A Machinery of Mirrors

banner image courtesy of Tri-Valley CAREs
banner image courtesy of Tri-Valley CAREs

Text on above Tri-Valley CAREs NIF banner:

The Truth about NIF: Some Facts to Consider.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will use plutonium, the radioactive core in nuclear bombs. Plutonium in NIF will cause nuclear waste, radioactive emissions and worker exposures, according to the Lab's own environmental impact statement (EIS).

NIF will use tritium, the radioactive hydrogen in H-bombs. NIF's deuterium-tritium targets will be produced in Livermore, according to the EIS. Tritium puts our environment at risk.

NIF is for nuclear weapons, not energy. NIFís mission is to train the next generation of nuclear bomb designers. Only 15% of its experiments will be available for non-weapons related purposes, according to the Government Accountability Office and the Dept. of Energy.

NIF has technical problems that make its goal of ignition unlikely.

NIF cost more than $5 billion and its future operating costs will be nearly a half-billion dollars per year, according to the budget.

Wouldn't our tax money be better spent turning Livermore away from more nuclear weapons research and into a "green lab" instead?

This display is brought to you by Tri-Valley CAREs

About Tri-Valley CAREs, from their website:

"Tri-Valley CAREs was founded in 1983 in Livermore, California by concerned neighbors living around the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of two locations where all US nuclear weapons are designed. Tri-Valley CAREs monitors nuclear weapons and environmental clean-up activities throughout the US nuclear weapons complex, with a special focus on Livermore Lab and the surrounding communities.

Tri-Valley CAREs' overarching mission is to promote peace, justice and a healthy environment"

Additional links to articles related to the NIF and Hugh Gusterson's work:

National Ignition Facility

Livermore Lab's website

Science Times at the NY Times

Thomas Friedman on the NIF

Hugh Gusterman's response to Thomas Friedman

Hugh Gusterman's home page at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists – look for regular columns by Professor Gusterson on this website!

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