Citizens Watch Newsletter December 1999

Megalaser's Technical Problems are Coming to Light

by Marylia Kelley
from Tri-Valley CAREs' December 1999 newsletter, Citizen's Watch

"I look forward to... advice on how to put this project back on track," declared Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson in a Nov. 10, 1999 press release announcing the formation of a task force charged with reviewing the National Ignition Facility. The group will report directly to Richardson.

The problem? For starters, NIF is a train wreck. All the hoists and pulleys at DOE's disposal cannot put it "back on track."

Following a late August shake up in NIF management, Tri-Valley CAREs conducted interviews with scientists and others at the three key nuclear weapons labs, Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia. As we reported in the September 1999 Citizen's Watch, NIF is not merely off-track, it is beset by serious, unresolved technical difficulties, particularly in the areas of optics (glass), target fabrication (radioactive pellets) and diagnostics.

As it became public that NIF is at least $300 million over budget and over a year behind schedule, three official investigations were launched into NIF problems. The General Accounting Office is conducting an investigation, likely to be the most comprehensive of the three, and expected to conclude around March. The University of California, which manages the Lab for DOE, published a cursory look at NIF's management issues (copies available on request), and, most recently, Richardson appointed a NIF task force.

NIF Limited to Half-Energy

Unresolved problems in the final optics mean that NIF will be able to run at only half its design energy, Edward Moses, the newly appointed NIF manager, admitted to the NIF task force. "We can run 4 to 5 joules per square centimeter," he told the DOE panel. "This is 50% of NIF's rating."

In essence, as each of the laser's beams travels toward the radioactive fuel pellet -- at the key point where it must be converted to ultraviolet (called the third harmonic) -- the beam will cause damage spots on the optics to grow. This, in turn, will cause the lenses to shatter on very short order.

Called "damage propagation," employees have been telling us of this problem for some time. This is the first time, however, that NIF management has openly acknowledged it.

NIF Glass Fails to Meet Specs

Another serious hurdle is with the manufacture of NIF's laser glass. The Lab has already spent an undisclosed amount of money building full-scale production facilities at 2 companies, Hoya and Schott. The NIF plan calls for them to make the glass via a "continuous pour" method, unlike the technique used for earlier lasers, wherein glass was produced in small batches.

Scientists and vendors have said privately that NIF laser glass was supposed to have been delivered in January and June. To date, only a small portion of the order has been delivered, and it did not meet specifications. The glass slabs, intended for NIF's amplifiers, contain unacceptable stresses which make them "pop." The underlying problems are twofold: too much water in the finished product and a lack of "homogeneity," meaning there are serious imperfections at random locations inside the glass.

The NIF's design calls for over 3,000 glass slabs with a combined weight of around 150 tons. Therefore, the Lab cannot resolve the problem by going back to the "tried and true" method used in the past to produce small quantities of laser glass. The simple truth is that no one knows how to make enough glass for NIF, and do it in a way that will meet the purity and other necessary specs.

Our investigations have turned up many additional problems, from anti-reflection coatings to beam alignment inadequacies, to silver coating failures on the flashlamp mirrors, to target manufacture and loading uncertainties -- and the list goes on.

NIF is Costly Aid Program for Weaponeers

In essence, the key parts needed to make NIF run are still in a research and development mode, long after that phase was to have been completed. The NIF project has gobbled up close to $1 billion dollars so far. Researchers tell us that the acknowledged $300 million cost overrun is only the tip of the iceberg. NIF's costs could ultimately double, from $5 billion to ten, they say. And, the schedule delay may stretch from two to five years (to more).

The Lab refuses to release its new "baseline" report for NIF, but it is believed to contain a proposal to cut NIF in half, reducing it from 192 to 96 beams. Such a move will not resolve the serious technical difficulties. It will, however, forego any pretense at reaching ignition, even if all other problems can be solved.

Bigger than a football stadium, NIF is designed to train multiple laser beams on a radioactive fuel target sitting inside a reactor vessel. The scientific goal is to compress the target and initiate a thermonuclear, or fusion, explosion. The weaponeers' goal is to use it as a tool to advance nuclear weapons physics. This latter aim does not require ignition, and is the only purpose that will be served by building NIF.

Like the Livermore Lab's "Star Wars" project before it, NIF runs counter to disarmament goals, is being over-hyped to Congress in order to obtain funding -- and won't work, to boot.

National "Back From the Brink" Campaign Debuts

by Arjun Makhijani, with additional text by Marylia Kelley
from Tri-Valley CAREs' December 1999 newsletter, Citizen's Watch

There have been many false alerts on the U.S. side as well, including one in which a nuclear warfare training tape being run on the command center computer was mistaken for the real thing.

The Cold War officially ended after the Soviet Union fell apart eight years ago. Yet, today, we still face the risk of being evaporated in an accidental nuclear war. That risk is increasing because of deteriorating infrastructure and the poor state of the Russian economy.

The risk of accidental nuclear war is with us every day. However, the hazard is exacerbated by the possibility that the Y2K "millennium bug" will infest the complicated launch on warning systems operated by both the U.S. and Russia, either providing wrong information about an incoming attack or going blank altogether.

