The State : Defects Cited in Lab’s Power

The electrical system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a key federal design facility for nuclear weapons and Strategic Defense Initiative hardware, needs a $40-million overhaul, Livermore officials said. A spokesman said the defects were discovered as officials cleaned up after an explosion and fire June 30 that cut power for four days to the mile-square facility. Damage to the nuclear weapons research lab, one of two in the United States, initially had been estimated at $225,000. But Robert Godwin, lab associate director, said later it would take at least $4.15 million for immediate repairs, and that the lab would ask Congress for $35 million more for major long-term repairs. Godwin said no experiments were lost because of the June power failure. The lab’s supercomputers, some of the most powerful in the world, shut themselves down slowly and were able to retain their data.