- Ray Kidder
Ray Kidder is an American
physicist andnuclear weapons designer. He is best known for his outspoken views on nuclear weapons policy issues, includingnuclear testing , stockpile management, andarms control .Kidder was a weapons physicist at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for 35 years, and retired in 1990. During his tenure, as well as after his retirement, he became involved in a number of controversial policy issues.In 1960, Kidder worked with
John Nuckolls andStirling Colgate at Livermore to develop computer simulations for producingnuclear fusion inlaser -compresseddeuterium -tritium capsules. The results of this work led to Livermore's laser fusion program in 1962, which Kidder was appointed the head of. This program used weapons-derived calculations in an attempt to make usable nuclear fusion sources. [ [http://www.llnl.gov/50science/thrived.html LLNL report on its history, features Kidder's work on laser fusion] ; [http://www.llnl.gov/pao/news/news_releases/2005/SF-05-09-03.html A LLNL press release which further discussions the laser fusion work] ]In 1979, Kidder was a witness for the defense in the "
United States v. The Progressive " case, in which the U.S. Department of Energy sought to suppress the publication of a magazine article alleged to reveal the "secret of the hydrogen bomb". Kidder favored uncensored publication of the material, which had been compiled from unclassified sources, and claimed thatNobel Prize -winning physicistHans Bethe had been misinformed when Bethe swore an affidavit in favor of censorship. Bethe and Kidder then engaged in a classified correspondence debating the issue. The correspondence was declassified in 2001. [The Bethe-Kidder correspondence is available online at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/bethe-kidder.html.]In 1997, Kidder argued against the Department of Energy's
Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program , calling it "misguided in a number of ways", including introducing unnecessary changes in warhead materials, the cost of large-scale computational and experimental resources, and its effects on arms control efforts. He also criticized the building of theNational Ignition Facility , saying it was not essential for stockpile stewardship.In 1998, the
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) asked Kidder to perform an independent technical review of some issues in warhead remanufacture, but Kidder was denied access to the classified material required for the study, despite holding the appropriatesecurity clearance . A controversy ensued, involving U.S. Congressional RepresentativeEllen Tauscher andSecretary of Energy Bill Richardson .In 1999, Kidder co-authored an
op-ed article in the "Washington Post ", favoring theComprehensive Test Ban Treaty then pending before theUnited States Senate .In 2000, Kidder wrote to the Justice Ministry of
Israel regarding theMordechai Vanunu case, saying that he did not believe that Vanunu possessed any technical nuclear information that had not already been made public. (The Israeli government opposed Vanunu's release from prison in 1998, claiming he still possessed secret information.) [Nitzan Horowitz, "U.S. Expert: It's Safe to Release Vanunu" "Ha'aretz" (26 January 2000). Available online at: http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/archive2/jan26.html.]Kidder resides in
Pleasanton, California .Selected bibliography
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Notes
External links
* [http://web.mit.edu/anthropology/faculty_staff/gusterson/op-eds/SBSS_free_speech_Lmore_indept_99.html Stockpile Stewardship and Free Speech at the Labs]
* [http://www.fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction=297&contentId=249 Reports by Ray Kidder at fas.org]
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