Friday, 14 Mar 97 Washington, DC
1.***NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY ADVISORY REPORT IS
TRASHED***
A number of scientists question whether the
$1.2B, 192-beam stadium-sized laser facility planned for the
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory will be able to achieve ignition--its principal design objective. To quiet them, a NAS/NRC
"Committee for the Review of the Inertial Confinement Fusion
Program" was named and charged with determining "the scientific
and technological readiness for NIF." A "not yet" would be
awkward, since NIF accounts for most of DOE's FY 98 increase in
R&D. Why take chances? The Natural Resources Defense Council
says they didn't. The NRC packed the committee with scientists
who were already committed to inertial confinement fusion, and on
record favoring NIF as the way to get there. According to the
NRDC, 12 of the 16 have financial ties to Livermore. Moreover,
the meetings were held behind closed doors, violating the Federal
Advisory Committee Act. A federal judge issued an injunction
barring DOE from using the report of the panel. So who needs
some stupid report anyway? On Tuesday, the DOE went ahead and
announced it would start construction.
2. BROOKHAVEN SCOFFS AT STORY THAT SAMIOS WAS FORCED OUT.
The retirement of Brookhaven Director Nicholas Samios on April
30, 1997, the fifteenth anniversary of his appointment, had been
planned for at least a year -- long before the tritium leak was
discovered (WN 7 Mar 97). The source
of the leak has not been found, but is thought to be in the spent
fuel pool of the High Flux Beam Reactor. Samios, 65, delayed his
formal announcement to avoid any interference in the search for a
new president of Associated Universities, Inc., the organization
that manages Brookhaven for the Department of Energy. Samios is
much admired by physicists, both as a scientist and as a research
manager. According to Newsday, the report that Samios was forced
out came from Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY), a perennial critic of
the laboratory who is facing a tough reelection campaign next
year.
3. REEXAMINATION OF LOW-DOSE RADIATION RISKS IS LONG
OVERDUE.
The Brookhaven tritium leak focuses attention on
the so-called linear no-threshold theory (LNT), which few
scientists still take seriously. LNT is an heroic extrapolation
from risk data at large doses and dose rates to minuscule
exposures. But recent data stubbornly insists that low exposures
may be--well--good for you. This will be discussed in a Monday
morning session on low-dose radiation risk at the APS Meeting in
Washington, April 18-21.
4. ARATI PRABHAKAR RESIGNS AS DIRECTOR OF NIST AFTER 4
YEARS.
Having guided the laboratory through last year's
budget wars, Prabhakar announced she is leaving to become chief
technology officer of Raychem. Robert Hebner, who has been
acting director since January when Prabhakar went on maternity
leave, will continue until a replacement can be nominated and
confirmed.
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