A complimentary article on the CBT and Stockpile Stewardship:
http://thebulletin.org/new-push-comprehensive-nuclear-test-ban-treaty8830
But with this comment on NIF:
One would never have known that the cornerstone of stockpile stewardship, Lawrence Livermore’s National Ignition Facility, came in more than 300 percent over budget, five years behind schedule, and has still failed to achieve its promised goal of “ignition” (the point where more energy comes out of a fusion reaction than goes in).
26 comments:
True, but the landscaping around the NIF facility is nice.
I love this, "I was particularly struck by the complete erasure of the person who did more than any other US official to end nuclear testing and create the stockpile stewardship program: Hazel O’Leary..." How embarrassing. The author fails to mention genuinely critical figures like Vic Reis, and fails to understand that O'Leary was doing exactly what Clinton directed her to do - hold a firm line against testing no matter what anyone says.
The author fails to mention genuinely critical figures like Vic Reis
"It's the same old day-in and day-out safety and security issues at Los Alamos", Dr. Victor "Vic" Reis, former Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs, DP-1, Department of Energy, 1997
Never happened, never was said. Or else, in response to many requests and demands, this poster would have long since posted a link to a source, or at least corroboration, for the quote. He hasn't and he can't. The most he has done is say "Well, when I was there I heard him say it." Bullshit. Reis never said it, and even if somebody heard something like it in 1997, Reis was already well into the effects of his Alzheimers. No credible claim there.
He's given very entertaining seminars as recently as last year, so he can't possibly have had Alzheimers in 1997.
Domenicinworked for years with dementia. As did Reagan. Wilsons wife sopke for the addled President afterbhis stroke. Bill Clinton is still an amusing horndog, even after severe mental decline due to complicationsbfrom his bypass. Hitler ran the Reich on speed, a drug Kennedy liked.
Vic stikl tells a funny story, great.
^^Drunk post of the day.
I think one part of the article is something that everyone can agree with. Hazel was hated by the weapons labs.
It was Hazel O'Leary with her extreme 'PC-ness' who mandated all DOE related badges must be the same color so that no one might feel discriminated against due to the level of their clearance. Major fail.
Soon we'll have another Clinton in the White House. I doubt the NNSA will do well under Hillary. More downsizing will probably be ordered for the NNSA and their weapon labs. The DOE energy labs, however, should do very well under her administration.
NIF's primary role has always been to support Stockpile Stewardship through experiments that investigate target physics. Ignition was not an after thought, as we pushed hard to get it, but not the reason NIF was built. That has been my understanding for the many years that I was involved in the design and activation and earlier in developing critical laser components and an understanding of high intensity laser physics and nonlinear optics.
The comments on NIF are out of place and out of line in the referenced article.
And really so what that it cost $3B (3X original estimates ?). Not much in todays world. This was like 1 month cost of the 2nd Iraq invasion/war ?
NIF was built for ignition. All the specs on the laser and target chamber and diagnostics come from (simulation-based) ignition shot requirements, and the name of the facility is, in fact, the National Ignition Facility. The SS mission was a timely afterthought, a new angle that opened up after the test ban. It was also a consolation prize and new mission to the national labs, even before it was clear what SS meant.
Sigh... Another never-ending NIF thread. OK, lets hear more posts abut Moses, and all the other failed NIF managers, and how NIF is great, or stupid, or completely within promised results, or a complete failure, or the best science America has ever seen, or the worst most expensive boondoggle ever, or... You guys have all this on auto pilot. So bring it on already. I can auto-scroll through it as usual.
It's better than beating up on Charlie M. I guess that's understandable since LANL doesn't really do science or weapons. Why are the LANL guys always complaining about the upper management when they have it so good up there on the hill?
There are a lot of cowboys/cowgirls and indians at LANL. Must be fun in the afternoon sun !
Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.
Glad to see no NIF stuff lately here. Keep up the good work!
Yeah, the NIF stuff has to do with science. We at LANL don't want any of that. Let's talk about Charlie's shoes or how he doesn't live on bathtub row. Leave the big science to others. We up here on the hill want no part of that.
NIF is a long-past disaster, only having past apologists wanting to post lousy, old, discredited justifications for why promised results were never realized. Or point fingers at who is to blame (not them). If you wasted your scientific career on NIF, bad for you. If you no longer have a way to rescue it before retirement with a different line of work, bad for you. Get used to the all-too-common fate of having to live forever with the consequences of your lousy choices in life. **IGNITION** Yeah, not so much.
Glad to see no NIF stuff lately here. Keep up the good work!
November 3, 2015 at 7:18 PM
No NIF stuff here because NIF has done nothing lately, so the NIFniks are very quiet. Hard to bash'em when they aren't strutting.
Crickets.
" The SS mission was a timely afterthought, a new angle that opened up after the test ban. It was also a consolation prize and new mission to the national labs, even before it was clear what SS meant."
That's correct, and NIF was designed after the test ban treaty, and the Stockpile Stewardship (SS) mission for what was to be called NIF was the primary goal of the facility. But yes, we also wanted to get ignition with gain, which was extrapolated from the last of the underground tests.
That's correct, and NIF was designed after the test ban treaty
November 9, 2015 at 11:09 PM
What treaty are you talking about? The US and Russia stopped testing but there was no treaty.
The US and Russia stopped testing but there was no treaty.
November 10, 2015 at 9:28 AM
Technically correct. Full-scale nuclear testing was outlawed in the US in 1992 by Bush 41. The 1996 CTBT has never entered into force because of non-ratification by a majority of the required 44 "nuclear capable states" (including the US).
So what you are saying, that under president Trump, we could go back and repeat Halite/Centurion ?
Full-scale nuclear testing was outlawed in the US in 1992 by Bush 41.
November 10, 2015 at 12:55 PM
Actually it was congress that passed the law - Bush 41 signed it.
In 1991, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced a unilateral nuclear test moratorium. Later that year, legislation was introduced in the U.S. Congress for a reciprocal test moratorium. The legislation, which became law in 1992, mandated a 9-month moratorium on nuclear weapon test explosions. In July 1993, President Bill Clinton decided to extend the U.S. test moratorium.
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