LLNL - The True Story -

  A nuclear blast equation used by the US military for decades to guide the construction of bombproof shelters is not always accurate, according to a new study by Chinese researchers. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3115360/china-research-finds-flaws-us-nuclear-blast-equation-protect

 By L.  King, White House Chronicle  December 19, 2020 President-elect Joe Biden’s decision to nominate Jennifer Granholm — former governor of Michigan, lawyer, politician and television host — to be the next secretary of energy is curious. The idea circulating is that her primary assignment, in Biden’s mind, will be to speed Detroit’s development of electric vehicles. FULL ARTICLE

  WSJ: Biden to Review U.S. Nuclear-Weapons Programs, With Eye Toward Cuts https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-to-review-u-s-nuclear-weapons-programs-with-eye-toward-cuts-11608805800 WASHINGTON—The incoming Biden administration is planning a review of the nation’s $1.2 trillion nuclear-modernization program with an eye toward trimming funding for nuclear weapons and reducing their role in Pentagon strategy. President-elect Joe Biden promised during the campaign to reduce the U.S.’s “excessive expenditure” on nuclear arms and criticized President Trump’s decision to develop new sea-based weapons, including a submarine-launched cruise missile. The new administration is also likely to review the Pentagon’s decision to develop a new land-based intercontinental ballistic missile, which is estimated to cost more than $100 billion when its warhead is included, some former officials said. “We have to modernize our deterrent,” said one former official. “But we cannot spend the amount of mone...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-to-review-u-s-nuclear-weapons-programs-with-eye-toward-cuts-11608805800     Prediction: NW spending will double every 2-3 years nonetheless leaving us with reductions in conventional forces. Hiring will increase by 20% every year. NNSA will become a third rail immune to cuts because of its job program nature.

Does LLNL or LANL get any money from the Covid relief package. I mean they have stuff in there for transgendered restrooms in Pakistan and miss, tax deductions for three martini lunches, funding for a women's museum, money to stop doping in horse racing, tax breaks for NASCAR. I figures the NNSA labs have to be in there somewhere, maybe some money for computer security? Perhaps not.

The hackers have been able to do more damage at FERC than the other agencies, and officials there have evidence of highly malicious activity, the officials said, but did not elaborate. The officials said that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which has been helping to manage the federal response to the broad hacking campaign, indicated to FERC this week that CISA was overwhelmed and might not be able to allocate the necessary resources to respond. DOE will therefore be allocating extra resources to FERC to help investigate the hack, even though FERC is a semi-autonomous agency, the officials said. Several top officials from CISA, including its former director Christopher Krebs, have either been pushed out by the Trump administration or resigned in recent weeks. "Federal investigators have been combing through networks in recent days to determine what hackers had been able to access and/or steal, and officials at DOE still don’t know whether the attackers wer...

There is a sad part to the massive Los Alamos hacking. It is that Microsoft products that where hacked. The LANL scientists have been fighting Microsoft for some time but as more and more non-scientists started to dominate LANL there was more push to make everything Microsoft. I think LANL now down to 17% technical workforce so that is what 80% Microsoft with a big push that everything should just be Microsoft. Just something to think about.

  New scandal. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9064709/Russian-hack-federal-government-hard-overstate-says-ex-homeland-security-adviser.html Russian hackers breached Microsoft as part of their campaign that infiltrated the US nuclear weapon stockpile network, the Los Alamos lab and the Energy Department, officials reveal What the hell is going on?

Hazel O'Leary redux.

  Is there an effective way to put the kibosh on a Tech Associate promotional review on a 500 series tech?

  https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/towards-artificial-sun-will-china-win-nuclear-fusion-race Beijing has a lot of irons in the global energy market fire, facing off against Russia for nuclear energy dominance in Africa, ramping up coal-fired capacity abroad while simultaneously touting its lofty decarbonization plans back at home, and now, powering up a brand new, cutting-edge “artificial sun.” The so-called sun is a nuclear fusion reactor which came online for the first time last week, “marking a great advance in the country's nuclear power research capabilities,” according to a report by Science X Network’s Phys.org.

  The Department of Energy is advancing an executive order from  Trump that could make it easier to fire agency workers.   What would he do a thing like this?  https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063719123

 December 11th 2007, the start of this blog. It was intended to replace the short-lived llnlthefinalstory blog and as a step up from llnltherealstory one.  As llnltherealstory sank into a period of virulent insults among LANL employees and inflammatory remarks towards LLNL's,  it was time to begin a new blog that encourages intelligent debate.  The torch was lit and LANL readers saw it and hopped on fast.  Participation shot up and moderation was challenging despite clear blog rules.  On the 1st anniversary, I asked for a volunteer to take it over.  I heard the echo of my own voice.  Since then, I had brief help from "Doobydew" whose nickname I still use today. Thanks Doobydew! whoever you are.  I also hard help from a tech-savvy guy named "TheEvil Eye". Thank you.  With some exceptions, LANL dominated this blog negatively and disregarded civility and the call for  intelligent debate. That made moderation that much difficult.  ...

  https://losalamosreporter.com/2020/12/06/los-alamos-national-laboratory-has-370-confirmed-covid-19-cases-as-of-friday/ 370 cases for employees LANL so far, 238 fully recovered. Los Alamos county has only 176 cases. I am guessing the people are catching it elsewhere than at work.