Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...
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NIF supporters would argue that NIF is a core capability for stockpile stewardship. This is only wishful thinking. LLNL would love for an asteroid come down and obliterate Sandia's Z machine. Again, more wishful thinking.
LLNL needs a big technical victory, not more problems, like the Ta phase transition debacle or the deuterium EoS scandal. But the problem is that they needed a track record of victories, not these pathetic stunts as was demonstrated by claiming "scientific break even" with 14kJ to the BBC. LLNL's problem is exacerbated by the fact that they are operating in a "scientific failure mode" where all the engineering successes are nullified by their scientific failures.
Returning to a weapons focused missions means realizing NIF for what it is -a renewable energy experiment - and focusing on activities that add value to stockpile stewardship. But I would bet Money that this isn't going to happen. Doubling down on a clearly losing bet, and then further doubling down, prolonging the agony, is like the gambling addict who has maxed out his credit cards and put his house and reputation all on the line. Failure is not an option for such people, even when success is impossible or unlikely. They become more and more desperate, willing to do and say anything. They begin to pose a risk to the sponsor because you can not trust the work they produce, because they have such a strong incentive to, and history of fabrication and deception.
So all of this begs the question of what must go through the minds of LLNL and NIF management. Are they living in a fantasy world? Or do they knowingly accept the fact that what they say or do has no relationship to reality? Maybe they are just holding out hope for that asteroid to land on Sandia's Z machine. The NIF would undeniably be the only show in town, muting all of its own scientific and programmatic "problems." After all, Sandia and its "good science" is the enemy - Tom Hunter and Paul Hommert the Kim Jong Ill and Kim Jong Un of New Mexico. How dare the Z scientists take the high road and focus on scientific excellence. Who do they think they are anyways? How dare they!!!