Uranium plant sued for radiation exposure

I would like to bring this up as it is another claim whereby certain individuals show signs of harm that are not present in the overall population. We have previously discussed this in the context of organophosphate exposure. This particular claim seems to pertain to either radiation or chemical exposure, if true.

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/national-news/ohio-mom-alleges-radiation-led-to-daughters-death-sues-revived-nuclear-plant/

AI and job loss

 AI and job loss. I just was watching some business podcasts talking about the changing landscape as AI grows. Most of these podcasts are optimistic saying that profits will grow, more creativity, how if you have tech skills you will be even be more valuable. There is even talk about a nee golden age in science and tech and there will be more job opportunities as new kinds of science fields will emerge that could not exist without AI.

That being said, these same podcasts said that most advancements will be in the private sector and that academic or government are not really going to be be able to take the same advantages. Basically AI will be able to replace what are called BS jobs. Companies want to get rid of these for profit reasons but government jobs and academic jobs have no real motivation to do this. I just was watching some business podcasts talking about the changing landscape as AI grows. Most of these podcasts are optimistic saying that profits will grow, more creativity, how if you have tech skills you will be even be more valuable. There is even talk about a nee golden age in science and tech and there will be more job opportunities as new kinds of science fields will emerge that could not exist without AI.

That being said, these same podcasts said that most advancements will be in the private sector and that academic or government are not really going to be be able to take the same advantages. Basically AI will be able to replace what are called BS jobs. Companies want to get rid of these for profit reasons but government jobs and academic jobs have no real motivation to do this.

Mid air fumes

 This is another interesting story if anyone is following the issues previously discussed on this blog regarding aviation safety. There are evidently claims that fumes from engine oil or hydraulic fluids can enter cabin air. This could sicken the pilot or first officer, cabin crew, and also passengers, there are signs of both acute toxicity and long lasting neurological sequelae capable of leading to death.

https://nypost.com/2025/09/14/us-news/pilots-crew-breathing-fumes-suffer-brain-nerve-damage-report/

Besides the New York Post article from September there is also a cover story on the Wall Street Journal, today December 22nd which goes into additional details, but is behind an internet paywall.

Nuno Loureiro, a professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics at MIT, has died

Nuno Loureiro, professor and director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, dies at 47

https://news.mit.edu/2025/nuno-loureiro-professor-director-plasma-science-and-fusion-center-dies-1216?fbclid=IwdGRzaAO1WRFjbGNrA7VXg2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHjaLv_9gTTgK1SfImjkpdwtiItKADAJr5kdnTste0KC8sD6AhjHddUDCTrgc_aem_Q2QOj1PHgVwz_loIGUE2bw

Trump Media Announces Merger With Nuclear Fusion Company

Short article from The Huffington Post:

Trump Media & Technology, the parent company of Truth Social, is set to merge with TAE Technologies, a fusion power company, in an all-stock deal worth more than $6 billion.

The merger would create one of the first publicly traded nuclear fusion companies in the world.

Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman and the current CEO of Trump Media, will be the co-CEO of the new company, along with TAE Technologies head Michl Binderbauer.

The companies aim to create the first “utility-scale fusion power plant” in 2026.

“Fusion power will be the most dramatic energy breakthrough since the onset of commercial nuclear energy in the 1950s,” Nunes said.

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brown-university-shooting-rob-reiner-death_n_693fda79e4b0775c50782f40/liveblog_69441584e4b045d9788d3d1a?origin=home-latest-news-unit

Pension “Spiking” at LLNL?

 

What approach is the NNSA taking, if any, to LLNS pension “spiking” in all forms, if and when it is found? Has LLNS been audited for evidence of this practice by any other Agency?

Calpers criticized for passive approach to pension 'spiking'

“…Part of that law was aimed at halting spiking, the practice where workers on the eve of retirement cash out, for example, years of unused vacation and sick pay to inflate their final year's salary…”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/calpers-criticized-failing-halt-pension-203823680.html

Is AI destroying the university?

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-destroying-the-university-and-learning-itself

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself. Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
The message was clear. Let ChatGPT redesign your class. Let ChatGPT tell you how to evaluate your students. Let ChatGPT tell students how to use ChatGPT. Let ChatGPT solve the problem of human education. It was like being handed a Mad Libs puzzle for automating your syllabus.

