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California Lawmakers Encourage U.S. Senate to Restore Superlaser Project Funding
A bipartisan group of U.S. representatives from California has asked the Senate to restore funding for the superlaser project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Contra Costa Times reported yesterday (see GSN, June 16). The Senate voted in July to cut the fiscal 2006 $142 million allocation for the $3.5-billion National Ignition Facility, according to the Times, while the House of Representatives approved the entire amount. The project is roughly 80-percent finished. More than 30 House members, led by Representatives Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), signed a letter promoting the project to the Senate and House Appropriations energy and water subcommittees. “NIF is a vital component of our nation’s stockpile stewardship program, which prevents us from needing to conduct nuclear testing,” Tauscher said in a press statement, adding that the project “has made invaluable contributions to the economies of California and the East Bay.” The superlaser, using just four beams, is already the world’s most powerful laser, the Times reported. With the full 192 beams operating, it would be capable of nuclear fusion ignition at temperatures and pressures found only in a nuclear explosion or on the surface of the sun. The laser was included in a top-10 list of “radioactive pork projects” released last month by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, and the Tri-Valley CARES nuclear watchdog group has said that abandoning the project would save $30 billion in future years (Betsy Mason, Contra Costa Times, Sept. 13).
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