[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16061-16062]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO DR. GEORGE MILLER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL R. TURNER

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 24, 2011

  Mr. TURNER of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate and pay 
tribute to Dr. George Miller, who has announced his intention to retire 
later this year from his position as the Director of Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory. Dr. Miller has served his country honorably for 
nearly forty years as a scientist and leader within the nuclear 
security labs, and he deserves our thanks and praise for a job very 
well done.
  Throughout his long and varied career, Dr. Miller's work has made our 
nation more secure in ways that are difficult to fully encapsulate. He 
has been a critical force in maintaining and reinvigorating the 
nation's nuclear deterrent, has applied his unmatched scientific skills 
and personal energy to develop innovative technologies to support U.S. 
warfighters, and has been at the forefront of efforts to reduce and 
respond to the threats of terrorism, cyber attacks, and the 
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
  During his nearly 40 years of service to the nation at Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory, Dr. Miller's greatest contributions came 
in his efforts to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is safe, secure, and 
reliable. Early on in his career, Dr. Miller was a leader in the design 
of the B83 gravity bomb, which was a tour-de-force in nuclear weapons 
engineering. The requirements placed by the military on the B83 design 
were incredibly demanding: the bomb had to hold a variety of targets at 
risk, be capable of being released from low-flying aircraft to avoid 
air defenses, and must survive impacts with any sort of irregular 
ground feature or structure at speeds up to 75 miles per hour.
  Dr. Miller also led development of the W84 nuclear warhead, which was 
deployed on an Air Force ground-launched cruise missile during the 
1980s. Intended for NATO deployment, the W84 included many advanced 
safety and security features that are still considered ``best 
practices'' in the nuclear weapons arena. These features include 
insensitive high explosives that will not detonate in an accident, a 
fire-resistant nuclear ``pit'' that mitigate the dispersal of 
radioactive fissile materials in the event of a fire, and advanced 
surety features to prevent unauthorized use of the weapon. Even today, 
the W84 is one of the safest and most secure nuclear warheads ever 
made. The deployment of the W84 on its ground-launched cruise missile 
helped foster the Soviet Union's willingness to sign the Intermediate-
Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which dramatically lowered the 
number of--and threat from--nuclear warheads in Europe.
  During his career, Dr. Miller initiated several programs to better 
understand nuclear weapon system performance at a more fundamental 
level. Motivated by intimate knowledge of nuclear weapon design issues 
gained through his experience as a design physicist for 16 nuclear 
explosive tests at the Nevada Test Site, Dr. Miller pioneered 
complementary above ground non-nuclear experiments to gain

[[Page 16062]]

deeper insights into weapons physics phenomena.
  Driving for greater scientific understanding of the physics 
underpinning the nuclear deterrent, Dr. Miller shepherded initiatives 
probing weapons physics using high powered lasers. By challenging the 
Lab's workforce to take advantage of laser capabilities coupled with 
advanced diagnostic techniques, he developed a new and highly 
stimulating training ground for weapons designers. Dr. Miller's 
innovation laid the groundwork for the highly successful program of 
high energy density physics experiments that continue to provide key 
data and understanding for the annual assessment and certification of 
the nuclear stockpile. Almost two decades after the first laser-driven 
weapons physics experiments, experiments on the National Ignition 
Facility (NIF) provided the final data needed to resolve ``energy 
balance,'' a problem originally identified during the era of nuclear 
explosive testing that had remained an anomaly to weapons physicists 
for nearly 40 years.
  As one of the architects of the Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship 
Program (SSP), Dr. Miller has provided national leadership and critical 
personal insight into defining and structuring a cohesive and multi-
decadal national program to maintain the nuclear deterrent without 
nuclear testing. SSP brings together advances in experimental 
capabilities like NIF with tremendous computational capabilities to 
provide better understanding of the nation's nuclear stockpile. Since 
the 1990s, SSP has provided the foundation needed to ensure high 
confidence in the safety, security, and reliability of our nuclear 
weapons in the absence of integrated nuclear explosive testing. Dr. 
Miller's proven personal commitment to fundamental science in the 
service of national security has allowed the nation to maintain the 
deterrent without nuclear testing and enabled Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory to meet an expanding range of national security 
challenges. The tools and highly skilled workforce enabled by SSP 
allows the Lab to support efforts to counter terrorism and nuclear 
proliferation, conduct in-depth analysis of foreign nuclear weapons 
programs, manage and respond to nuclear accidents and events, and 
contribute to the broader defense, energy, and health arenas.
  In 2000, Dr. Miller was put in charge of the NIF construction 
project, which at that point was well behind schedule and over budget. 
Dr. Miller assembled a new management team with a new project execution 
plan, and put NIF on track for completion in 2009. As a result of his 
leadership, this NIF earned a project of the year award from the 
prestigious Project Management Institute, continues to meet its 
scientific and operational milestones, is now performing crucial 
experiments for SSP, and is enabling the U.S. to maintain global 
leadership in inertial confinement fusion research.
  The nation is incredibly fortunate to have had Dr. George Miller's 
leadership, focus, and dedication to applying state-of-the-art science 
and technology to the nuclear security challenges of our time. His 
contributions will ensure the nation's next generation of nuclear 
scientists and engineers--already hard at work in the Lab and programs 
he helped shape--are ready to meet the challenges of the future.

                          ____________________