UR laser lab targeted for closure by U.S. Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy has proposed a gradual shutdown of the University of Rochester's Laboratory of Laser Energetics, a facility at the center of the region's research and commercial interests in energy and optics.

In a summary document of a 2019 departmental budget request, the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration proposes "a three-year ramp-down in NNSA support for the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, including the aged Omega Laser Facility." The UR lab currently gets about $70 million a year from NNSA, representing the bulk of its funding.

The proposal was first reported by Physics Today. The National Nuclear Security Administration did not respond to a request for comment.

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LLE Director Michael Campbell called the news "unfathomable," particularly since DOE officials were at the lab just last week to discuss a proposal for a new agreement with the lab, to begin in October. He said he is confident the local congressional delegation, both Democrats and Republicans, will be able to secure the funding needed to continue.

LLE is a smaller counterpart to two massive government-owned centers, the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in northern California and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Its primary purpose is to work on the preliminary steps toward achieving nuclear fusion with energy gain, an elusive breakthrough that would have enormous implications for both civilian and military purposes.

Robert McCrory, who retired last year as the lab's director, said the UR lasers are fired about 1,500 times per year by hundreds of researchers from dozens of institutions around the world.

Compared to the larger facilities, he said, "We're 80 percent of the shots and 12 percent of the budget."

Just within the last month, the lab's OMEGA laser figured prominently in two important scientific advances about a new state of water and a theory about the magnetization of the young universe.

Scientists often do early work at LLE at 250 East River Road, where laser shots are significantly less expensive, before doing more in-depth research at the larger labs.

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"Most of the experiments at the National Ignition Facility succeed because they do preliminary experiments here," McCrory said. "If this (closure) were to happen, it would be a disaster. ... This needs to get turned around."

The lab, founded in 1970, is also a key component of the high-tech Rochester economy. It employs more than 300 scientists and has spun off many more into private enterprise, largely in the optics and photonics field.

More than 500 people have earned doctorates through work done at the lab, according to UR, including about 200 from other universities. Accessibility to students, Campbell said, is a key feature of the OMEGA laser.

From 2014: UR's Laser Lab is 'The Science Factory'

"If you looked around all the optics people around town, you’d find lots of people who came through the laser lab," said Tom Battley, executive director of the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster and New York Photonics. "It’s a center that cultivates unbelievable talent, and that’s part of the Rochester optics ecosystem."

In March 2016, UR reported the LLE had an annual local economic impact of $51.7 million, including $44.3 million in salary and benefits to students and researchers as well as $7.4 million of local purchasing.

Sydor Technologies, a local manufacturer of light source-based diagnostic instruments, got its start 14 years ago through a licensing agreement to commercialize a high-tech camera that had been developed at the laser lab.

"We do a lot of work for the laser lab," said Jim Sydor, chairman of another company, Sydor Optics. "But for the Rochester community in general, it has brought a lot of scientists from all over the world to do research. It’s a unique piece of science we have here in Rochester and it would be a shame to close it down."

As for the characterization of OMEGA as "aged," Campbell said a DOE official called to formally apologize after the budget document came out.

"It's blatantly false," he said. "It's a completely nonsensical statement, and anyone who has used (OMEGA) can tell you that."

Instead, Campbell and McCrory said it represents a change of priorities in the Trump administration, away from the science underlying nuclear technology and toward extending the life of the current weapons arsenal.

"This administration just hasn’t gotten its arms around science yet," Campbell said. "I hope it does, but it hasn’t yet."

In January 2015, the directors of Lawrence Livermore, Sandia and Los Alamos wrote a joint letter to the National Nuclear Security Administration, urging investment in the high-energy work done at UR and elsewhere as part of an effort at sustaining the existing nuclear stockpile.

McCrory called the budget proposal, released last week, "a real sneak attack."

"They always protect their own labs, and the people who make these decisions come from these labs," he said, referring to the Lawrence Livermore and Sandia labs. "So you're taking a couple of foxes and putting them in the henhouse."

LLE has in the past counted on advocacy from its local congressional delegation, including U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport.

"The laser lab is a critical component of our nation’s national security and a prime example of our region’s worldwide leadership in scientific research," Slaughter said in a statement. "I lead the effort to get this funded every year and have already started reaching out to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fight this devastating cut."

"The President’s budget includes funding for many essential programs in western New York, although (it) has cuts that I do not agree with for many other important programs like the Laboratory of Laser Energetics," Collins said in a statement. "I’ve been a strong supporter of the LLE and the groundbreaking research it produces from the hundreds of scientists that are dedicated to its mission."

"Turning out the lights on Rochester’s laser lab is a horrible plan," Schumer said in a statement. "It would not only slash (the jobs of) the 340 high tech engineers and scientists who work there, but it would jeopardize the safety, security, and reliability of our nation’s nuclear weapon arsenal. Simply put, I will do everything possible to prevent the administration’s wrongheaded effort to cut funding for the University of Rochester's laser lab."

JMURPHY7@Gannett.com