LIVERMORE — Lawrence Livermore Lab will start testing plutonium using the world’s largest laser at the National Ignition Facility, beginning in early 2015.
The experiments, according to the lab’s Primary Nuclear Design Program director, Mike Dunning, will attempt to re-create the behavior of plutonium under conditions present in nuclear weapons without resorting to underground nuclear testing.
Funded by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, the $3.5 billion facility — a giant laser comprised of 192 beams that can be focused and fired onto a target about the size of a poppy seed — has a dual mission of achieving fusion ignition and supporting management of the nation’s nuclear stockpile.
Dunning said the possibility of using NIF to experiment on plutonium has been discussed since the 1990s. From sixï»¿ to 12 ï»¿”shots” each year, he said, will be carried out for the NNSA, with future testing to be determined based on the results.
“This is an opportunity for us to get high-quality data using a regime that was previously unavailable to us,” Dunning said.
While lab officials say the facility will provide researchers with a unique way to simulate the extreme heat and pressure involved in nuclear explosions, detractors have concerns over the safety of combining radioactive material with the powerful laser, and worry the tests are an indication the facility is moving away from fusion research.
Scott Yundt, staff attorney for nuclear watchdog Tri-Valley CAREs, said the experiments herald a sea change in NIF’s focus and will hamstring research because the laser chamber will need costly and time-consuming decontamination, leaving little time for any other type of science.
“It’s a major shift in the program at NIF and the intention of the facility,” Yundt said. “Doing these plutonium experiments puts major constraints on (NIF’s) ability to also be doing civilian fusion energy research. It makes the focus of the facility … only on nuclear weapons research.”
Yundt said unanswered questions over the type of plutonium that will be used in the tests and the method and frequency of experiments are also unsettling.
“It’s too secret for the public to understand the risks associated,” Yundt said. “They’re claiming that they’re very minute risks, but that is difficult to verify.”
Lab spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said the tests will present no impacts to health or safety, because only a minuscule amount of non weapons-grade plutonium — ranging from less than a milligram to 10 milligrams — would be used. In addition to enhanced safety procedures, in the event of a mishap, she said, the material would be completely contained within NIF’s target chamber.
Lab officials wouldn’t disclose the type of plutonium to be used in the tests, but did say it would come from the lab’s existing inventory and will not be transported in from elsewhere.
Unconvinced by the assurances, Yundt said Tri-Valley CAREs is exploring options to halt the tests, including a temporary restraining order or court injunction, until the lab can prove compliance with environmental laws and international treaties.
Contact Jeremy Thomas at 925-847-2184. Follow him at Twitter.com/jet_bang.