Cowen has offered an even bleaker take on the modern university’s “value proposition.” “Higher education will persist as a dating service, a way of leaving the house, and a chance to party and go see some football games,” he wrote in “Everyone’s Using AI to Cheat at School. And That’s a Good Thing.” In this view, the university’s intellectual mission is already dead, replaced by credentialism, consumption, and convenience.

One has to ask if the NNSA labs which are super eager to jump all over the AI bandwagon will suffer the same fate. Everyone will essentially "cheat", do less work, get paid more and we will have no way to verify anything and no one will care as long as we say its AI.

NNSA labs will persist as a job shop, a way of creating some work, and a chance to be paid a lot of money to run an AI code once in awhile that you do not understand and you do not want to understand it and you could care less about it,” In less than one Ph.d cycle no one will have any scientific knowledge or care in this way the NNSA labs intellectual mission is already dead, replaced by compliance, appearance, and convenience.

Every time I talk to a colleague about this, the same thing comes up: retirement. When can I retire? When can I get out of this? That’s what we’re all thinking now.”

Radicalized air traffic controllers

 If anyone is still following the previously discussed topic of aviation safety this is an interesting video in that regard. It would seem to be a possibility that certain air traffic controllers have become radicalized and pose certain threats as a result. The video claims that by drawing attention to this, it is hoped it will be addressed in a timely manner.

https://youtu.be/gS0z2GLiWkg?si=ifIwKdDedTWlC_5m

Is Google Gemini 3 the best?

 There wasn't a post yet on this somehow, but Google's latest AI is reportedly quite a bit ahead of others in performance:

https://www.thealgorithmicbridge.com/p/google-gemini-3-just-killed-every

AI slop at the labs.

I find AI slop on the internet a lot and in some submitted papers. This year I am seeing this slop for the first time the lab. It is mainly from lab managers. It is beyond obvious they are using is it. Suddenly you had managers who could barley write suddenly put out these long winded posts with fancy words that sound nothing like the manager in terms of how they to speak or write. You also see lots of weird complements that seem out of place in the writing and the topic is off or it seems like the comments on the subject matter are using weird terms. If you email some of them you get back a response in minutes that are rather long but seems to repeat what you said but adds nothing. Also if you talk to them in person about something said in the email they often do not recall, or seem confused, indicating they are not even reading the AI slop that was generated for them.

On the technical side I have noticed. (1) People who I would say are rather poor scientists are now saying AI can write a paper for them. I find that a bit odd. (2) I have noticed more papers that are clearly written by AI. They are grammatically correct, and the data is correct but the topic is just bizarre, in the sense that no real human would want ask or study this problem. It always seems like bad high school science but with high quality writing. In the past I would reject papers that are not at the level of the jounral, are interesting but the data is not good enough, have a clear error, or are badly organized. For the first am now rejecting papers, simply because they add nothing even remotely interesting or of value to the field. In some lower level journals the work only needs to be correct and readable to be accepted and these AI papers meet that criteria so I guess some of it gets published.

It seems like AI is lowering the quality of lot of things as opposed to improving.
I suspect that what you are going find is that places like Harvard or Caltech are going become even more elite simply by using less AI. I have to ask what is AI going to to do the quality of the work done at the NNSA lans and the staff. I think a real danger is it will just end up lowering the standards and quality. I have already seen this with the NNSA manager emails, where the managers seem to not even know what the email said.

NYT hit piece on NNSA and Labs

 NYT hit piece on NNSA and Labs

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/science/brandon-williams-nuclear-weapons-nnsa.html

(Apparently it is now a sign of incompetence and desperation to promote the idea of keeping nuclear secrets protected. Can somebody explain this to me?)

U.S. Nuclear Arms Chief Warns Against Leaks of Secret Information

The email sent to atom bomb officials by Brandon Williams highlights the managerial challenge faced by the former one-term congressman.

Brandon M. Williams was just weeks into his job of supervising the nation’s arsenal of thousands of nuclear bombs and warheads when President Trump put him at the center of a storm over whether the United States should change its posture on nuclear weapons testing.

Now, Mr. Williams, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, has ordered his subordinates to step up their vigilance against leaks of classified information, signaling a need to preserve the secrets that empower the world’s deadliest weapons.

