Will Tech Breakthroughs Bring Fusion Energy Closer to Reality?

“Even pursuing it (fusion) some critics felt, was a distraction from taking more immediate action to lower greenhouse gas emissions.”

https://e360.yale.edu/features/nuclear-fusion-research-startups#:~:text=Abundant%20carbon%2Dfree%20energy%20from,still%20a%20long%20way%20off.

Boom is Possible

 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tech-breakthrough-makes-2-5-000000892.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=ma

LANL behind on NUC bomb cores

 GAO: Lab faces four-year delay, cost growth for making nuclear bomb cores

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/gao-lab-faces-four-year-delay-cost-growth-for-making-nuclear-bomb-cores/article_92f2ad84-3dd4-11ee-b677-b76ab4ca1b91.html

Federal officials estimate Los Alamos National Laboratory won’t produce 30 nuclear bomb cores until 2030 — four years after the legally required deadline.

The additional time needed to produce 30 bowling-ball-sized warhead triggers, known as pits, will cost the lab significantly more than originally estimated, a government watchdog said in a newly released report.


I am shocked, shocked.

Rumor

 Rumor is masking and mandatory Covid vaccination up to date 2023-2024 for LANL, LLNL get masked, get waxed and please, please stay home.

Fusion news; why isn't anyone else talking about this?

 “It’s a singular moment in humanity,” said Vincent Tang, the principal deputy director for the National Ignition Facility and Photon Science Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/08/20/fusion-breakthrough-highlights-tri-valleys-emergence-as-bay-area-tech-mecca/

Oppenheimer and Los Alamos.

 Article in Physics Today about Robert Oppenheimer and Los Alamos.

https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/42547/Oppenheimer-s-science-beyond-the-Manhattan-Project?searchresult=1

The comment section for this article had a opinion of the current state of the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos.

"Oppenheimer's breadth of interests and ability to connect quite different fields of physics and engineering was essential to the success of the Manhattan Project, which typified the tradition of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for decades afterwards, and the reason I first enthusiastically joined Theoretical Division there in 1986. Unfortunately that tradition is now being lost, eroded by short-term thinking that discourages basic research in cutting edge physics --such as how quantum theory and general relativity can be reconciled in black holes.

This myopia is completely at odds with the tradition that Oppenheimer, Bethe and Feynman founded in T-Division at Los Alamos, and will make it increasingly difficult to attract the best and brightest of the next generation to the lab, as Oppenheimer was able to do so masterfully at its inception."

The catastrophic destruction of the middle class.

 This is a viewpoint from someone associated with the Hoover Institute about the destruction of the so-called middle class.

https://youtu.be/rTgEq0aa6XY

Doesn't the (supposed) government-led destruction of the middle class impact the national labs, which have historically had middle-class workers?

Toxic universities:

 

This video claims that universities create toxic situations in the workforce -- it's from Australia of course, rather than the US which is of course possibly worse:

https://youtu.be/Xl164GrHcM0

How much does this affect national security, since foreign countries recruit key scientists and engineers while promising an escape from toxicity? And does this type of unethical behavior spill over unto the national labs which are also short on research funds?

Fusion success

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-scientists-repeat-fusion-power-breakthrough-ft-2023-08-06/

How does Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), influence LLNS hiring policies?

 How does Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), influence LLNS hiring policies, and Affirmative Action underutilization criteria with respect to transgender new hires or existing employees? Are credential and experience requirements for scientific and engineering positions being maintained?

The video link below talks about Bud Light and Target’s business decisions of late, and the loss of tens of billions of dollars in market share rooted (he believes) in relatively new ESG requirements.

“The Fall of Bud Light: What Went Wrong?”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O6cAKYPIOhY

NOAA and nucs

 What is the real story on nuking hurricanes? Obviously Trump is not smart enough to think of such a strange idea himself. It was discussed during International Geophysical Year in the late 1950's obviously, something which the parade of experts seemed to ignore.

The NOAA page speaks of using a "nuclear weapon" but then speaks of it in more neutral terma (they mention it violates a convention on "peaceful nuclear explosives" or something like that).

Is it just something the labs wouldn't want to discuss as the true history of it, as with a lot of cold war stuff is such an embarassment or they want to stay out politics?

On a more practical note, suppose we use conventional explosives to target tornadoes, as they approach populated areas they could be targeted over farmland, through some sort of missile defense system. I believe the SDI people later came out with a laser to shoot down insects, too, to prevent malaria, and it looks promising.