I just received my annual TCP-1 letter from LLNS and a summary of the LLNS Pension Plan. Looked in pretty good shape in 2013. About 35% overfunded (funding target attainment percentage = 134.92%). This was a decrease from 2012 where it was 51% overfunded (funding target attainment percentage = 151.59%). They did note that the 2012 change in the law on how liabilities are calculated using interest rates improved the plan's position. Without the change the funding target attainment percentages would have been 118% (2012) and 105% (2013). 2013 assets = $2,057,866,902 2013 liabilities = $1,525,162,784 vs 2012 assets = $1,844,924,947 2012 liabilities = $1,217,043,150 It was also noted that a slightly different calculation method ("fair market value") designed to show a clearer picture of the plan' status as December 31, 2013 had; Assets = $2,403,098,433 Liabilities = $2,068,984,256 Funding ratio = 116.15% Its a closed plan with 3,781 participants. Of that number, 3,151 wer...
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Reproduce the shot.
A blatant push to absorb Sandia's fusion funding to support more ridiculous nonsense at NIF.
It isn't haw many Joules NIF is getting, it is how many Joules NIF is spending to get that many Joules.
The Z could be seen as relevant for ITER, more so than NIF would be. I have no idea if that is actually true but I have a few people say this.
2/05/2022 4:48 PM"
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Did I miss something. In any case yes, the peanut gallery can know best in many cases, particularly if that peanut gallery does have some experts and people that understand how science actually works. Journals are for very specific technical merit not overall themes or if a research direction has a long term future or not. You present a very odd argument on how science advances. In any case this is a blog or peanut gallery for things related to the labs. Would you call conferences or DOE meetings peanut galleries, because the same things are said in those as on this blog. Also who said that the posters are not professionals? Many may have completely adequate technical backgrounds to make insightful comments. For example if you ask someone at NIF if things are going great they would say yes, in fact it is in their interest to say yes and hype up their results. On the other hand anyone who has good understanding of science can point out that one successful shot may not mean all that much if they cannot reproduce it on a regular basis. Anyone with real knowledge of science knows that these kinds of things have happened countless times especially in large scale experimental physics.
The 'artificial sun' nuclear reactor in Culham released a total of 59 megajoules of energy, equating to a power output of just over 11 megawatts averaged over five seconds.
It is not a huge energy output