Livermore Veteran Is Lab’s New Director

Physicist Michael Anastasio, a 21-year veteran of nuclear weapons research and stockpile stewardship program oversight at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was named LLNL’s new director on 4 June; he replaces director C. Bruce Tarter. Anastasio, the ninth director at LLNL since the lab’s founding in 1952, began in the nuclear weapons design physics division at the lab in 1980, and, for the past year, has been the deputy director for strategic operations.

“We must continue to make innovative contributions to advance national security and all areas of science and technology,” Anastasio said after his appointment was announced. The primary challenges for the lab, he said, are maintaining the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons and developing new technologies to combat terrorism.

Anastasio’s appointment ended an embarrassing selection process in which another physicist, Ray Juzaitis of Los Alamos National Laboratory, was within 30 minutes of being named to the LLNL director’s job when Department of Energy officials interceded and stopped the announcement. A radio talk show host in San Francisco complained to DOE officials that Juzaitis had been one of Wen Ho Lee’s supervisors at Los Alamos. When a controversy erupted, Juzaitis protested that linking him to Wen Ho Lee was unwarranted, then withdrew as a candidate (see Physics Today, June 2002, page 26 ).

Anastasio was recommended by University of California President Richard Atkinson and confirmed by the board of regents. The university manages LLNL for DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Atkinson took the blame for the selection process problems, saying he failed to communicate properly with government leaders in Washington, DC. When asked if he thought it proper that a radio talk show host should have a role in selecting the head of a national weapons lab, Atkinson said, “That’s the world we live in.”

In response to questions about the Bush administration’s considering the resumption of underground nuclear testing and developing ground-penetrating “mininukes,” Anastasio said he and the other weapons lab directors “don’t feel there is any need to go back to underground testing.” He added that “we don’t yet have any plans to build any new bombs,” although the labs might proceed with studies to see what new nuclear weapons could be possible.

He said the controversial $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility under construction at LLNL is “going very well, and one year from now we hope to get first light.” NIF was plagued with technical problems and cost overruns under Tarter’s regime. Anastasio described NIF as a “vital tool” for maintaining the US nuclear weapons stockpile.

Anastasio, who took office on 1 July, may have to oversee the movement of LLNL from DOE to the Department of Homeland Security proposed on 6 June by President Bush. Lab officials did not have details of the proposal.