Philosophy
In 1952 the physicist Ernest O. Lawrence assembled a group of young scientists to design weapons that were radically different from those being designed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the nation’s original nuclear weapons lab.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as the research group came to be known, was the “second lab,” intended to compete with Los Alamos and create new ideas, according to Sybil Francis, executive director of the Center for the Future of Arizona, a policy research group, who is also affiliated with the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University.
Dr. Francis researched the history of the nation’s nuclear weapons program when she was in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the mid-1990s. Her doctoral dissertation was on the competitive system of weapons design. In her original research at the lab, she uncovered a trove of old photographs, including one that showed a weapons developer sitting with his lunch sandwich on a suitcase bomb with a yield of several kilotons.
In a recent telephone interview she said the photos revealed the casual approach to designing weapons that prevailed at Livermore, in a significant contrast to the more formal, bureaucratic national security culture that was characteristic of Los Alamos.
She said the rivalry between the labs played an essential role in the emergence of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which required lighter, more powerful weapons.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that the competition between the labs was as significant — or even more significant — as the United States-Soviet Union competition in driving innovation in the arms race,” she said. “This led to a culture of entrepreneurialism at Livermore, a less conservative approach to weapons design and riskier endeavors.”
While duplicate research within the government is typically viewed as wasteful, Dr. Francis is now exploring the idea that intragovernmental competition might be encouraged to stimulate technological innovation. She argues that the competition set up between Los Alamos and Livermore might serve as a model for national scientific research and development initiatives in the future The photos of suitcase weapons were taken in the spring of 1955, when Livermore conducted fission bomb tests in a program code-named Operation Teapot. The research led directly to the hydrogen bombs designed in the late 1950s that were installed in Polaris missiles by the Navy.
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Philosophy
Casual nuclear weapons development
"Laid-Back in the Lab, Maybe, but They Spurred the Weapons Race"
by
John Markoff
July 4th, 2011
The New York Times
by
John Markoff
July 4th, 2011
The New York Times
In 1952 the physicist Ernest O. Lawrence assembled a group of young scientists to design weapons that were radically different from those being designed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the nation’s original nuclear weapons lab.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as the research group came to be known, was the “second lab,” intended to compete with Los Alamos and create new ideas, according to Sybil Francis, executive director of the Center for the Future of Arizona, a policy research group, who is also affiliated with the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University.
Dr. Francis researched the history of the nation’s nuclear weapons program when she was in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the mid-1990s. Her doctoral dissertation was on the competitive system of weapons design. In her original research at the lab, she uncovered a trove of old photographs, including one that showed a weapons developer sitting with his lunch sandwich on a suitcase bomb with a yield of several kilotons.
In a recent telephone interview she said the photos revealed the casual approach to designing weapons that prevailed at Livermore, in a significant contrast to the more formal, bureaucratic national security culture that was characteristic of Los Alamos.
She said the rivalry between the labs played an essential role in the emergence of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which required lighter, more powerful weapons.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that the competition between the labs was as significant — or even more significant — as the United States-Soviet Union competition in driving innovation in the arms race,” she said. “This led to a culture of entrepreneurialism at Livermore, a less conservative approach to weapons design and riskier endeavors.”
While duplicate research within the government is typically viewed as wasteful, Dr. Francis is now exploring the idea that intragovernmental competition might be encouraged to stimulate technological innovation. She argues that the competition set up between Los Alamos and Livermore might serve as a model for national scientific research and development initiatives in the future The photos of suitcase weapons were taken in the spring of 1955, when Livermore conducted fission bomb tests in a program code-named Operation Teapot. The research led directly to the hydrogen bombs designed in the late 1950s that were installed in Polaris missiles by the Navy.
- When It Says Libby, Libby, Libby
on the label, label, label, you subvert justice, justice, justice under the table, table, table Boy, I feel old. I remember the days when a member of the executive branch (anyone else remember when there was an executive branch to our government?) lying...
- Spies?
Pedro and Marjorie Mascheroni "Couple Accused of Passing Nuclear Arms Secrets" by William J. Broad September 17, 2010 The New York Times A physicist and his wife, who both once worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, were arrested...
- Deceased--louis Rosen
Louis Rosen June 10th, 1918 to August 15th, 2009 "Louis Rosen, 91, Dies; Worked on First Nuclear Bombs" by Douglas Martin September 6th, 2009 The New York Times On May 9, 1951, on a coral atoll in the Pacific, scientists ignited what they hoped would...
- I Hear That The Brooklyn Bridge Is For Sale...again
Really believe it? "Pentagon Official: U.S. Is Not Developing Space Weapons" by Peter B. de Selding February 20th, 2009 space.com STRASBOURG, France - The United States is not developing space weapons and could not afford to do so even if it wanted...
- Isomer Bomb--more
"Russia's Isomer Bomb, Funded by Your Taxes" by David Hambling August 27th, 2008 Wired The research that could, perhaps, lead to nuclear isomer bombs one day remains contentious in America; the weight of the physics establishment says the science...