Arsenal of Information

Dossiers:

Trump's Nuclear Posture Review
Flashpoint: North Korea
Flashpoint: NATO-Russia
UN Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons
Plutonium Pit Production at LANL
B61-12 Enhanced Nuclear Bomb
LRSO: New Nuclear Cruise Missile
Kirtland AFB Nuclear Weapons Complex
MOX / Plutonium Disposition
Fukushima Disaster and Updates
Nuke Lab Contractors Illegal Lobbying
Nuclear Testing Since 1945
Atomic Histories

Facilities:
    Kansas City Plant
    Lawrence Livermore National Labs
    Los Alamos National Laboratory
    Nevada National Security Site
    Pantex Plant
    Sandia National Laboratories
    Savannah River Site
    Washington DC
    Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)
    Y-12 National Security Complex

JASON Advisory Group

Roy Schwitters, chairman JASON Defense Advisory Group testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee July 15, 2010, on sustaining nuclear weapons under START. Also pictured (from left ): Michael Anastasio, George Miller and Paul Hommert, directors of, respectively, Los Alamos Labs, Lawrence Livermore Labs, and Sandia Labs.

JASON Reports (PDF) from FAS.org: - Large-scale Tritium Breeding 2011 - Lifetime Extension Program 2009 - Reliable Replacement Warhead 2007 - Plutonium Pit Lifetime Assessment 2007 - Los Alamos Labs DAHRT Facility 2006 - NIF - Inertial Confinement Fusion 2005 - DTRA National Ignition Facility 2008

JASON Advisory Group
JASON is an independent group of scientists which advises the United States government on matters of science and technology; over the decades its members have included 11 Nobel prize laureates. Founded in 1960, the group was first created as a way to get a younger generation of scientists- that is, not the older Los Alamos and MIT Radiation Laboratory alumni- involved in advising the government. The name is said to derive from the names of the months during which they meet, from July to November; perhaps these savants also had Jason bringing the golden fleece in mind.)
In 2002, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) cut its ties with JASON. DARPA had not only been one of JASON's primary sponsors, it was also the channel through which JASON received funding from other sponsors. DARPA's decision came after JASON's refusal to allow DARPA to select three new JASON members. Since JASON's inception, new members have always been selected by its existing members. After much negotiation funding was subsequently secured from an office higher in the defense hierarchy, the office of the Director, Defense Research & Engineering, now 'Assistant Secretary of Defense (Research & Engineering)'.
  - From the Wikipedia entry.

JASON has had a lot of influence on U.S. nuclear weapons policies. For one example, their 2006 Pit Life Study found that plutonium pit triggers last for more than 85 years, double NNSA's previous estimates. NukeWatch NM asked Sen. Jeff Bingaman to require that study as an amendment to the FY 2004 National Defense Authorization Act, which he successfully did. That finding had a lot to do with subsequent Congressional rejection of new-design nuclear weapons (the "Reliable Replacement Warheads") and related expanded plutonium pit production.

A Kindle edition is now available of Ann Finkbeiner's 2006 book, "The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite" at Amazon.