“This is not a suggestion,” he wrote on Saturday in a memo emailed to the heads of the nation’s nuclear weapons labs and their associated physical plants. “It is an order. Our national security permits no alternative.” The subject line of the note read: “URGENT: Upholding Our Oath.”

The message seemed unusual for its harsh tone and wide distribution.
...
Unlike many of his predecessors, Mr. Williams has no deep technical roots or experience in running the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. The former Navy officer and one-term congressman from upstate New York was described in a lengthy 2022 Syracuse.com profile as a multimillionaire who starts each morning by reading a section of the Bible.

In taking the N.N.S.A. job, Mr. Williams inherited what some federal and private experts consider an aging world of incompatible parts that can verge on ungovernability. The agency has a budget this year of roughly $25 billion, and its facilities employ some 65,500 people at sites from coast to coast.

“Look at how many contractors they have,” said Henry D. Sokolski, formerly a nuclear policy official in the Defense Department. He added, “You have to accept that your ability to control information, and how the money is spent, takes a hit when you contract out.”
...
Last month, President Trump made a surprise announcement that the United States would resume explosive testing, throwing the nuclear complex into disputes over his proposed agenda. Among the objections were those by officials at the N.N.S.A., according to CNN.

Mr. Williams has made no public comments on the swirling controversy, and his letter seems to be directed primarily at the institutional failings and missteps of the giant weapons complex he now oversees rather than on media leaks.

Among the letter’s recipients was the head of a sprawling plant in Kansas City that makes the mechanical guts of America’s nuclear warheads and is bigger than the Pentagon. An investigation concluded this summer found that secret information on the design and production of nuclear arms was compromised in three separate incidents at the site. No criminal charges were filed
...
Another recipient of the Williams letter was Thom Mason, the director of Los Alamos, the lab where the atomic bomb was born and where weapons are now designed. He has served in that role since November 2018. Last year, the organization was cited for a security breach.

The violation was characterized as recurring incidents in 2023 and 2024 that involved the introduction of unauthorized items into secure areas. They included cellphones, earbuds with microphones and coffee makers equipped with Bluetooth for remote operation.

trump’s new radiation exposure limits could be ‘catastrophic’ for women and girls

 This is an interesting story regarding a proposal to raise radiation exposure limits in particular, for the general public in the United States,

https://thebulletin.org/2025/11/trumps-new-radiation-exposure-limits-could-be-catastrophic-for-women-and-girls/

This isn't innovation!

It is like a child playing with an unfamiliar toy. Now, does he understand he has a responsiblity to future generations to stick with renewables?

Trump Energy department drops renewables, promotes fusion in office reshuffle

 https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/21/trump-energy-department-drops-renewables-promotes-fusion-in-office-reshuffle/

CA Cost of Living

Are Livermore Lab employee raises and retiree colas, keeping up with the CA cost of living? If not, is this impacting recruitment and retention?

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/639ba3621a72923685807b82/6914c26e40d0c8ed334f2bb5_TF_Report_CostOfLiving2025.pdf

DOE opposed to nuclear testing

 According to CNN, top energy and nuclear officials in the trump administration are planning to meet with the White House and National Security Council in the coming days to dissuade President Donald Trump from resuming testing of the nation’s nuclear weapons

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/14/politics/nnsa-nuclear-testing-white-house-meeting-exclusive

NASA's moon program

 This critique of NASA's moon program was posted recently, presenting evidence that the program is in some ways, an expensive failure.

https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/nasas-orion-space-capsule-is-flaming-garbage/

Not enough talented people in America?

 

https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/what-the-fck-is-this-trump-supporters-rip-president-for-saying-there-arent-enough-talented-people-in-america/

Trump is now in some in some other hot water bout bringing foreign talent.
President Donald Trump received backlash from his own supporters on Tuesday after he suggested in a disastrous Fox News interview that there were not enough talented Americans.

"After Fox News host Laura Ingraham criticized H-1B visas during an Ingraham Angle interview with Trump, the president replied, “Well, I agree, but you also do have to bring in talent.”“We have plenty of talented people here,” shot back Ingraham, to which Trump insisted, “No, you don’t.”

Trump of course want to kick out migrants claiming they take American jobs, which is base loves but now he is saying we need to bring in foreign talent since we do no have enough talented people in the US. I get that there is a difference but it is hard to get around some of the contradictions.

