Nuclear lab brings out the big guns

[Redstone]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/02/lab.defense.ap/index.html

LIVERMORE, California (AP) -- Officials at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have added a new weapon to their armory: a high-powered machine gun that can fire more than 50 rounds per second.

Lab critics questioned the wisdom of putting such powerful guns at the lab, which is across the street from suburban homes. They say the real problem is that the lab site, which is relatively small at 1 square mile, is not a good place for nuclear materials.

The critics are right...the government really needs to move this lab, somewhere out in the desert.

Yes, it needs to be protected, but blasting away with miniguns (ever see one of them firing? It can SHRED a three-bedroom ranch house in about twelve second) in a place with so many houses around is a lousy idea.

LLNL was in the boondocks when it was built, but is pretty much in the suburbs now (though damn if I'd live anywhere near it, knowing what goes on there). It needs to be moved.

Redstone

On edit: The news story is a bit misleading; that type of machine-gun is not new; the Vulcan minigun has been around since the 1960s.

[caligirl]

1. Livermore is really growing, I don't know

if those homes have always been out there, but the number of new homes and shopping centers has really gone up over the last ten years.
It might well be time to move that lab out of here. I shop for plants at a wonderful garden store out there that sits under an amazing oak tree with huge limbs.