A publication of the Office of Advanced Simulation & Computing, NA-114, NNSA Defense Programs
December 2007
NA-ASC-500-07—Issue
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The View from HQ
By Dimitri Kusnezov
It is time for New Year’s Resolutions or perhaps New Year’s resolve. I know that, in general resolutions are easy to make and easy to let slide. My intent is to resolutely move forward on an initiative in which I believe very strongly.
For some time I have been concerned that if weapons funding continues to decrease, the nation risks losing a critical scientific capability that has been built up through decades of excellence in application to the security and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile. Although certain agencies have taken advantage of this strength by leveraging the expertise that exists at the Defense Program laboratories to address technical challenges for which they desperately need help, they have had no incentive to pay for more than just the short-term help they buy. There are some exceptions, but they are few and far between.
NNSA, together with the defense laboratories’ directors, has crafted a vision that expands its charge to include threats to national security and response to emergencies beyond the nuclear weapons arena. This vision does not lessen our commitment to fulfill the statutory responsibility for maintaining the nuclear stockpile; it does imply, however, that we recognize the importance of bringing the talents and capabilities of these national laboratories to bear on a broadened spectrum of national security issues, ranging from challenges by proliferant states to achieving energy independence.
We must apply both the expertise and the facilities we have to help defend the nation against a wide range of threats. There are two sides to this coin; one side is our responsibility to use our experience in technical problem solving to serve the nation; the other side is to partner with other federal agencies to be a resource to them and to encourage them to share in the costs of preserving these capabilities—intellectual capital as well as physical infrastructure.
I realize that the defense laboratories are going through difficult times, having to make hard decisions with respect to staffing and supporting the physical infrastructure. As the New Year unfolds, I resolve to work with you to address the damage that resource shortfalls may cause and to expand our future possibilities from within the NNSA framework. I believe it is crucial to ensure the continuing relevance of the work and the vitality of the laboratory workforce by enlarging the national defense mission, and by engaging the next generation of scientists. We are developing a mechanism to do both.
We have an opportunity to be the agency of choice for providing technical responses to the full span of national security challenges. Not everyone supports nuclear weapons, but everyone recognizes the need to apply technology toward threats to the safety of our citizenry and to improve the quality of our lives. Please work with me to enable NNSA to rise to the challenge as I resolve to work with and support you in this endeavor.
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