---
title: "Lawsuit Alleges Coverup at US Nuclear Weapon Facility"
description: "Peter Williams, formerly a physicist at a nuclear weapons research facility, claims that his superiors tinkered with important models then covered it up."
date: "2020-06-25"
modified: "2020-06-25"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/lawsuit-coverup-us-nuclear-weapon-facility"
categories:
  - "Military"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "military technology"
  - "nuclear weapons"
  - "the digest"
---

# Lawsuit Alleges Coverup at US Nuclear Weapon Facility

![Peter Williams, formerly a physicist at a nuclear weapons research facility, claims that his superiors tinkered with important models then covered it up.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/lawsuit-coverup-us-nuclear-weapon-facility.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration\</em\>*

## Nuclear Coverup

A physicist who was fired by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is suing over an alleged coverup that he claims could have compromised the U.S.'s ability to predict the behavior [of nuclear weapons](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/pentagon-worried-space-nuke-fry-satellites>). Peter Williams, the plaintiff, claims in the lawsuit that he was terminated in retaliation after complaining that his superiors tinkered with his models of nuclear weapon explosions, *[Science Magazine](<https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/lawsuit-alleges-scientific-misconduct-us-nuclear-weapons-lab>)*[ reports](<https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/lawsuit-alleges-scientific-misconduct-us-nuclear-weapons-lab>). In doing so, Williams alleges, his superiors were trying to make data align with the models rather than improving their accuracy — leaving the U.S. clueless as to how the weapons would actually behave when actually detonated.

## Difficult Math

While he was at Livermore, Williams modeled the behavior of an explosive called a PBX 9502. When equipped to a nuclear warhead, the explosive first triggers a nuclear fission explosion that, in turn, sets off an even more powerful fusion blast, *Science* reports. It's a particularly-difficult dynamic to model, especially because the PBX 9502 is relatively slow-burning, and models also need to account for how the explosion travels through the sample of PBX.

## Routine Maintenance

Williams' central allegation, *Science* reports, is that supervisors would adjust the parameters of tests after the fact to make the models seem more accurate than they were — rendering them incapable of making meaningful predictions. But astrophysicist Robert Rosner, a Livermore board member, told *Science* that modeling adjustments of that sort are commonplace and an expected part of improving them. Still, Williams sees his lawsuit as a matter of duty. "I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I didn't do it," he told *Science*. **READ MORE:** [Lawsuit alleges scientific misconduct at U.S. nuclear weapons lab](<https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/lawsuit-alleges-scientific-misconduct-us-nuclear-weapons-lab>) \[*Science Magazine*\] **More on nuclear weapons:** *[The Pentagon Is Worried a Space Nuke Will Fry Its Satellites](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/pentagon-worried-space-nuke-fry-satellites>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)