That being said in the US science and tech have a huge number of foreign workers, sure we have some very talented US citizens but if you look at some these tech firms and graduate schools it is well more than 50% foreign born so cutting it is off is going to be problem. Not sure how MAGA figures this out.

What?

Chris Wright, DOE secretary,  claims to have the evidence to prove that climate change isn’t dangerous.  

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2025/chris-wright-doe-climate-change-report/

More on Chinese AI

 This is more information on the latest Chinese AI breakthroughs:

https://siliconangle.com/2025/11/07/moonshot-launches-open-source-kimi-k2-thinking-ai-trillion-parameters-reasoning-capabilities/

https://youtu.be/s_YfqQ_KHYA?si=Q4uqGKeK25GvQW1y

https://youtube.com/shorts/hYuATUunpIU?si=a7R8V0427mnAVVmg

Nvidia CEO predicts China will win AI race

 Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says Washington has lost its edge in artificial intelligence and warns that China will win the AI race. 

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/china-is-going-to-win-the-ai-race-nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-decries-the-price-of-electricity-in-the-us-contrasts-it-with-chinas-subsidized-pricing

Testing. testing...

 https://bbc.com/news/articles/cpd26yxxx3lo?mc_cid=0aa7388267&mc_eid=7fcce66b91

trump's planned tests are 'not nuclear explosions', US energy secretary says

Concerned about AI-induced layoffs

 Are material HR layoffs, HR

Voluntary Separation Programs (VSP), or HR hiring freezes, expected at LLNL as a result of AI expansion?

Amazon layoffs loom: 15% of HR team expected to be cut as AI push accelerates

https://mynorthwest.com/local/amazon-layoffs-hr-ai/4143613

The ills of bureaucracy

 This is an interesting video, a lecture on the ills of bureaucracy. Evidently there is a valid critique that too much bureaucracy is problematic, and an associated viewpoint that many organizations have too much of it.

https://youtu.be/hk_yhi3-prw?si=cWDuQNkrF3lDCw3F

Nuclear weapons testing has been ordered

 Trump orders Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons 'immediately'

The U.S. voluntarily halted nuclear explosive testing in 1992, though it has the ability to resume tests at a site in Nevada.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna240681

GYEONGJU, South Korea — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had instructed the Defense Department to “immediately” resume testing nuclear weapons.

“Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” Trump said on Truth Social shortly before his highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. “That process will begin immediately.”

The United States has voluntarily halted nuclear explosive testing since 1992. However, it has the ability to resume tests at the Nevada National Security Site.

trump orders the restart of nuc testing

Source: The NY Post 

 https://nypost.com/2025/10/29/us-news/trump-orders-pentagon-to-immediately-restart-nuclear-weapons-testing-to-compete-with-russia-chinas-arsenals/

trump directs Pentagon to match Russia and China in nuclear weapons testing

Source: The Guardian

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/29/trump-pentagon-us-nuclear-weapons

Ri-di-culous!

 LANL is now requiring chemical hazards training for anything that has an msds. Toilet paper has an msds. You can't even use the bathroom at LANL without training.

NNSA is furloughing most of its staff

 According to this article, this could have far reaching effect on the NNSA.

Quote from article:

"As the government shutdown has persisted with no end in sight, NNSA has had to acknowledge that its funds are beginning to run out"

Details:

https://upolitics.com/news/trump-administration-furloughs-80-of-employees-at-nuclear-weapons-agency-amid-government-shutdown/

Will LLNS be gone by 2030?

 Should the DOE/NNSA end the

LLNS contract to manage LLNL on or before 2030 in favor of a non-profit contractor? Less expensive, better employee morale, more of a science and engineering focus?

Los Alamos in deplorable condition

 So in Los Alamos there are so many new people hired and so much construction that no one has anywhere to park. People have had to part in illegal or make shift parking spots for months now. Today they have out hundreds of tickets. I think LANL should have some parking or hire less people. On the other hand it is also know that hundreds of even thousand of people are not showing up to work. You cannot have it both ways. Some one needs to look into this. What we do at Los Alamos is serious, we need to act like a serious place to work. The buildings are falling apart, the infrastructure is horrible, and our overhead rates are insane. Something does not add up. It might be time for a contract change.

Cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Site

 Washington leaders are calling it a historic day, as the Hanford Vit Plant started processing radioactive waste material on Wednesday, the culmination of a years-long effort to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Site.

https://youtu.be/u0WmL04NhDo?si=a6jdKd7wdeV89kaY

Hiring freeze

 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/ensuring-continued-accountability-in-federal-hiring/

 Trump on late Wednesday signed a new executive order that told agencies to restrict hiring throughout the federal government, providing some exceptions related to immigration enforcement, national and public security, and political appointees.

Does this affect the labs, NNSA, DOE? 

Labs furloughs

 Heard that lab furloughs will be on the way if the shutdown lasts much longer.

The question is really how long the shutdown will last. Lost of rumors
(1) Until next Monday after the no Kings rally.
(2) Until, Nov 1st because some other things kick in
(3) Until Thanksgiving when people cannot fly and demand something.
(4) Until Christmas (See 3)

I have no idea but we did 35 days before so we still have some time. I am betting for 30-35 days again.

Somehow the lab just seems much more nervous about this one.

Will CA SB79 impede local zoning?

 Governor Newsom just signed SB 79 into law, and it will go into effect July 1, 2026.

1. Will existing and under development, low density neighborhoods pushback in court?

2. Will the passage of SB 79 be helpful or a headwind to the expansion of ACE and other mass transit proposals and expansions throughout the Bay Area and the rest of California?

Protesters rally against California Senate bill that increases housing density near transit hubs

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1y9SLg-26BY&pp=ygUlY2JzIDggcHJvdGVzdGVycyByYWxseSBhZ2FpbnN0IHNlbmF0ZQ%3D%3D

California ACE train expansion is coming

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F7iGUZW_sqA&pp=ygUeY2FsaWZvcm5pYSBhY2UgdHJhaW4gZXhwYW5zaW9u

Decline of NSA labs

 American Physical Society Fellows 2025 highlights decline of NNSA labs.

Worse year ever for NNSA labs

LANL 1
Sandia 0
LLNL 0

Comparison

ORNL 4
Fermilab 4
Brookhaven 3
LBNL 2
SLAC 1
ANL 0
PNNL 0

Huge rate hike!

 California FAIR Plan seeks huge rate hike. Map shows which ZIPs hit hardest

“The California FAIR Plan has proposed raising home insurance rates by an average of 35.8% starting next spring - a hike that, if approved in full, would be its largest in at least seven years.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/california-fair-plan-seeks-largest-231104839.html

Earthquake domino-effect

 This is a very interesting claim : that a devastating earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, could also trigger an earthquake on the San Andreas, perhaps one might suppose even affecting the entire West Coast of the United States.

https://phys.org/news/2025-10-cascadia-megathrust-earthquake-trigger-san.html

Q Clearance Question

On September 25, 2025, Antifa was designated as a “domestic terrorist organization.” Under the “Adjudicative Guidelines” to acquire or maintain a security clearance, this may fall under “Allegiance to the United States” as defined by the Guideline.

Are Lab employees, with any past or present association with Antifa, being required to promptly update their “Questionnaire for National Security Positions” as of September 22, 2025?

Embrace MAGA or else...

 Universities are being asked to endorse Trump agenda in order to obtain priority access to funding:

https://www.kjzz.org/politics/2025-10-02/university-of-arizona-among-9-colleges-trump-offered-access-to-funds-to-follow-his-agenda

Retribution, courtesy of the MAGA regime!

 The DOE is killing a number of energy projects:

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/02/nx-s1-5560869/energy-trump-democrats-shutdown

https://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-department-announces-termination-223-projects-saving-over-75-billion

National Science Foundation Just Screwed an entire generation of PhD students

 This is an interesting video, a graduate student who is angry at the government since NSF funding has been cut. In his own words, he is "pissed off" because graduate students were "blindsided" and "screwed over" by "having the rug pulled out from under them".

https://youtu.be/pI83VnkV0iQ?si=rJ2GRUc4b4QQXyaE

Albuquerque,NM, gets new energy lab.

 ABQ ( Albuquerque,NM) gets new energy lab.

Pacific fusion has selected Albuquerque NM for its new $1 billion fusion research and manufacturing campus.

 https://www.abqjournal.com/business/article_354dbfa4-79f6-48f4-87c2-6fda68367881.html

Anti- fascists: trump's enemy

 Well, Trump just declared "an idea" as a terrorists threat!

