Nuclear spending comes under fire

LA Times: Cost over runs and delays of projects managed by the National Nuclear Safety Adminstration, which manages the US nuclear weapons program and the associated Department of Energy laboratories, is upsetting some members of Congress. In particular, the National Ignition Facility at Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which jumped from $1 billion to $3.4 billion, and the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico which jumped from $10-million to $360 million are causing lawmakers to question NNSA competence. Officials from the national labs say that cost overs should have not come as a surprise considering the technically difficult nature of the two programs, and that scientific benefits for the stockpile stewardship program (which help maintains the safety and capability of the US nuclear weapons program), will outweigh any of the costs.

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