Jean-François Augereau's article
published in Le Monde
September 24, 2003
I'm posting this text on my website, fully aware of the futility of this action. A year earlier, I had tried to draw the attention of the press, scientific journalists, and the public to what I consider a smokescreen project designed to divert attention from a grim reality: the ongoing underground nuclear tests conducted on French territory, particularly for ten years, at a depth of one thousand meters, in a remote area of the Gardanne mine. Following revelations in my book published on January 9, 2003, the mine was abruptly closed (February 2, 2003)—three years ahead of schedule—then quickly flooded (starting in May 2003). The area in question is now permanently flooded, irreversibly so, and any investigation will forever be impossible. The only remaining question will be: how long will it take before the water, dissolving the limestone, causes fractures, collapses, and ultimately releases radioactive substances into the Mediterranean, resulting in pollution so severe that Chernobyl will seem like a harmless joke?
Everyone couldn't care less. No journalist has carried out any investigation, nor have organizations like Greenpeace or the Criirad (Center for Independent Research on Radioactivity). On the other hand, it's easy to find scientific journalists like Augereau to sing the praises of this "Sun in the laboratory" in Bordeaux. In blue: my comments.
http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3244--335131-,00.html
One might wonder how engineers hope to achieve implosive compression within the spherical target. The answer lies in a German word:
holraum,
meaning "furnace." This involves placing a "light foam" inside a cylindrical chamber, which, by absorbing the energy from the lasers, would be heated to extremely high temperatures. The idea is that this material, in turn radiating energy, would transform the chamber into a furnace with constant radiation pressure, which would then act upon the "pusher" surrounding the spherical deuterium-tritium target. All of this remains highly speculative and based solely on computer simulations. A minor detail: all engineers involved in the project who questioned the feasibility of the operation were fired or sidelined. Like ITER, Megajoule is a "cathedral for engineers."
Near Bordeaux, the French Atomic Energy Commission has just laid the first foundations for the Megajoule Laser. This unique light source should be operational by 2010. Bordeaux, our special correspondent.
It's precisely this "uniqueness" that is astonishing. The Americans were the first, back in 1976, to use neodymium-doped glass lasers in attempts to achieve laser fusion. This technology is thus 28 years old. I was also the first non-American to see these facilities in 1976 (see "Les Enfants du Diable," Albin Michel, 1995). At the time, "SHIVA," equipped with 24 neodymium lasers, was under construction. The principle of laser fusion involves focusing powerful beams onto a tiny spherical target. These beams compress the target. Initially, the target is in liquid or solid hydrogen form. The sphere is then compressed by a factor of ten (a thousandfold in volume), which would theoretically raise the mixture of two heavy hydrogen isotopes (deuterium-tritium) to fusion temperature.
All these operations ended in failure. Spherical symmetry in compression could not be achieved. It was as if a housewife tried to compress dough in her hand and found it slipping through her fingers. When reading this text, one gets the impression that France presents itself as a leader in the race for laser fusion, even though it entered the field very late.
The construction site is impressive. Several hectares of pine forest cleared from the Landes region, which covers the grounds of the Aquitaine Scientific and Technical Studies Center (Cesta), owned by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) near the commune of Le Barp (Gironde), some thirty kilometers southwest of Bordeaux. The ground has been torn open. Beneath the sparse grass, there are sand and holes with fragile walls awaiting reinforcement to support the first foundations of a building of immense dimensions: 300 meters long, 150 meters wide, 45 meters high, covering a ground area of 40,000 square meters.
The entire complex will be large enough to house the Eiffel Tower, according to a pedagogical article from the CEA's "Défis" publication (July-August). Large enough, above all, to accommodate the Megajoule Laser (LMJ), one of the two most powerful lasers in the world, alongside the NIF (National Ignition Facility), currently being assembled by the Americans near San Francisco at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These two installations are strikingly similar, as they are the result of long-standing cooperation between France and the United States on this theme. Both pursue the same goal: ensuring the renewal of their nuclear deterrent weapons without resorting to underground tests, which they, like others, have pledged to abandon.
Massive nonsense. Americans and Russians have never stopped their underground nuclear tests, which have been carried out clandestinely and stealthily for decades. The technique has been perfected for a long time in both countries and is extensively described in a report by the American Geological Society. It suffices to detonate one-kiloton devices in cavities 20 to 25 meters in diameter, depending on the terrain. The resulting signal does not exceed magnitude 3—equivalent to 450 kilograms of TNT, or normal mining activity. It's easier than ever to camouflage tests as "normal mining activity." Americans and Russians have not refrained from doing so for over twenty-five years. The U.S. moratorium on nuclear testing, proposed as a ban, emerged... precisely when the Americans had just perfected these techniques. The French followed ten years later, with the difference that our country lacks desert regions.
The desert does exist, however. It is a political, media, informational, scientific, and intellectual desert. Vox clamat in deserto. With Augereau, one hesitates between naivety and complicity.
We know expressions like "scientifically correct," "politically correct," etc. Let's add "media-correct." What you see on your small screen is illusory. Everything is filtered. Calvi can say, "Do you believe, Mr. So-and-so, that bin Laden is still alive?" The viewer holds their breath. They tremble upon learning that terrorists might have mastered "chemical weapons."
But the real terrorists are those who detonate nuclear devices beneath our feet, near densely populated areas. A topic that is not "media-correct," and one you will never see addressed anywhere. When I think of television or even print journalism, I feel like people are being given tranquilizers to suck on.
VERY SPECIAL GLASS
The new installation...