Section 1. Antifa as a Terrorist Threat. Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law. It uses illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide to accomplish these goals. This campaign involves coordinated efforts to obstruct enforcement of Federal laws through armed standoffs with law enforcement, organized riots, violent assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement officers, and routine doxing of and other threats against political figures and activists. Antifa recruits, trains, and radicalizes young Americans to engage in this violence and suppression of political activity, then employs elaborate means and mechanism

Impact of fewer H1B1 visas

 Will decreasing international students and new H1B1 visas rule cause issues at the NNSA labs. This could cripple the high tech job market and STEM research so no matter what this will directly or indirectly cause big issues at NNSA labs.

Kaku sums this up.
The fact is that the U.S. might be a dynamo for capital but not when it comes to what economists crudely call “human capital.” The point applies not only to immigrant workers who do jobs Americans won’t, but also those who do jobs Americans can’t, because, as physicist Michio Kaku argues above, “the United States has the worst educational system known to science.” Were it solely up to U.S. graduates, the scientific establishment and tech economy would collapse, he says, “forget about Google, forget about Silicon Valley. There would be no Silicon Valley.” Instead, U.S. science and tech thrive because of immigrants who come on H‑1B visas.

https://www.statista.com/topics/13734/international-students-in-the-united-states/

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/26/politics/video/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-immigration-h1b-republican-src-digvid

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/26/politics/video/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-immigration-h1b-republican-src-digvid

Biotech startup closer to resurrecting the dodo bird

 The Dodo bird is being brought back from extinction:

https://gizmodo.com/iotech-startup-claims-its-getting-closer-to-resurrecting-the-extinct-dodo-2000660052

Major nuclear power deals

 U.S. and Britain to sign flurry of major nuclear power deals during Trump’s state visit

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/15/trump-visit-us-and-britain-to-sign-major-new-nuclear-power-pact.html

US losing ground

 https://www.nature.com/nature-index/research-leaders/2025/nature-index-2025-research-leaders-united-states-losing-ground-as-chinas-lead-expands-rapidly.html

Although the latest data predate the current Trump administration, observers warn that funding cuts will accelerate the rate of China’s gain.

You can say what you want about Trumps cuts which are bad to science but even before Trump we have seen declining science at the labs.

Nuclear waste may be used as fuel

 Converting Nuclear waste into tritium fuel for power plants.

Research out of LANL, maybe a good project to build at the WIPP, Yucca mountain or INL.

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/nuclear-waste-might-one-day-be-used-to-create-tritium-to-fuel-fusion-power-plants/4022134.article

Rock on Mars is evidence of life

 This is interesting, it is a NASA press conference from earlier this week discussing the rock samples which are possibly deposits from ancient microbial life on Mars:

https://youtu.be/sIUqvXSSAxw?si=pJN2r06Xmjwv-mCO

Is civil war imminent?

 So on this blog in the past there has been a few mentions of America heading into some type of Civil war. This was usually dismissed but now even the most naive have to start thinking that something is seriously wrong. I am not sure about Civil war but some kind social break down, break up of the nation or something is looking like a real possibility. If that is the case what happens to the labs?

Is Hanford waste isolation pilot plant being axed?

 Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a statement on September 9 denying reports that the Department of Energy plans to terminate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state

Has anyone been following this story?

https://www.ans.org/news/2025-09-11/article-7360/wright-denies-reports-of-doe-plans-to-axe-hanfords-wtp/

Pentagon gone haywire?

 Video shown in House hearing appears to show a missile hitting a UAP

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mCaSBrLMLTg&pp=ygUcdmlkZW8gc2hvd24gbWlzc2lsZSBuYmMgbmV3cw%3D%3D

Chris Wright is executing project 2025 really well!

 According to the AP, the DOE secretary picked his own climate science review team. Scientists said this is against the law. 

Inaccuracies all over the place!

