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AI and NNSA labs

 As the NNSA labs pivot to being AI labs issues like below will become increasingly important

Opinion: I Was Not Allowed To Type Prompts Into ChatGPT During My Chalk Talk And This Is Discrimination
By Dr. Rachel Simmons, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University

Let me be clear about something: I am an excellent scientist. My publication record speaks for itself. I have first-author papers in high-impact journals. I have secured independent funding. I have mentored students. I have done all of the things that one is supposed to do to earn a tenure-track position. And I have done approximately 85% of them by typing prompts into a large language model and then moderately editing the output.

This is not a secret. This is how science works now. When I write a paper, I prompt ChatGPT to “write an introduction for a manuscript about [topic] that establishes significance and identifies the gap in the literature.” When I design experiments, I ask Claude to “suggest controls for a CRISPR knockout study in mammalian cells.” When I draft grants, I request “specific aims for an R01 on [research area] that are innovative but not so innovative that study section will be confused.” This is my scientific process. It is efficient. It is modern. And it produces results.

Others will say that a scientist should be able to explain their own research without assistance. This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what “my own research” means in 2025. My research is a collaboration between me and several large language models. We are co-investigators. When you ask me to explain my research without ChatGPT, you are asking me to speak on behalf of a collaborator who is not in the room. Would you ask a PI to give a talk without allowing them to mention the work of their postdocs?

MAGA hypocrisy

 How does anyone working for  the DOE National Labs feel about the occupant of the white house receiving a  $400 million gift from QATAR?  A 747 jet for those of you who dont follow the news!Lab employees cannot even receive more than $25 or $30 from vendors and risk their security clearance if they violate the policy. 

Social security cuts are coming!

SSA Warns CUTS to Social Security Checks Coming

“Social Security is headed for a day of reckoning, and Congress is running out of time to save boomers. Lawmakers are proposing some hard choices”

-FORTUNE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKC3YgYZPPw

Change in recurring laser energy

 “The EYC project will raise NIF’s peak recurring laser energy from 2.2 megajoules to 2.6 megajoules.”

Are there new or planned upgrades to the NIF optical system to effectively handle
the higher energy without increasing optical maintenance or replacement intervals?

https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-and-lawrence-livermore-national-laboratory-advance-laser-upgrade-nuclear-0

Pu research at LLNL

 Pu Research and Security Increases at LLNL

https://www.livermorevine.com/livermore/2026/06/17/environmental-group-opposes-increased-plutonium-research-at-llnl-as-feds-seek-to-expand-nuclear-weapons-production/

https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2026-05/arod-eis-0547-s1-llnl-site-wide-2026-05.pdf

Nuclear fusion is in deep trouble

 “Things Aren’t Looking Good For Nuclear Fusion”

“…Basically it’s a way to circumvent proof of commercial viability…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVw5TKUil3o