[CPEO-MEF] Media Advisory - NIF, Nat'l Press Club Briefing

[marylia@earthlink.net]

Dear peace and environmental colleagues:

Tri-Valley CAREs is extremely pleased to announce the release of an
eye-opening new report in May, 2001 -- "Soaring Cost, Shrinking
Performance: The Status of the National Ignition Facility," by Dr. Robert
Civiak. This study is the first truly independent analysis of the full cost
of building and operating the Department of Energy's National Ignition
Facility mega-laser.
Below, please find the media advisory for our press conference Wednesday,
May 9 at the national press club in Washington, DC.

I also sent a separate email regarding a Roundtable on the report and its
recommendations for non-governmental organizations to be held Thursday, May
10 at 9:30 AM at NRDC. Call (202) 833-4668 to RSVP for the Roundtable.

And -- please share this media advisory with any journalists you know who
may be interested. Peace, Marylia

media advisory

for further information, contact
Dr. Robert Civiak, physicist, author, (603) 448-5327
Marylia Kelley, executive director, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148

FIRST DETAILED, INDEPENDENT STUDY FINDS NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY
MEGA-LASER'S LIFE TIME COST MAY SOAR OVER $30 BILLION

WHAT:           News Conference to release a major new report, "Soaring
Cost, Shrinking Performance: The Status of the National Ignition Facility,"
providing the first independent examination of the NIF mega-laser, now
under construction at the Dept. of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in CA. The in-depth report details the key laser and
program components for which DOE low-balled the costs -- and the ones left
out altogether.

WHEN:           Wednesday, May 9 at 9:30 AM

WHERE:          National Press Club, Zenger Room, 13th Floor, 529 - 14th
Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

WHO:            * Dr. Robert Civiak, a physicist and the author of the new
report, served in the White House Office of Management and Budget from 1988
to 1999 as Program Examiner for the DOE's national security programs,
including Stockpile Stewardship and the NIF. Previously, he served as a
visiting scientist at  the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and as a
technology policy analyst for the Congressional Research Service.

                        * Marylia Kelley is Executive Director of
Tri-Valley CAREs, the Livermore, CA-based DOE "watchdog" organization that
sponsored the NIF cost study as part of its "Redefining Stockpile
Stewardship" program.

WHY:            The Dept. of Energy is using smoke and mirrors to hide
NIF's full cost from the public eye. Following disclosure of serious,
underlying technical problems with the laser in 1999, DOE was forced by
Congress to "rebaseline" NIF. The Department has increased its estimate of
the cost to build the facility from $1.1 billion to $3.4 billion and
delayed completion of the project from 2002 to 2008. Still, DOE has fallen
far short of including all of the laser's costs in its estimate. For
example, NIF's target design, diagnostics, and infrastructure costs are
missing from DOE's cost accounting, as are several "add ons" expected
before 2008. "Soaring Cost, Shrinking Performance" lays out how and why the
NIF construction costs will reach $5 billion, if the laser is completed on
its current schedule in 2008.

The report also finds a significant potential for future problems and
delays that will drive the NIF construction cost even higher. When imputed
interest and a delay of one additional year are added, the cost rises to
$7.8 billion. Furthermore, construction costs are just the tip of the NIF
iceberg. DOE has dramatically underestimated the operating cost for the
laser. A full accounting of the cost to build and operate the NIF over 30
years, as the DOE plans, comes to $32.4 billion -- more than 6 times what
DOE said the life cycle costs would be when Congress approved the project.

The materials currently used in key components of the NIF cannot withstand
damage from the intensity of the laser beam at full energy for more than a
few shots. DOE is studying the problem, as it has been for many years, but
is still far from solving it. The performance of the laser is being
substantially degraded by this and other technical uncertainties. Moreover,
the report shows why the National Ignition Facility, despite its name, may
never reach its scientific goal of ignition at any cost.

-- 30 --


Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94550

<http://www.igc.org/tvc/> - is our web site, please visit us there!

(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax

Working for peace, justice and a healthy environment since 1983, Tri-Valley
CAREs has been a member of the nation-wide Alliance for Nuclear
Accountability in the U.S. since 1989, and is a co-founding member of the
Abolition 2000 global network for the elimination of nuclear weapons, the
U.S. Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the Back From the Brink
campaign to get nuclear weapons taken off hair-trigger alert.



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