Nuclear research lab layoffs raise security concerns

[OhioChick]

Posted on Tue, Jun. 03, 2008 10:15 PM

SAN FRANCISCO | The nation’s top nuclear weapons design lab has laid off hundreds of workers.

The move is raising concerns about a brain drain and stirring fears that highly specialized scientists could sell their expertise to foreign governments, even perhaps hostile ones.

Because of budget cuts and higher costs, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory laid off 440 employees May 22 and 23. During the past 2 1/2 years, attrition and layoffs have reduced the lab’s work force of 8,000 by about 1,800.

According to a list obtained by The Associated Press, the recently laid-off include about 60 engineers, 30 physicists and 15 chemists. Some, but not all, were involved in nuclear weapons work or nonproliferation efforts, and all had put in at least 20 years at the lab.

Some lawmakers and others said they fear the loss of important institutional knowledge about designing warheads and detecting whether other countries are going nuclear.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said the layoffs at Lawrence Livermore and two other big U.S. weapons labs represent “a national security danger point.”

http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/648686.html