Page One

Nuclear vs. nuclear weapons research in Berkeley 

I would like to clarify some points raised by the opinion letters of Doug Finley (Letters, June 21) and Julian Borrill (Letters, June 22). 

Firstly, the most serious confusion raised by those letters is the discrepancy between the titles given to the letters – “Nuclear research not conducted in Berkeley” and “Nuclear-related work does occur here in Berkeley” – and their content. Neither of those writers were addressing the issue of whether “Nuclear” or “Nuclear-related” research is conducted in Berkeley. It is. Berkeley Lab has a division whose name and focus is Nuclear Science. UC Berkeley has a Nuclear Engineering Department. All of matter is composed of nuclear particles. It would be difficult to have a serious science program without including the study of nuclear particles in some form. 

The issue that was being addressed in those opinion letters was whether or not Nuclear WEAPONS research is conducted in Berkeley. I believe this issue is subject to interpretation. 

Research that the US keeps secret from others because we believe it gives us power over them with more capable weapons is not conducted in Berkeley. As Mr. Finley says, such classified weapons research was phased out at Berkeley Lab many years ago. The results of research done at Berkeley Lab are published in the open literature. 

On the other hand as my colleague Mr. Borrill notes, much unclassified research can be considered to support nuclear weapons work. Development of a scientific instrument such as DARHT can and in this case clearly will be used for nuclear weapons research. Some multipurpose computer science research can be used for nuclear weapons investigations and therefore may be funded by a program like ASCI whose focus is on nuclear weapons. 

I would say that while such unclassified research may support nuclear weapons research, it is not in itself nuclear weapons research. I supported nuclear weapons research for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and now support unclassified research at Berkeley Lab. While I personally believe in the value of both types of research, I think the distinction is an important one. 

James Donnelley 

Staff Scientist, Berkeley Lab