Property of Nuclear Critic Is Seized by Federal Agents

NY Times ^ | October 20, 2009 | WILLIAM J. BROAD

[Willie Green]

Federal agents have seized six computers, two cameras, two cellphones and hundreds of files from a Los Alamos, N.M., physicist who for two decades has criticized the government’s nuclear agenda as misguided.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman in Albuquerque, Darrin E. Jones, said that the action on Monday was part of “an ongoing federal investigation” and that he could provide no details.

The physicist, P. Leonardo Mascheroni, said he was told that the seizures were part of a criminal investigation into possible nuclear espionage. Dr. Mascheroni also declared his innocence.

“If I were a real spy,” he said Tuesday in a telephone interview, “I would have left the country a long time ago.”

Dr. Mascheroni was laid off from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1988 and has ever since championed an innovative type of laser fusion, which seeks to harness the energy that powers the sun, the stars and hydrogen bombs.

[GladesGuru]

Those who disagree with gooberment policy are assured that those goober never forget them.

Gooberment payback is a b*tch - unconstitutional, too.

Not that that matters any more.

[NonValueAdded]

Dr. Mascheroni said he delivered the unclassified study but was never paid. He said his intent was never to build the laser in Venezuela but to use that country’s interest to pressure Congress and the federal bureaucracy into taking his ideas seriously.

Bad plan, Mascheroni. Playing with Hugo damned well better get you investigated.

[sportutegrl]

Is this guy claiming to have invented a type of lazer fusion? Can it be used as a weapon or as nuclear power?

[Willie Green]

Is this guy claiming to have invented a type of lazer fusion? Can it be used as a weapon or as nuclear power?

Nuclear fusion is the Holy Grail of Energy Production.
But its practical application is still 20 years away.
It was 20 years away 20 years ago.
And it will still be 20 years away 20 years from now.
And 20 years after that, it'll be another 20 years.

[darth]

I was briefed on this technology almost 20 years ago at Sandia National Lab and Los Alamos. It may be possible to get past breakeven (you get more energy out than you put in to create the hydrogen fusion).

IMHO, we are much more likely to get a breakthrough using the pellet implosion technology than we are with the Tokomak, plasma, continuous fusion schemes which have absorbed most of the funding.

I am not familiar with this guy’s work. However, transferring nuke tech to foreigners is a big NO NO unless your name is Hazel O’Leary and you are Sec. of Energy and you work for Bill Clinton and you are transferring the design of the neutron bomb to the Chicoms....then its apparently OK.