Tri-Valley CAREs

Tri-Valley CAREs is quoted prominently in an excellent article in Science Magazine on the overselling of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Livermore Lab, its failure to achieve ignition, and the case for cutting its budget.

Science Magazine is the publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS. For our part, we noted in particular that NIF should be held accountable for its failure and that its extravagant budget is potentially robbing money from more deserving science projects.

We are quoted also on NIF's primary goal of keeping nuclear weapons designers busy at their deadly pursuits and how and why a giant laser is not needed to maintain the existing stockpile as long as the nation eschews making adventurous design changes and military "improvements" in its arsenal.

The Science article quotes liberally from the final report that Congress required of the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on NIF's status and progress toward ignition.

The prior deadlines to achieve ignition had been in 2003, 2010 and September 31, 2012. The December 2012 DOE NNSA report asks for another three years or more to study the physics issues that have prevented ignition at NIF. The report asserts that ignition has not been proven impossible at NIF, yet it contains no timeline whatsoever for achieving it.

Further, the annual operating budget being requested is in the neighborhood of $450 million per year at a time when other, more worthy programs are being asked to take a funding hit.

Click here to read the article in Science Magazine

Click here to read the NIF Program Executives Report to Congress

Click here , enjoy the diagrams, and do contact us join our growing campaign to get the government's plutonium strategy CHANGED!