Budget Contraction, Implications to NIF
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/05/lawrence-livermore-lab-voluntary-redundancy-10-employees
Gadzooks! From a 1.6B annual budget to 1.25B! Go any lower and they fall below the threshold of "too big to fail," meaning.
Where is that 1.5B that NIF is supposed to bring in from investors?
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/05/lawrence-livermore-lab-voluntary-redundancy-10-employees
Gadzooks! From a 1.6B annual budget to 1.25B! Go any lower and they fall below the threshold of "too big to fail," meaning.
Where is that 1.5B that NIF is supposed to bring in from investors?
Comments
I guess filming Star Trek at NIF is no worse than making a film at any other make believe facility leaving room for the imagination and dreams. After all we all have star trek communicators now days in our possession and can do video conferencing and face time from almost anywhere. NIF just not the engine for reaching warp factor speeds.
Not a snowflakes's chance in hell. The dye is cast, NIF goes down via the proven and hallowed method, the slow bleed.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120917124210.htm
The uncontrollable nature of laser matter interaction and laser ablation must really suck it for NIF. Not that I would believe that Z is any better. But if Z is a proven capability for stockpile stewardship work, then what is the rationale for spending 300m+ going forward on NIF other than the usual welfare explanations?
When Nova opened in 1985 its mission was basic science, as noted in a Lab news article – “Nova is the world's most powerful laser system. It is designed to heat and compress small targets, typically 0.1 cm in size, to conditions otherwise produced only in nuclear weapons or in the interior of stars…The goals of our experiments with Nova are to make accurate measurements of high temperature and high-pressure states of matter for the weapons program, to compress deuterium-tritium fusion fuel to densities approaching 200 g/cm3, to determine the ultimate energy required for efficient ignition and bum of inertial fusion targets, and finally, to make important physics and engineering measurements such as x-ray laser studies.”
With exception of the last goal, this sounds exactly like NIF.
I don’t recall congressional and external watchdog group outrage at Nova’s research and it being an user facility doing basic science (and classified shots too). Laser Program Directorate leadership back in the 1990s sold the idea that the next follow-up system to Nova would achieve ignition and that this was critical to weapons stewardship (and therefore funding should shift from the office of science to defense program). If we had continued the goals of Nova in a successor facility - as a natural next step towards the goal of ignition - instead of declaring the new facility's sole goal was ignition, I wonder if we would be in this mess today.
LLNL - Lasers, Lasers, Nothing but Lasers
LLNL's EoS capability had been allowed to be reduced to nothing, though I don't know how or why, since the other labs offer up competition. With regards to strength, LLNL has never had any credible experimental material strength expert. They are at the other labs. So no point even entertaining that type of experiment.
Dr. Evil approves
Headline for the future: NIF cries "uncle" as experimental programs to measure material strength are discredited
Byline: "We never cared about that stuff anyways, we just wanted the money to support ignition and LIFE." Lab then throws its own EoS and Materials Strength scientists under the bus as human sacrifice to appease the gods with several pounds of flesh. Lab then discredits its own EoS and strength programs, further justifying a focus on ignition for NIF.
I just came to realize this fact, when distinguishing programmatic work and WFO, the "Other" in Work-For-Other includes NNSA! Programmatic work is only what benefits themselves. So it makes sense that the lab would let EoS and Strength programs be run so shabbily with the wrong people for 16 years. That is WFO!
Global Security -- more important than any other project at LLNL, period. The rest are mute and should take a backseat ..This is truly a national security organization.
Global Security -- more important than any other project at LLNL, period. The rest are mute and should take a backseat ..This is truly a national security organization.
If that be the case then they need to be gone, now, keep them out of Global security. They have no business in Global securities business and are lousy managers. This has been proven at LLNL many times over.
John S. Foster,
He made key contributions to laser ICF and NIF. Very accomplished individual.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._Foster,_Jr.
NOT ANOTHER STUDY! KILL THE DAMN THING (NIF)!
That should give you a start for leads on the who, what and when
May 17, 2013 at 4:32 PM
I think you mean "moot" since they are clearly not "mute."
http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/reports/RA2Pattiz_NNSANIF_070312.pdf
I thought the real pie-in-the-face was regarding missing the milestone after the blitz attempt. I guess they must have been convinced that they were going to get ignition and they were positioning themselves to be ready to exert leverage against their sponsor?
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/security/has080230.000/has080230_0f.htm
May 19, 2013 at 9:41 PM
The word is "moot."