Energy Dept. Admits Laser Program Has Major Flaws : Defense: Disclosure that cost overruns, delays plague nuclear project comes after it was hailed as a success.

Construction of the world’s most powerful laser, a $1.2-billion project considered crucial to America’s effort to ensure reliable nuclear weapons without conducting test explosions, is two years behind schedule and faces cost overruns of as much as $350 million, the Energy Department said Friday.

The disclosure came less than three months after Energy Secretary Bill Richardson visited the National Ignition Facility site at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory outside San Francisco and proudly announced that the project was “on time and on budget.”

At the time, the Energy Department was reeling from allegations of Chinese espionage and theft of nuclear weapon secrets from Livermore and other national laboratories over the last 20 years. Richardson hailed the ignition facility as a success and a model for the troubled department.

On Friday, Richardson acknowledged that he is “deeply disturbed” to learn of vast and unexpected cost overruns and delays at the construction site. He said that he is “gravely disappointed” with both Livermore and the University of California, which manages the national lab, for “late reporting . . . of these significant problems.”

A senior Energy Department official who is closely involved with the program put it more bluntly: “This really hurts. We didn’t have a clue.”

It was not immediately clear why and how such massive cost overruns and serious delays had been kept from public view for so long. Since construction began in 1996, the project has undergone seven scientific and four management audits and reviews, including a congressionally mandated review completed this spring. None identified the problems.

No one at Livermore, the University of California or the Energy Department would admit responsibility Friday. For his part, Richardson said, “denial of these kinds of problems is unacceptable.”

Bruce Tarter, Livermore’s director, was said to be unavailable for comment. Tarter, who told a congressional committee last spring that the NIF project was on track, said in a prepared statement that “we share Secretary Richardson’s concerns” and promised to “work closely” with the department.

Livermore’s spokeswoman, Susan Houghton, said that she could not comment beyond the press statement.

UC President Richard C. Atkinson said in a brief statement that the university would “cooperate fully” with the Energy Department’s reviews. “We agree with the secretary of Energy that any managerial issues must be dealt with so that it can be brought to a successful completion,” he said. A spokesman said that Atkinson was not available for further comment.

Richardson said he will penalize UC by withholding at least $2 million of a $5.6-million program performance fee and that additional money may be docked later. “The University of California must assume a stronger role in the oversight of research and development projects at the laboratories they manage for us, such as NIF,” he said.

Rumors of problems began circulating widely this week after the project’s former director, Edward Michael Campbell III, suddenly resigned Aug. 27 amid embarrassing allegations that he was using the title “doctor” even though he does not have a doctorate. Faxes and e-mails to congressional offices and the Energy Department alleged that the laser construction project was both over budget and behind schedule.

On Tuesday, Richardson sent a team of investigators to Livermore. They confirmed that major problems have plagued the complex project, which will house 192 powerful lasers in a facility the size of a football stadium. Richardson said that the problems are “project management issues,” rather than technical in nature and that the science remains sound.

The NIF, as the project is known, is the centerpiece of the Energy Department’s proposed stockpile stewardship and management program. As mandated by the Clinton administration and Congress, the goal is to ensure the safety, security and reliability of America’s nuclear deterrent without violating its pledge to stop the actual testing of weapons.

By focusing on a BB-sized pellet of deuterium and tritium, which are heavy isotopes of hydrogen, the lasers housed in the NIF will achieve fusion ignition and thus produce on a tiny scale the temperatures and pressures that occur in a nuclear weapon explosion. That, in theory, will allow scientists to detect potential problems with aging or remanufactured weapons.

The combined power of the 192 laser beams would exceed 500 trillion watts--or about 1,000 times the total electric generating power of the United States--but the pulse would last only a few billionths of a second. Scientists also hope to use the super-laser to push the boundaries of research in astrophysics, hydrodynamics, radiation sources and other fields of basic science.

In a statement, Richardson said that major assembly and integration of the project will no longer be done by Livermore scientists and technicians. Instead, they will be contracted to private industry. He said that he also will appoint an independent expert panel to analyze the options and recommend how to solve the problem.

A senior Energy Department official said that three options are available. The first is to build the 192 lasers as planned, with completion in 2005, two years behind schedule, and at an additional cost of $350 million. A second option is to build 96 lasers, or half the proposed total, by 2004 for an additional $106 million, with the other 96 lasers to be built by 2008. The third option being considered would be to simply build 96 lasers.

Richardson said that all additional costs will be covered from within the department’s defense programs and from Livermore’s budget. “We will re-prioritize our national security program to reallocate dollars, people and other resources so the U.S. taxpayer does not foot additional bills because of these problems,” he said.