There is something that can be done to greatly reduce this risk: take nuclear weapons off of hair trigger alert. De-alerting nuclear weapons does not require a change in the size of the U.S. or Russian arsenals. Nor are lengthy arms reduction negotiations or legislative debates needed. De-alerting simply requires a determination by national leaders to increase the margin of safety and abandon confrontational nuclear postures.

On Dec. 9, a major national effort to de-alert nuclear weapons, the "Back from the Brink" campaign will be launched. On that morning, an important new video discussing nuclear dangers, and how de-alerting can reduce them, will be released at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Speakers will include: Bruce Blair, one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject and a MacArthur Fellow; former U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers, now head of the Center for Defense Information; U.S. Representative Ed Markey; Beatrice Brailsford, Program Director of the Snake River Alliance, an Idaho-based peace group, and Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland.

The heart of the campaign will be outside Washington, DC. That's the place from which the pressure to persuade President Clinton as well as the House and Senate to de-alert nuclear weapons must come. And, we Californians can become a particularly potent force for de-alerting as the various political parties vie for our votes in the coming election year.

You can participate in the "Back from the Brink" campaign by showing the video at a house party or on your local cable access channel. Free copies of the "Back from the Brink" campaign video are available. To obtain one, contact either Tri-Valley CAREs or the Snake River Alliance. Send an email to srabb@earthlink.net or write to the temporary campaign office at 310 E. Center, Suite 205, Pocatello, Idaho 83201. After Dec. 1, you can call our toll free number at 1-877-55-Be Safe. The website of the campaign is at http://www.backfromthebrink.org (starting Dec. 9, 1999).

You can also arrange a news briefing in your community around the showing of the video. We can send you sample press materials and other information in a packet that you can use and distribute to local media.

by Marylia Kelley and Sally Light
from Tri-Valley CAREs' December 1999 newsletter, Citizen's Watch

• Another Sour Note. On Nov. 9, Livermore Lab weaponeers detonated "Oboe 2", a subcritical nuclear test, 960 feet underground at the Nevada Test Site. This was the 8th subcritical test conducted by the U.S., and the 5th designed by Livermore. Subcritical experiments involve blasting high explosives and plutonium together underground. The resulting data is then fed into the nuclear weapons codes, the complex computer software that is central to nuclear weapons development. Protests were held in Nevada and San Francisco.
  
  
• No Competition. The Dept. of Energy has extended the management contract with Bechtel Nevada for the Nevada Test Site without putting it out for bids. Reportedly, the contract pays $1.425 billion to Bechtel. The current contract is slated to expire Dec. 31, 2000. The extension will run to Sept. 30, 2005.
  
  
• Upholding the Law. Three Scottish "Ploughshares 2000" women were acquitted after an 18 day-long trial stemming from charges they had caused 80,000 British Pounds worth of damage to a barge used to support the UK Trident nuclear-armed submarine fleet. Defense witnesses had argued that the International Court of Justice ruling declaring the threat or use of nuclear weapons to be generally illegal applied to Scotland along with the rest of the world. The deployment of Trident is a threat, according to international law, they further argued. In her address to the jury, the judge stated, "I have to conclude that the 3, in company with others, were justified in thinking that Great Britain in their use of Trident... could be construed as a threat and as such is an infringement of international and customary law."
  
  
• Now Published in Israel. In 1986, whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu exposed Israel's secret nuclear weapons program, conducted at Dimona in the Negev desert, where Vanunu had worked for 10 years. Kidnapped, tried in secret and sentenced to 18 years in prison, Vanunu has been kept isolated and barred from giving interviews. On Nov. 24, Israel's largest daily published excerpts from Vanunu's court transcript and related documents. While the material was heavily censored, and contained information already published outside the country, analysts count this as an important step in opening up the nuclear debate within Israel. Activists are hopeful also that it signals a shift in the government's harsh handling of Vanunu.
  
  
• Not Healthy. The American Public Health Assn. passed a resolution opposing the government's plan to locate a permanent high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, on Western Shoshone ancestral lands in Nevada. The resolution cites the dump's potential public health impacts. The 50,000 member national association will lobby DOE and Congress to oppose the dump.
  
  
• Cancer and the X-ray. Dr. John Gofman, former Assoc. Director at Livermore Lab and one of the pioneers in documenting the health effects of exposure to low-doses of ionizing radiation, has just published a new study analyzing the correlation between medical x-rays and incidence of heart disease and cancer. The study looked at the number of doctors per 100,000 patients. The study's finding: The more doctors, the greater the number of x-rays and the higher the incidence of heart disease and cancer. About 1/2 of all such diseases may be caused by medical x-rays, said Gofman.
  
