Opinion: Encouraging research at the nuclear labs
APR 16, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024253
Phronesisaical : Cheryl Rofer and Molly Cernicek wonder if innovation can be encouraged at the US national laboratories. Could too much paperwork and splitting research groups into too small a team be stifling innovation?
The theory at the national laboratories once was that those doing non-weapons research could be called upon to work on weapons if the situation demanded. That was the bargain that Rofer signed on for in 1965, the height of the Cold War. And there was a flow of ideas between the two kinds of work. Laser isotope separation would provide uranium for weapons or civilian reactors. Geology served both hot dry rock and containment of underground nuclear tests. Genetics investigated the damage radiation caused.The two kinds of research are almost completely separate now at the national laboratories. And that does not bode well for increasing innovation nor for recruiting future nuclear weapons stewards.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
