Comments on SUGGEST NEW TOPICS HERE : LLNL - The True Story -
From the Santa Fe reporter. I am not convinced that Mello is some kind
of LANL/NNSA or neocon plant pushing to grow LANL even larger. I simply cannot believe this guy is that dumb to write this kinda or crap. Literally every time his says this stuff it increases New Mexicos support for LANL and expanding the mission. Who is the audience for this stuff?
Greg Mello
2 days ago
Chris is correct. And as the White House NNSA budget examiner said to me years ago, LANL's pit program is being pursued for one reason: to enable a new warhead program at Livermore in California. That single justification was a little exaggerated but it's not far off. Actually, it supports the entire NNSA complex, which has doubled in staffing over recent years, during a period when there would be little new warhead work to do otherwise. LLNL would not have a new warhead to design without LANL being ready to make the pits for it, and with NIF getting long in the tooth, LLNL could actually have to...wait for it....downsize. The whole warhead complex could get out of its dangerous "sorcerer's apprentice" mode, in which expanding workloads lead to even more expanding workloads. But as for the pits, is LANL ready? No. Is it otherwise logical to pump up LANL to do make pits? Not in the least. LANL pit production is a tottering jenga tower, undermined not just by incapacity but by an eroding facade of "mission need". Many people err in thinking there are exalted, logical reasons for the programs at these two physics labs, which have enormous political power to shape their own work programs amid the general dysfunction of Congress. The lab directors say NIF is necessary (LANL and Sandia used to have NIF critics but they have long been silenced.) So ignorant congresspersons fork over the money. It works the same for MANY lab programs. You may observe that California has 52 congresspersons. And -- oh the shock -- California wants pork-barrel jobs at Livermore. As always, ignorant people believe there is some exalted higher purpose in all this waste and high-level "control fraud," some kind of magical "science" which will usher in a new Golden Age. Current responsibilities at the two labs could be accomplished with half their remaining staff, after taking away LANL's ridiculous pit program. So said an NNSA lab director to me, which is also my estimate. This would be the staffing level needed without any disarmament. Frankly, LANL should simply be closed, as Chris has said before and as AEC Commissioner Hamilton said in 1950. There would be some adjustments, let's say, but those adjustments are the very ones we need. Every town in northern New Mexico would be better off without LANL. The U.S. would be better as well.
of LANL/NNSA or neocon plant pushing to grow LANL even larger. I simply cannot believe this guy is that dumb to write this kinda or crap. Literally every time his says this stuff it increases New Mexicos support for LANL and expanding the mission. Who is the audience for this stuff?
Greg Mello
2 days ago
Chris is correct. And as the White House NNSA budget examiner said to me years ago, LANL's pit program is being pursued for one reason: to enable a new warhead program at Livermore in California. That single justification was a little exaggerated but it's not far off. Actually, it supports the entire NNSA complex, which has doubled in staffing over recent years, during a period when there would be little new warhead work to do otherwise. LLNL would not have a new warhead to design without LANL being ready to make the pits for it, and with NIF getting long in the tooth, LLNL could actually have to...wait for it....downsize. The whole warhead complex could get out of its dangerous "sorcerer's apprentice" mode, in which expanding workloads lead to even more expanding workloads. But as for the pits, is LANL ready? No. Is it otherwise logical to pump up LANL to do make pits? Not in the least. LANL pit production is a tottering jenga tower, undermined not just by incapacity but by an eroding facade of "mission need". Many people err in thinking there are exalted, logical reasons for the programs at these two physics labs, which have enormous political power to shape their own work programs amid the general dysfunction of Congress. The lab directors say NIF is necessary (LANL and Sandia used to have NIF critics but they have long been silenced.) So ignorant congresspersons fork over the money. It works the same for MANY lab programs. You may observe that California has 52 congresspersons. And -- oh the shock -- California wants pork-barrel jobs at Livermore. As always, ignorant people believe there is some exalted higher purpose in all this waste and high-level "control fraud," some kind of magical "science" which will usher in a new Golden Age. Current responsibilities at the two labs could be accomplished with half their remaining staff, after taking away LANL's ridiculous pit program. So said an NNSA lab director to me, which is also my estimate. This would be the staffing level needed without any disarmament. Frankly, LANL should simply be closed, as Chris has said before and as AEC Commissioner Hamilton said in 1950. There would be some adjustments, let's say, but those adjustments are the very ones we need. Every town in northern New Mexico would be better off without LANL. The U.S. would be better as well.
Comments
What on earth? That is going go over real well the New Mexico locals. Greg Mello needs to make a better argument that destroying the local economy.