New York Times highlights doubts about National Ignition Facility’s future

New York Times : Science writer William Broad calls Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) “one of the most expensive federally financed science projects ever.” He reports that “it has not worked,” predicts that Congress “is going to want some explanations,” and adds that the “failure could have broad repercussions” for federal science initiatives generally. Such initiatives, he writes, “seldom disappoint on such a gargantuan scale, and the setback comes in an era of tough fiscal choices and skepticism about science among some lawmakers.” Broad reports varied opinions, including a call for reduced funding, emphasis on NIF’s usefulness in nuclear-weapon stockpile stewardship, ridicule of the project as “the National Almost Ignition Facility, or NAIF,” and assertions that “challenge of planned breakthroughs” is unrealistic. He quotes Penrose Albright, the laboratory director: “Everybody believes we can get there. But we’re exploring parts of physical space that no one has ever done before, and that’s a hard problem.”