unintelligent mind, in a position it is not suited to. Will be carried forward with misinformation and inertia.

Hope we can recover from his impotence once his rule ends.
Anonymous said…
Hope we can recover from his impotence once his rule ends.

March 10, 2012 10:40 AM

Obama doesn't "rule." The fact that it seems to so many people (including himself) that he does, is sad testimony to the weakness and incompetence of Congress, as well as astounding complacency and unwillingness of voters to "get tough" with their elected representatives. If you tolerate a do-nothing Congress, you elevate the Executive Branch, and its head, to absolute monarchy.

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