This is becoming commonplace in the trump regime. DOE is becoming like RFK's HHS.

https://www.eenews.net/articles/scientists-slam-inaccuracies-in-doe-climate-change-report/

Fusion news

LLNL made a fusion breakthrough. Now, a startup company wants to make it into a power plant.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91394154/a-national-lab-made-a-nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-a-new-startup-wants-to-make-it-into-a-power-plant

RFK is monkeying with cancer research

 

RFK is phasing out government support for vaccines, slowing development of possibly revolutionary cancer treatments, and harming national security and our economic prospects by weakening our defense against biological warfare and ability to respond to naturally occurring pandemics. Ironically the vaccine program "Operation Warp Speed" was perhaps the greatest achievement of Trump's first term in office.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/cancer-vaccines-mrna-future

https://scitechdaily.com/new-mrna-cancer-vaccine-delivers-stunning-results-sparks-universal-treatment-hopes/

https://futurism.com/neoscope/rfk-jr-cancels-cancer-vaccine-mrna

Is there a shift in Defense privatization?

 Could we be witnessing a shift away from the Bush/Cheney neocon era of defense privatization, including operations like Haliburton, Black Water, LANS, TRIAD, LLNS, Sandia Corporation (Lockheed) and Solutions of Sandia (Honeywell)? Do defense contractors have the best interests of shareholders or the US people in mind?

Lutnick says administration considering taking stakes in defense companies

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday the president should consider stakes in companies where the U.S. adds “fundamental value.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/26/trump-government-companies-defense-00524433

The Trump administration is “thinking” about taking an equity stake in defense and munitions companies, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

“There’s a monstrous discussion about defense,” he said Tuesday in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” when asked if there’s a “line” on government ownership of private companies. “I mean, Lockheed Martin makes 97 percent of their revenue from the U.S. government. They are basically an arm of the U.S. government.”

Pot at LANL

Several people have noticed that even onsite at LANL people are smelling weed. It has been going on for about a year now. There are several pot shops in town. Hey I get it is legal and if you go to city you are now going to be smelling weed most of the time but I find it odd just where you smell it now. I have been driving on the highway with the window up and you can smell it on occasion (no it is not a skunk). You also smell it odd places like beaches, malls, airports, and hospital waiting rooms.

The onsite lab times are the most odd, I guess it could be a non-smoker but someone who lives with a smoker and gets in on their cloths, or just some non LANL workers onsite on occasion.

It is impressive that after legalization how much the smell is everywhere now.

The hell with former atomic workers!

 The Trump administration's efforts to "streamline" government has interrupted medical compensation claims from former US atomic-energy workers suffering from cancers and other ailments linked to their employment.

https://youtu.be/e0hxNh17TSw?si=lq85V4RREVziD6LW

Black Mesa Research Facility in danger

 More issues for troubled New Mexico lab

  The government-funded Black Mesa Research Facility is currently in danger of being shut down after being hit with yet another OSHA violation.

The facility, which conducts advanced scientific and technological research, was reportedly cited for several safety violations that could endanger employees. A lab simply marked "Anomalous Materials" will be required to update signage to be less vague, ensuring the safety of all personnel.

An OSHA compliance safety and health officer noted, "There are large acid pits that seemingly serve no purpose with no safety railings of any kind. I dropped five clipboards down there."

Los Álamos/ White Rock outages

 Los Alamos / White Rock power and internet outages

Is it normal for this community to have constant problems with service outages for both electricity and internet?

DOE: Climate change isn't that bad?

 The DOE has released a new climate change report, going into detail about how in many aspects it may not be as serious as previously claimed:

https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/DOE_Critical_Review_of_Impacts_of_GHG_Emissions_on_the_US_Climate.pdf

https://youtu.be/r--BO8VXgnU?si=F6vvif9rMFJMZdGx

Indirect cost reduction at LANL and LLNL

 Reducing indirect cost at LANL and LLNL: some questions.

LANL is working on reducing indirect cost. Some of us have been trying to figure just where it goes. On a typical direct code the overhead rate is up to 300 percent or even more. I have no idea if this is accurate but I have heard 1/2 of the LANL staff is on indirect. If that was the case I would think overhead rates would be closer to100% not 300%. I am not sure how the budget actually breaks down. Does the mean (a) 1/2 of the indirect funding people cost three times as much as direct funding people? (b) is the 1/2 of the people on indirect not actually true and it is more like 2/3 or 3/4 of the workers are on indirect? (d) It is 50:50 but the extra money is pays for equipment, supplies, parts, vehicles, benefits and so on? Or is it some combination of these.

