Monitoring

Energy Dept. Admits Laser Flaws
Associated Press, September 4, 1999

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is ordering an overhaul of an ambitious $1.2 billion program to build the world's largest laser after finding hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns. Richardson said he was erroneously assured as recently as June that the project at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California was on target and within budget. The massive laser, which will be housed in a facility as large as a football field and include 192 beams once completed, is a key part of a program to monitor and maintain America's nuclear warheads without actually testing them. Energy Department officials said is management discovered recently may cause the project's cost to soar as much as $350 million above the originally projected $1.2 billion and delay the scheduled 2003 completion date by at least two years.

Richardson's announcement Friday came a week after an embarrassing disclosure about the former project director's academic credentials. Edward Campbell resigned the post after it became known that for years he had implied he held a doctorate in electrical engineering when he had never completed his dissertation at Princeton University. Campbell remains an employee at Livermore. Department officials said his resignation was not related directly to the cost overruns. Officials at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, run by the University of California, did not immediately return telephone calls. Sharply critical of the university's handling of the laser construction, Richardson said he has ordered $2 million of the university's $5.6 million good-performance fee withheld because of the laser project problems.

Additional money may be held back after a more thorough investigation, he said. The university “must assume a stronger role in oversight of research and development projects'' such as the laser, Richardson said. He was particularly miffed about long delays in notifying him about management and cost problems surrounding the project, formally called the National Ignition Facility. "As late as early June, ... I was informed that NIF was on cost and on schedule,'' Richardson said. He said he has directed an independent panel of experts to investigate what happened and recommend how to get the project back on course. Most cost overruns stem from underestimating the difficulty of assembling the high-precision optical components of the 192-beam laser system, said a senior Energy Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Richardson directed that a new contractor be found to carry out the final assembly and integration of the facility. The weapons lab retains overall responsibility for the finished product.

Last March, Bruce Tarter, director of the Livermore lab, assured lawmakers at a congressional budget hearing that the project was progressing without problems and said half the 192 beams would be available by 2002. The project would be completed in 2003, he said. “I am pleased to report that NIF construction is on budget and on schedule,'' Tarter testified. He asked for $248.1 million in construction funds for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. He said 87 percent of the $1.2 billion total cost would be committed by the end of 2000. Since its inception in 1997, the program has been the object of seven scientific and four management reviews, the latest last spring. "Clearly we have had a major project management surprise,'' Richardson said.