LLNL - The True Story -

  I would like to point out that this blog is read by many people and has influence. Scooby does a great job, and keeps up the legacy of the blogs that become before. LLNL the true story has had been around the longest which speaks the for the longevity of this blog and the owner of the blog. Who knows what the future brings but I know for a fact that readers ranging from LLNL and many of the other labs have read this blog and it has made a difference keep up the good work. Thank you Scooby. "And I Would Have Gotten Away With It, If It Weren't For You Meddling Kids And Your Dog.”

  Hi Scooby- Just heard today that LANL is requiring 100% COVID vaccination, with case by case exceptions for medical exceptions. Is this something you've gotten info. on? Thanks Scooby's reply: I am no more informed on LANL than you are but I am certain someone from there will chime in. 

  I took the vaccine and I will take a booster. I am not in a high risk group but I see little personal downside. What I find odd is that all the people saying that if everyone just took the vaccine that we would get rid of Covid. This simply makes no sense. (1) The vaccines wear off rather rapidly. (2) Covid has all sorts of non-human hosts. If you vaccinated the world to 100% Covid is still around in tons of animals and will just come back like every other flu. They say "listen to the science!". Ok I am a scientist, I am not an expert in epidemics but I do understand math. I have had a few conversations with the epidemic modeling crowd and one thing is obvious is that it is a complex systems and many of these models are not particularly accurate. The epidemic scientists are pretty honest about just how limited what they can predict but somehow the public and politicians have this idea that these scientists know exactly what is going on. In a complex system you simply do not...

  "170 kJ. That result suggested NIF was finally creating a “burning plasma,” in which the fusion reactions themselves provide the heat for more fusion—a runaway reaction that is key to getting higher yields. Then, on 8 August, a shot generated the remarkable 1.35 MJ. “It was a surprise to everyone,” Herrmann says. “This is a whole new regime.”" That is certainly a big jump up and something to be happy about. I have a couple of problems. The first is it is only a single shot, if they could that two shot, three shots and so on then I think this is major. The issue is that this was a single shot, no two samples are the same on the atomic level by definition so it could be some odd property go the surface of the sample, lack of grain boundaries or defects act, not to mention that rare events can arise where by chance some particles just happen to go the right way due to chaotic dynamics. This could be some kind of lucky shot kind of thing where some unknown parameter could be pr...

  NIF: laser-powered fusion may beat tokamaks soon. Someone in California is apparently still working on hot applied nuclear physics research (not just critical race theory). Unless we are completely lied to, I think that the super-optimistic headline is justified. With explosive new result, laser-powered fusion effort nears ‘ignition’ https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/explosive-new-result-laser-powered-fusion-effort-nears-ignition https://motls.blogspot.com/2021/08/nif-laser-powered-fusion-may-beat.html

  Trump negotiated with the Taliban without the Afghan government involved to 1) have the Taliban give up their ties with Al Qaeda, and 2) the US leave by May 1. Oh, and the Afghans to release 5000 Taliban prisoners they held. Biden says he was bound by it. How's that working out?

  The NNSA labs and many other labs got funds for research on counter terror including actions in Afghanistan. In fact the US spent 2 trillion dollars on Afghanistan. You could say we got Bin Ladin or at least forced him into Pakistan and then we got him which was 10 years ago, but other than that the whole thing as a huge waste of money and lives. The US is now just another empire to come to Afghanistan and fail. Plenty of blame to go around on this one. All those nukes and high tech gadgets just do not cut it sometimes. I like the saying I heard about what the Taliban have said of the US high tech version of war, "you have all the watches but we have all the time". Maybe we should reconsider how we do national security in terms of intelligence gathering, tactics, weapons, analysis, and reliance on high tech and massive fire power. All those super smart military and intelligence agencies sure called this one wrong.

  Can anyone here verify the 1 MJ NIF yield that was mentioned on this blog? I don’t see any news release on that and it’s supposedly been a week since the experiment.

  So much for harassment claims expecting impartial reviews in the workplace. "ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, said late Sunday that she had resigned, a move that came as the governor fought for political survival after a report from the New York State attorney general concluded he had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women...The state attorney general report found that Ms. DeRosa had spearheaded efforts to retaliate against one of the women who had spoken out publicly about her allegation in December." and "The chairwoman of Time’s Up, a group that supports victims of sexual harassment, resigned Monday amid backlash over revelations she helped New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in drafting a letter that smeared one of his accusers."

 Hello,  I am a retiree trying to reach HR at LLNL for a question. I have been trying for a month with via e-mail to  llnl-benefits@llnl.gov And through voice mails.  Is HR still confined?  Any tip is appreciated. 

  Citing "Bad Faith Bargaining Practices" Lawrence Livermore National Lab Workers Plan for Three-Day Strike https://www.independentnews.com/news/lawrence-livermore-national-lab-workers-plan-for-three-day-strike/article_46303102-ee4d-11eb-be27-df539f7b3e48.html LLNL Panel Sheds Light on Gender Bias in the Scientific Community https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/llnl-panel-shed s-light-on-gender-bias-in-the-scientific-community/

  Report: Some Los Alamos nuclear waste too hazardous to move https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/report-some-los-alamos-nuclear-waste-too-hazardous-to-move/article_59875868-f3b9-11eb-8af9-fb6a70a28705.html Los Alamos National Laboratory has identified 45 barrels of radioactive waste so potentially explosive — due to being mixed with incompatible chemicals — that crews have been told not to move them and instead block off the area around the containers, according to a government watchdog’s repo

  Are the labs in decline? Or more to the point if they are is something only to with the labs or is it bigger than that? What exactly is the future of the NNSA labs? I just read this. Of course the US is in retreat mode. Everywhere you go you hear talk of seccession, civil war, uncontrolled immigration.. We’re no longer the good guys, so servicemen are just mercenaries. Today’s military would make the mixed-race divisions that bugged out in the Korean war look like Stonewall Jackson’s regiment at 1st Bull Run. Who would fight for this sh_t show? Not to mention the mentally retarded weapon systems. What do you call $20 billion of sunk costs? An aircraft carrier.

  Cuomo: Hiding in plane sight while claiming to be a champion of the MeToo movement? What does it say for the national respect and understanding of the MeToo movement when 11 women (so far) said Governor Cuomo inappropriately touched or groped them? Will Cuomo’s staff accused of aiding and abetting such behavior by covering up, discrediting, or destroying the careers of these courageous women be held accountable too?

  LANL, SNL served with Cease & Desist Letters over COVID-19 Vaccine, Testing, and Masking Requirements https://losalamosreporter.com/2021/07/26/organization-sends-cease-and-desist-letter-to-lanl-regarding-covid-19-mandates-threatens-legal-action/ SNL has also been served, but there is no article yet. Here is a link to the letter: https://file.io/HaKVZTW4E1mz

  In 2012, NIF failed to achieve ignition, and subsequently, Dr. Ed Moses left LLNS employment. Have any external peer reviews estimated how far off NIF was in terms of peak power or energy to achieve momentary fusion?