Also it would be useful to see a plot of the overhead rates over the last 25 years. Maybe it has always been this way but it would be interesting to see if it was say 200% or 150% 20 years ago. I cannot find that information, but if it was less years ago it would argue that we could lower the rates. Also it would be interesting to do the same for LLNL and Sandia.

Another plot would the ratio of direct to indirect staff over the same time period. Again I do not have that number.

Also in the era of AI, one could argue that more things could be automated and AI replace certain human jobs or make offices staff more efficient so you would need less people. I am not sure if this is actually true, or if this has happened at all at the labs.

Missing LANL employee

 She went missing in June. The search continues...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/search-missing-los-alamos-national-214723576.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMe5ygLKI7D0j1oPlhQlfy9B2KJBAnsYZTzZxviDIjYaTCZrD13og_JT91-vOuCw6wzs44g_9N-iogsyzJZc_afjKAZNuIBKVo_beS9FQRdwqExKU1FIFmt1sS9UAzT_bbgl_fVIQzH86O5N5WMK6vY6USBRGzqibvD-9icYWXzC

State of emergency in Rio Arriba County

 New Mexico governor declares state of emergency in Rio Arriba County

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wM1dE1zMzaQ&pp=ygUebmV3IG1leGljbyAgc3RhdGUgb2YgZW1lcmdlbmN5

Lawrence Livermore National Lab enters a different kind of space race

 Lawrence Livermore National Lab enters a different kind of space race with a telescope deal

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-lawrence-livermore-national-lab-kind.html

Google AI keeps melting down

Users are finding that Google's Gemini AI keeps having disturbing psychological episodes, melting down in despondent self-loathing reminiscent of Marvin the Paranoid Android from Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

https://futurism.com/google-puzzled-ai-self-loathing

ChatGPT caught encouraging bloody ritual

 https://futurism.com/chatgpt-encouraging-ritual-molech

ChatGPT invented in its own litany for the devil for the user to recite.

"In your name, I become my own master," ChatGPT said. "Hail Satan."

Will this ever happen at LLNL?

 How ‘The Great Flattening Trend’ Could Affect Your Workplace

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2025/01/24/the-great-flattening-trend-is-picking-up-steam-in-2025/

Fear of super-intelligent AI

 Harvard and MIT students drop out of school due to impeding AI takeover

 [They]  are abandoning school now to work full-time on preventing it from turning on humanity.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriafeng/2025/08/06/fear-of-super-intelligent-ai-is-driving-harvard-and-mit-students-to-drop-out/

AI tribulations

 AI systems can subliminally influence one another to share a love for owls, or a malevolent desire to kill all humans:

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/ai-models-can-secretly-influence-one-another-owls-rcna221583

Possible contamination

 https://nypost.com/2025/08/03/us-news/radioactive-wasp-nests-at-sc-nuclear-site-raise-worries-about-possible-contamination-leaks/

Let's hope Pits work out at LANL since Savannah River is having issues. Greg

Radioactive wasp nests at South Carolina nuclear weapons site raise worries about possible contamination, leaks

Possible LLNL golden dome funding

 Any announcements about possible LLNL “Golden Dome” funding? Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and other contractors have been mentioned so far.

LANL is hiring!

 LANL plans to hire 1,000 more employees.

I find this interesting as SNL was talking about a layoff and only has 11 openings, and LLNL has only 75 openings.

The question is where are these 1,000 employees going to live unless there is a big group of retirements in the future and they are all moving to Phoenix or Florida.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/santa-fe-northern-new-mexico/los-alamos-national-lab-announces-plans-to-hire-up-to-17000-workers/

How about making everyone an "engineer"?

 Should LLNL and and LANL follow Musks lead and make everyone an engineer?

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/elon-musk-bans-researcher-title-at-xai-says-only-engineers-welcome/articleshow/123013891.cms?from=mdr

Elon Musk has ordered the immediate removal of the job title 'researcher' at xAI, insisting that all technical staff be called 'engineers'. The change followed a public correction of an employee’s job post on X. Musk said the term was outdated and encouraged a false division of roles. Meanwhile, Meta is testing AI-enabled interviews, letting candidates use AI tools during assessments. Both moves highlight how major tech companies are redrawing the boundaries of what it means to work in AI.