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Showing posts from November, 2021

Hello Fusion experts!

  I have a question for you fusion experts. I am reading about a lot of new approaches to fusion energy by governments and companies. There is ITER of course, the Stellerator, MIT's smaller Tokamaks,Boron based fusion, shock wave approaches and others. Hopefully I am spelling and or describing them properly. I do understand there is good reason for a lot of skepticism about whether these will ultimately work. But as experts looking at these technologies do you find any of them have a glimmer of hope? Which one might, and I emphasize might, work? And why might one of these potentially work? I figured I might as well ask the experts.

Booster for all

  Biden administration plans imminent booster expansion to all adults https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-vaccine-boosters-holidays-thanksgiving-america-4011f2c6-eecd-4e5d-8cfb-e5545ca59b8b.html So it looks like the labs will soon have mandatory boosters. The question for LANL is how many more people are going to say forget and have to be terminated or put on leave? I do not have a good estimate for this since I figured anyone who go the vaccine probably would be willing to get a booster but there could be some people who say no or or had bad vaccine reactions and are scared of the booster. I know of several people how had pretty bad reactions to the booster like feeling sick for for month or more.

UC versus LLC

  From a young persons prospective employee's perspective, what are the material differences if any, between the former non-profit UC/LLNL management, and the current for-profit LLNS management in terms of career growth, engineering valuation, communication openness, etc.?

Discovery by LLNL-led team!

  https://www.newswise.com/articles/llnl-led-team-uses-machine-learning-to-derive-black-hole-motion-from-gravitational-wave-data A multidisciplinary team including a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) mathematician has discovered a machine learning-based technique capable of automatically deriving a mathematical model for the motion of binary black holes from raw gravitational wave data. Gravitational waves are produced by cataclysmic events such as the merger of two black holes, which ripple outward as the black holes spiral toward each other and can be detected by installations such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). Great stuff, at least LLNL still has cutting edge science. Anything going on LANL or is just pits?

LIFE at LLNL

  Was the LIFE program at LLNL totally mothballed, or is the NNSA still funding at some level, efforts to improve NIF efficiencies and to lower costs for a future fusion facility?

Pentagon alarmed by China

  Pentagon Sounds Alarm Over Accelerating Pace Of China's Nuke Stockpile: "1,000 Warheads By 2030 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pentagon-sounds-alarm-over-accelerating-pace-chinas-nuke-stockpile-1000-warheads-2030 The key and most alarming element to the report suggests China is planning to quadruple its nuclear weapons stockpile over the next decade. The new analysis finds that for the 2020 review, the Pentagon woefully underestimated China's expanding ambitions regarding its nuclear arsenal. Whereas last year's estimate forecast the country would have more than 400 nuclear warheads by 2030, the new 2021 report posits over 700 by 2027, and with a likely intent by China to produce over 1,000 warheads by 2030. Meanwhile the NNSA labs anticipate making diversity equity and inclusion the priority for the complex by 2030. The labs are steeped in a legacy of structural racism and outdated notions of gender roles. With new administration we can begin a transformativ...