  
• WIPPing Up Litigation. On Nov. 3, DOE filed suit against the New Mexico Environment Dept., charging that the permit issued by the state for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is too stringent. DOE is challenging the provision requiring waste characterization in conformance with its permit conditions. According to DOE, this permit provision infringes on the federal agency's sovereign immunity with regard to radioactive wastes, which are regulated by DOE and not the states or EPA. Further, DOE is seeking to over turn the permit's requirement that the DOE contractor, Westinghouse, post financial assurance against future leaks. WIPP is DOE's huge transuranic nuclear waste dump, recently opened in southern New Mexico.
  
  
• More to WIPP. Shortly after the DOE filed its suit, the Southwest Research and Information Center filed an appeal of the WIPP permit. SRIC contends that the state officials should not have issued the permit in the first place due to deficiencies in the application filed by DOE and Westinghouse. "DOE said that no waste would be brought to WIPP until the permit was issued, but then started shipping waste before the public hearings ended, and months before the permit was issued," said SRIC.
  
  
• Plutonium Lost. The European Union blamed human error and organizational problems for the temporary disappearance of a plutonium shipment, and said it would tighten rules for handling dangerous substances. "Human error, internal communication and organizational problems (were) at the origin of the incident," an EU Commission statement said. Basically, a 0.24-ounce sample of plutonium from an EU research lab in Belgium went missing and ended up across the Channel. The plutonium had been destined for a nuclear facility in France. Workers sent what they thought was an empty container to England.
  
  
• Tokaimura Update. A worker heavily exposed to radiation this past Sept. in Japan's worst nuclear accident suffered temporary heart failure and is in a very critical condition. Additionally, Hisashi Ouchi, 35, was given a blood stem cell transfusion. He had received 17 sieverts of radiation and experts said 7 is considered a lethal dose. The exposure caused severe organ and tissue damage.
  
  
• You Know Their Names. The Aldermaston nuclear weapons lab in Britain may be under new management soon. A consortium of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. & Lockheed Martin, the giant U.S. defense contractor believes it is the front-runner.

Citizen's Alerts: The calendar section from Tri-Valley CAREs' December 1999 newsletter, Citizen's Watch

Do you believe the U.S. should move toward nuclear disarmament instead of building new nuclear weapons facilities? Do you think that construction and operation of the NIF in an area contaminated by hazardous wastes poses an environmental risk? If so, this is your golden opportunity to object to the NIF project. Comments may be offered at the hearing or in writing any time before Dec. 20, 1999. Send written comments to DOE Oakland Operations Office, Attn. Richard Scott, c/o LLNL, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94550. Email to: richard.scott@oak.doe.gov.

This public hearing is mandated by a court order issued in the "Stockpile Stewardship" environmental lawsuit brought by Tri-Valley CAREs, the Natural Resources Defense Council and 37 additional plaintiff groups. Make it count by your participation. See the NIF article from this edition of Citizen's Watch and the event flier for more information.

"Back From the Brink" is a major national effort to de-alert nuclear weapons, and you are invited to participate. It can be as simple as volunteering to show a video at a house party, or to put it on your local cable access channel. Tri-Valley CAREs and California Communities Against Toxics are also initiating a state-wide sign on letter and other California-specific actions. Call us for details.

Nevada Desert Experience is sponsoring this multi-day event, which will feature speakers, workshops and a midnight, Dec. 31, candlelight procession to the test site.

If Y2K snarls allow, we cordially invite you to our first mailing party of the new year. Come and swap stories, munch snacks and help us make the new millennium a peaceful one.

As we stand at the dawn of a new century and a new millennium, join Tri-Valley CAREs in its endeavors to make this a nuclear weapons-free era, a time when peace & justice prevail and we citizens of the world gather together to honor the Earth.

As we look back at 1999, we at Tri-Valley CAREs are encouraged by the gains we have made in promoting peace, justice and a healthy environment. We researched and broke the story of the National Ignition Facility's technical woes in local, national and international media. We discovered and publicized the Energy Department's previously secret plan (called the "megastrategy") to bring more plutonium to Livermore, and we authored a letter challenging the plan that was signed by over 100 groups around the world.

Also this year, we helped launch the "U.S. Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons," and our program analyst, Sally Light, sits on its coordinating committee. We are partners in the "Back From the Brink" campaign to take nuclear weapons off alert, with executive director Marylia Kelley on its national management board. During 1999, we played a key role ensuring attention was paid to various contamination problems, with our community organizer, Rene' Steinhauer, heading up the group's work on the GE Vallecitos nuclear fuel rods controversy and the nuclear laundry's radioactive sludge, dumped in Pleasanton.

Our members turned out in force in 1999, participating in public meetings, demonstrations and other events. Because of our collective efforts, the public has become better informed about the health hazards of radiation, improvements have been made in the cleanup plan for Livermore Lab and the whole nuclear weapons enterprise has been challenged in a host of creative and important ways. We wish to take this opportunity to thank you, our readers and members, one and all!

Special thanks for our success this past year goes to the individuals and public-interest foundations that have supported our work. Without funding, we could not have been so effective! Thank you to the W. Alton Jones Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, the Ploughshares Fund, John Merck Fund, Town Creek Foundation, the Judith Stronach Fund at Vanguard Foundation, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation and the nearly 300 folks who have sent in donations large and small.

We appreciate each one of you!