Tracy Press

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has withdrawn its application for an air pollution permit that would have allowed it to test more explosives each year.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has withdrawn its application for an air pollution permit that would have allowed it to increase the amount of explosives blown up at its test pads at Site 300.

The tests were part of counterterrorism research, said lab spokesman Gordon Yano, but they are no longer needed because other ways were developed over time to get data that would have been yielded by the tests. Details of the research are classified, Yano said.

In 2006, the lab received a permit to increase the amount of TNT explosives tested at Site 300 from 1,000 pounds to 8,000 pounds, including individual blasts as big as 350 pounds and containing some radioactive elements, such as tritium and depleted uranium.

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District issued a permit, but it caused a stir because it received little publicity. Tracy activist Bob Sarvey, as well as representatives of the nearby Tracy Hills development, appealed the permit. In March of 2007, the permit was rescinded and the Livermore lab was forced to apply once again.

And though the lab has pulled it application now, it could submit another application "if and when there is a need to undertake experiments using larger amounts of explosives," a press release states.

In the meantime, open-air explosions up to 100 pounds per day and less than 1,000 pounds per year will continue at Site 300.

Sarvey said he was happy the lab pulled its application.

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written by Tracy RealNews , August 09, 2008

Can you say Beowolf Project?

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written by Dave Hardesty , August 10, 2008

I'm happy they pulled it as well. If they don't need to do it that's all the better. But if they do need to do it in the future I will probably support the issue after I am certain to my own satisfaction everything is being considered for public safety.

Beowolf Project? Can you elaborate?

Dave Hardesty

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written by Tracy RealNews , August 10, 2008

Dave,

As you know, the government has been using computers to calculate trajectories and other weapons, for a long, long time.

Beowulf is used for High Availability and/or High Performance computing.

Actually, LLNL doesn't need Beowulf - they already have a computing solution, in house (BlueGene). So, they don't really need to build a Beowulf supercomputer/cluster. I think the article hinted at why they won't be needing the permit. But didn't mention BlueGene, by name. I'm sure the researchers have enough data to put into BlueGene (one of the fastest SuperComputers located in LLNL) and come up with data they need, at a much lower cost.

At any rate...


http://www.beowulf.org/