Cutbacks At Los Alamos Will Impact Future U.S. Nuclear Weapons Research And Development

Norris E. Bradbury, who was director of the lab from 1945 to 1970, with the world's first nuclear explosive device, nicknamed "The Gadget." Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos Residents Brace for Layoffs at Lab -- New York Times

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Sharon Stover remembers the stories her mother used to tell about what life was like when Los Alamos National Laboratory first opened during World War II.

The jobs that flooded this impoverished swath of northern New Mexico, the government men who made the small hilltop town their home, the prideful sense that the secret work being done here would surely keep America’s enemies at bay.

Nearly 70 years later, a cloud of uncertainty has drifted in over the hallowed national laboratory, which helped give birth to the Manhattan Project and has been a crucible of the nation’s nuclear weapons research and development.

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My Comment: Los Alamos has always been a symbol of America's predominance in nuclear research and nuclear weapons development. But while many are applauding this development, these cutbacks are now also becoming another symbol of America's decline and shift in priorities.