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Friday, November 21, 2008  
The NIF is for weapons, not clean energy

By: Adrian Jay
Published In: Valley Times
http://www.contracostatimes.com/letters/ci_11034088

Recently, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State George Shultz visited Livermore Lab to extol the virtues of the as yet unfinished National Ignition Facility (NIF) as an alleged future source of carbon-free electricity.

While clean energy is essential, I believe it is important to bear in mind that the NIF's primary purpose is to train a new generation of nuclear weapons scientists and refine knowledge of the physics of nuclear weapons.

Even setting aside the question of whether a fission-fusion hybrid reactor could produce "clean" energy, it is hotly debated whether the NIF will even achieve its stated goals of thermonuclear ignition and gain, let alone be able to carry out the missions for which it was recently touted.

This press conference was a ruse of political myopia, in which "clean" energy was used as a rationale to sell the offensively expensive NIF to taxpayers and the incoming Obama administration.

Don't believe the hype; NIF isn't for energy, it's for nuclear weapons design and nuclear weapons are anything but "clean" or benign.

Adrian Jay
Livermore

Adrian Jay is a Tri-Valley CAREs community member.

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