ERRORS in rebuttal to "Pandora's Promise"

[PamW]

16. You are arguing with the SCIENTISTS!!!

kristopher,

NNSA is part of DOE; NNSA is the part of DOE that oversees the nuclear weapons program.

However, DOE and NNSA in Washington do NOT have scientists; except for maybe the Secretary like Chu or Moniz. However, even then; they are NOT nuclear weapons scientists.

NNSA's expertise in nuclear weapon resides TOTALLY in the Laboratories that it oversees; like Lawrence Livermore.

I'm BYPASSING the administrators who are NOT scientists; and telling you what the SCIENTISTS say.

The nuclear weapons scientists at Lawrence Livermore, who with their colleagues at Los Alamos are the ONLY PEOPLE who are really qualified to say what can / can not be used in making nuclear weapons because they are the ones that actually DESIGN nuclear weapons for the USA.

The TRUE EXPERTS the weapons designers at Lawrence Livermore say that IFR-produced Plutonium can NOT be used to make nuclear weapons. They certified that in a report to Congress in the early '90s that Senators Simon(D) and Kempthorne(R) refer to in this rebuttal to the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/05/opinion/l-new-reactor-solves-plutonium-problem-586307.html

You are mistaken in suggesting that the reactor produces bomb-grade plutonium: it never separates plutonium; the fuel goes into the reactor in a metal alloy form that contains highly radioactive actinides. A recent Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory study indicates that fuel from this reactor is more proliferation-resistant than spent commercial fuel, which also contains plutonium.

The people in Washington DOE/NNSA are administrators; they are NOT SCIENTISTS.

The nuclear weapons SCIENTISTS are ONLY at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore.

In analogy, kristopher is quoting the receptionist at the doctor's office on a medical opinion. I'm quoting the DOCTOR. Who do you think is more qualified?

The good thing about science is that it is true, whether or not you believe in it.
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

PamW