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style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit;"
valign="top">All,<br>
<br>
It looks like Congressman Jerry McNerney has gone over to the dark side
by supporting weapon design work at Livermore Labs. Any idea on who we
might support as an alternative for his seat in Congress?<br>
<br>
Mike Boyd-CARE<br>
<br>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><strong>Ignition facility
finally a reality...Suzanne Bohan</strong> <br>
<br>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
href="http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_12480167">http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_12480167</a></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
LIVERMORE — The director of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory struggled
with tears for a moment as he thanked the legions of lab employees who
helped build the National Ignition Facility, the 10-story tall building
behind him.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"I want to thank you from the
bottom of my heart," said George Miller, a nuclear-weapons designer who
assumed leadership of the lab in 2006.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Miller addressed more than 3,000
invited guests and lab employees who had gathered for Friday's
dedication ceremony for the facility, known as the NIF. The event took
place 12 years to the day after the groundbreaking for what is now the
largest laser facility in the world.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
The NIF is designed to achieve fusion ignition, a holy grail of physics
that has been elusive thus far despite 60 years of worldwide efforts,
and billions spent trying.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
The project, six years late and four times the original estimated cost,
has been dogged by enormous challenges, from technical problems, to
resistance or apathy in Congress, to skepticism in parts of the science
community about whether fusion ignition can be achieved.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
Many times throughout the years, NIF's future was uncertain. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
The dedication also drew protesters. Members of Tri-Valley CAREs, a
watchdog group that monitors lab activity, demonstrated outside the
northwest corner of the lab. Banners hung on a fence expressed
opposition to the facility, which the group asserts will be used for
weapons design work, upping the ante in the arms race. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">The group displayed documents
that it says back its case, but the lab insists NIF won't be used for
that purpose. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Still, the day belonged to the
legions of NIF enthusiasts. Eleven speakers, including Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, shared their enthusiasm
for the project, and their optimism that the facility would achieve
fusion ignition. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, described his earlier work in the
wind energy field and the colossal failures he witnessed. Then he
pointed in the direction of wind farms in the nearby hills of Altamont
Pass.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"We persisted and made
incremental improvements, and now wind energy is overlooking the
distant and advanced cousin we see today," he said, referring to the
massive green and yellow NIF building behind him. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Like wind energy, McNerney was
alluding that the fusion energy quest has endured one failure after
another to achieve "ignition," in which more energy is released by a
fusion reaction than is used to create it. In an ignition state, the
reacting hydrogen is at least as hot as the sun. In addition to
potentially providing a virtually limitless source of energy, creating
such miniature suns on earth opens the door to studying the fundamental
nature of the universe, as well as nuclear material, hence NIF's
application in testing the safety and reliability of the nuclear
weapons stockpile without underground testing. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
Every year during NIF's development, funding was in jeopardy, said
three lawmakers who spoke at the event — Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo;
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose; and Feinstein. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Technical problems, skepticism
over funding a long-shot success of fusion work, and competition for
dollars from projects in every other state meant the annual request for
funding to keep the project going was often in question, Tauscher said.
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Thomas D'Agostino, administrator
of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the
lab's operations, provided assurances that annual funding for the NIF's
research work would continue. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"I plan to fully support this
facility from an operational standpoint," D'Agostino said.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
The crowd sat under the midday sun in chairs spread out over a large
lawn ringed by conifers. Many donned hats and kept cool using cardboard
fans provided by the lab, though a cooling breeze occasionally provided
relief. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Lab officials opened the NIF to
tours throughout the day, with technicians and scientists available to
answer questions. A control room with seven consoles and five monitors
serves as the "brain" of the facility, and was designed similar to
NASA's control room in Houston. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
"I'm very, very excited," said Jeff Atherton, project director for
target experimental systems, speaking of the fusion experiments that
will start this summer. "We've been working a long time to get to this
point."</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">The eyes of NIF operations
manager Bruno Vanwonterghem also lit up when describing the experiments
that lie ahead. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"NIF is really the place where
50 years of fusion development and 50 years of laser development come
together," he said.</font></div>
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