Reply To: Physics Nobel to Big Bangers

[Rezwan]

Brian H wrote:
To the best of my knowledge, no one was promised a result by LPP on a given date.

LPP published a graph to project experimental milestones, and many people send anxious querries asking why these steps have not been completed “on schedule”.

And the intensity of the scrutiny has a lot to do with the amount of money involved, which is billions for NIF, not hundreds of thousands! The answers they’re giving at NIF sound like purest bureau-babble.

What if LPP starts asking for millions? At what point does the experiment reach bureau-babble? What if, by asking for modest sums, the LPPX is jeopardized, and a savvy bureau babbler is just the person to assure it what turns out to be an adequate budget?

“Lab officials promised congressional funders that before Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2010, they would start “credible ignition experiments” in the enormous facility, which officially opened in spring 2009.
…

I doubt they put in writing, “we PROMISE to have ignition”. I’m sure they used appropriately disclaimer laden language, such as, “if x,y,z, we should start credible ignition experiments…”

For Marylia Kelley, the director of Tri-Valley CAREs, a Livermore laboratory watchdog group, the fact that the facility will not be attempting fusion ignition this month is “actually shocking,” she said.

Yes, but I get the sense from some visitors to this site that they are shocked by LPP not sticking to the numbers of the initial work process projection. Watchdogs shock easily.

“Its scientific goal was ignition,” she said. Funding from Congress for the $3.5 billion facility — a figure that Kelley disputes, saying it’s closer to $5 billion — was based on assurances of success within a certain time frame.”

Yes, the guys at LIFE tell me it’s $5 Billion – over many years. War in Afghanistan, $????Trillion. Assurance of success within a certain time frame? Gnats and camels, here.

Science is worth it. Exploration is worth it. Demanding instant product is an obstacle. Science is exploration. It appears wasteful. Even if a lot of it ends up being welfare for scientists, I think it’s worth it.