Management of National Labs

* “Costly Projects Cast Science in a Harsh Light” (Sept. 19), on the gross overspending, mismanagement and dubious scientific claims surrounding the construction of the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Northern California, should make readers skeptical of election-year claims about military underfunding. The more serious questions are these: Are our defense dollars being used wisely, and what real oversight is there to guarantee that U.S. citizens are not being manipulated by contract-hungry defense industry leaders, experimental scientists and military zealots?

TOM WEBB

Los Angeles

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Regarding major failures in constructing the Livermore laser and in Los Alamos lab security: Both of these long-running sagas signify failures by management--the University of California, which is in charge of these installations, the management of these labs and the managers at the Department of Energy, who fund and oversee the labs. There appears to be no downside to such failures, however, since we’ve heard of no resignations or dismissals. At least we haven’t heard of golden parachutes, which now reward equivalent corporate failures. The scary part of this scene is that some of these managers are the exact same people who must certify the worthiness of America’s nuclear arsenal.

LEWIS COHEN

Riverside