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BREAKING NEWS!! Just confirmed by Hill staff: Pentagon has terminated the contract of JASON, the independent science advisory group that Congress & the public rely on for assessment of many technical issues. This is a travesty & will lead to more ill-informed, bad government.
JASON is a group of scientists who spend their summers conducting technical studies that Congress or federal agencies have requested. They are impartial, nonpartisan & about as geeky as you can get. You can see many of their studies here: fas.org/irp/agency/dod…
You can see more today on this story in an excellent story in Science Magazine here: sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/s…
One seminal JASON study examined the lifetime of plutonium "pits" - the fissile material cores of nuclear weapons. The US stopped making pits in 1989 when the FBI & EPA shut down the production plant for rampant environmental damage. JASON was asked to assess how long pits last.
JASON concluded that, with reasoned stewardship, pits would last at least 85-100 years & perhaps longer. This was far longer than previous estimates of 40-60 years. It significantly increased confidence in the US nuclear stockpile. fas.org/irp/agency/dod…
But that study was done back in 2006. Now the Department of Energy is seeking to start making more pits again, arguing that it must begin now because it will take decades to replace all the current pits at the planned production rate of 80 per year.
But remember that "at least 85-100 years" above? Congress has sensibly asked JASON to look at the issue again, 13 years later. Scientific techniques that artificially age plutonium provide even more data. However, I'm told that DOE is dragging their feet on finalizing the study.
Is that tied to today's news? Unclear. When NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty was asked in today's Congressional hearing if she supported JASON, she offered some pretty high praise for the group's recent work. But it is . . . interesting.
For more on JASON - which intentionally is a somewhat mysterious organization
- see this excellent book by @AnnFinkbeiner, who relays the full history of the group: goodreads.com/book/show/1427…
- see this excellent book by @AnnFinkbeiner, who relays the full history of the group: goodreads.com/book/show/1427…
Another benefit of JASON - they are beholden to no one. Many other federally-funded research centers have major, on-going government contracts and a need to please. JASON, as a general rule, just does the science. #DoTheScience
