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Will Wright be right?

 https://fedscoop.com/energy-secretary-signals-reversal-of-some-cuts-to-national-labs/

Multiple lawmakers on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee shared their concerns with Wright during a DOE budget hearing about the proposed $2.75 billion cut to the national labs in the White House’s fiscal 2026 proposal, saying it undercuts his oft-stated tech priorities.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., ranking member of the panel, said engineers at the Sandia National Laboratories have told him the proposed cuts will “significantly affect” national user facilities, fusion research on reactor environments, the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies and more.

Wright said the budget hasn’t been allocated down to each individual lab, and that funding decisions will be made “on a lab-by-lab basis.” He said the proposed cuts are a reflection of “the tough world we’re in today.”

“My goal is to grow, not shrink, the output of top-quality science at our labs,” Wright said. “But do we need to be a little wiser and get the political science, not the real science, out of labs? Do we need to be a little bit more efficient running labs? We do.

Congress cuts NNSA nonproliferation budget

 Lab management at LANL isn't communicating, but fortunately, I can read the news. The news reports are that NNSA is moving everything not directly weapons related over to weapons. For example, non-proliferation research is getting torched. Also, energy sciences like fuel cells, solar, CINT, etc will get entirely eliminated or dramatically slashed:

https://www.taxpayer.net/energy-natural-resources/doe-topline-cuts-across-the-board-except-for-nuclear-weapons/

"DOE energy programs would be cut by 25%. On top of fairly consistent cuts across the board, the budget calls to fully eliminate several programs, including R&D for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies, Renewable Energy Grid Integration, Solar Energy, and Wind Energy, as well as the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.

Defense-related programs would get a 17% funding boost, almost entirely from DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which houses the nation’s nuclear weapons programs and DOE’s nuclear non-proliferation programs (though nonproliferation funding takes a cut). The NNSA budget does not fund the aircraft, submarines and missiles that make up the military’s nuclear “triad,” which are funded within the Pentagon’s annual budget, but it does fund the nuclear warheads these systems are designed to deliver."

https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2025-04/news/congress-cuts-nnsa-nonproliferation-budget

"The U.S. Congress approved a $185 million cut to the defense nuclear nonproliferation budget managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in a March 14 continuing resolution that funds the federal government through Sept. 30, the end of the 2025 fiscal year.

The resolution transfers those funds instead to the NNSA’s weapons activities budget, bringing it up to $19.29 billion for the remainder of this fiscal cycle."

What's going on?

 Things are going sideways at Los Alamos. Any news at LLNL?

Blog moderator's note:

I tried getting details from the poster but he hasn't responded. If anyone else can give more detail, it's appreciated 👍.

New fusion research facility

 Pacific Fusion proposed Livermore facility:

https://www.livermorevine.com/livermore/2025/06/30/livermore-eyed-for-new-fusion-research-facility/

Based largely on proposed next generation Sandia pulsed power machine that NNSA passed on after failed design reviews. Unclear why investors think a machine that can fire once a day can put power on the grid.

More nuclear weapons, less for renewables

 The war continues.

So there is talk that the budget for LANL could increase with PIT production.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/more-nuclear-weapons-less-for-renewables-heres-how-does-requested-budget-looks/article_f9d8370b-e9e7-4113-a54d-2c260436d139.html

You would figure the Santa Fe Anti-Nuke crowd are worried and will join together to fight for less nukes.

Nope the Los Almaos Study group knows the real enemy is the Nuclear Watch in New Mexico.

The nuclear watch group head Jay Coghlan posted some comments and Los Almaos study group head was fast to attack him. At least these guys know their priorities.

6 June, 2025

Dear Jay -- You continually misquote the 2006 JASON study and ignore more recent JASON output, e.g. the 2019 letter. In addition there are public remarks such as those from former JASON Marvin Adams, who notably said in my presence and that of hundreds of others that anyone who thinks they know that pits will last 100 years doesn't know very much about the subject. You yourself have no, zero, zip training in science and are just BSing on subjects like these, because I and others have pointed all this out to you. Have you no shame? On the matter of nuclear testing you are again blowing smoke, without any technical background on the topic. The U.S. has neither the technical need nor any possible set of motivations to resume nuclear testing, as NNSA has frequently said. Greg
Nuclear Watch New Mexico

The many-worlds theory

 This is a good critique of the many-worlds theory:

https://youtu.be/rw1ewLJUgOg?si=EZnqOJGqj71kl48R

Will AI make us obsolete ?

 This is a good video about AI making humans obsolete:

https://youtu.be/BtPwW7i3Dpc?si=-5bSEvhPQMUX3RuS