DOE secretary said he is avoiding energy prices predictions

 The administration had previously said the increase in prices would be temporary and minimal.

Now, DOE secretary is saying "he is avoiding price predictions." 

Wow! Incompetence? fear of MAGA?

Any idea?

https://www.newsweek.com/energy-secretary-says-hes-avoiding-price-predictions-as-gas-prices-climb-11933777

Is this the end of LLNL and LANL scientists?

Undergraduate students have mostly already given up on learning. Graduate students (sometimes) still see the value in learning how to do things that ChatGPT can easily do. What will happen when it becomes clear that any research contribution that they can hope to make as a junior researcher can also easily be done by AI? There has been a lot of great discussion about where the real value of mathematics lies, how humans can best contribute in the future, and how the role of professionally trained mathematicians will have to evolve. However, unless the academic community can very quickly figure out how to offer young scientists a viable career path amid such rapid and far-reaching disruption, the human mathematical community will be on the path towards extinction. I am sure there are many people who think there is nothing wrong with that, but every other community that is based on human creativity will face similar existential threats. I am not excited about living in such a world.

Is it another pandemic?

 These are good articles on the latest viral outbreak -- going into some of the details. To be clear, it does not look like the start of a pandemic, so far, to informed observers

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15802895/Nightmare-cruise-rat-virus-horror.html

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/public-health/cruise-ship-center-hantavirus-outbreak-dock-spain-sunday

"The CDC has fewer staff to respond to the outbreak due to massive staffing cuts over the past year. The top US official responsible for public health on cruise ships has recently retired, according to an internal memo obtained by STAT.

Experts in infectious disease and public health have criticized the CDC’s relative silence on the outbreak, arguing that the US response so far suggests the country is ill-prepared to handle another major health crisis."

How does it feel?

 Hey Lab employees,

How does it feel to have a MAGA DOE secretary in charge? Check out this video. Fast Forward to 9'40".

This is unbelievable!

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

Top AI companies propose the LANL employment model for our post work future

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-force-silicon-valley.html

"Even their own berths may not be safe, implies their boss: “It may be feasible to pay human employees even long after they are no longer providing economic value in the traditional sense. Anthropic is currently considering a range of possible pathways for our own employees,” Mr. Amodei wrote.

While the American public ordinarily hesitates to support left-wing policies like a jobs guarantee or single-payer health care, A.I. seems to expand the political Overton window. “Right now, the argument is, ‘You’re all about to lose your jobs, and the choice is either you get nothing and starve, or we do something fair,’” Mr. Shor said. “People don’t want to be members of the permanent underclass.”

Not all policies are created equal, however. A universal basic income is unpopular, but a federal jobs guarantee has legs, Mr. Shor found. American voters don’t care about beating China, but they are excited about A.I. curing diseases. And, crucially, populism sells. In one of the top-performing political ads that Mr. Shor’s data firm tested, the nameless narrator declares: “We make the corporations and billionaires who profit from A.I. pay their fair share.” The ad concludes: “They work for the bots. We work for you.”"

Reducing attrition at DOE physics design labs

 (There is an) effort to reduce attrition at Bechtel managed DOE physics design labs.

At LANL management has implemented a new policy of external hiring only until the end of October. Prior to this was you needed to be in your position for a year before you could apply for another job. Got to get those employment numbers up at TA-55

Surveillance and national security

 This is an interesting video about laws relating to surveillance and national security:

https://youtu.be/Jg5zqpQu0GI?si=MzOaQdjKMyJpY_pp

How a fringe conspiracy theory about missing scientists got the FBI’s attention

 

Comments on SUGGEST NEW TOPICS HERE : LLNL - The True Story -

Anonymous

WSJ: How a Fringe Conspiracy Theory About Missing Scientists Got the FBI’s Attention

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/how-a-fringe-conspiracy-theory-about-missing-scientists-got-the-fbis-attention-d61de97c

Private investigator Thomas McNally sees no link between the disappearance of Melissa Casias and some 10 other missing or deceased scientists. The internet disagrees.

Casias’s family hired McNally to hunt for clues after the New Mexico administrative assistant vanished last June. In the past couple of weeks, he’s found himself working to dispel conspiracy theories. Her disappearance has nothing to do with UFOs, he says. Nor was the Los Alamos lab worker—responsible for purchasing office supplies—caught in a government assassination plot because of a top-secret life, McNally adds.

Speculation linking her disappearance and the losses of several scientists has for months churned through fringe online communities. Now, President Trump and the House Oversight Committee are paying attention. Earlier this week, the FBI said it was spearheading an effort to look for connections, working with the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, as well as state and local officials.

“I hope it’s random,” Trump told a reporter last week. “But some of them were very important people and we’re going to look at it.”

The questions center on deaths or disappearances from 2022 through this February. They include an independent researcher, a long-retired Air Force general, and Casias, the administrative assistant. Some were connected to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Two had ties to Los Alamos National Laboratory, which has long featured in UFO conspiracy theories.

Fringe narratives percolate constantly. But few rise to national attention—or prompt federal inquiry.

“Your average conspiracy theory, someone comes up with it and it dies on the vine,” said Joseph Uscinski, a professor at the University of Miami who studies them. “What makes this unique is you have government agents, with guns, investigating this.”

The narrative evolved over months of internet speculation. Many of the deaths and disappearances were first covered individually, sometimes with a conspiratorial bent.

Right-wing media personality Tim Pool dedicated a 2025 podcast episode to the killing of MIT physicist Nuno Loureiro outside Boston, which Pool argued could have been motivated by Loureiro’s research into clean energy. Authorities said the shooter was Loureiro’s former classmate, who also allegedly opened fire in a Brown University classroom days earlier.

A few creators, including the popular conservative writer and influencer Jessica Reed Kraus, suggested a possible connection between Loureiro’s death and the February 2026 killing of Caltech astronomer Carl Grillmair. Kraus’s post went viral, quickly becoming one of her most shared, she says.

“When I put it on IG, it went crazy,” she said in an interview. “And it just kept going.”

Their messaging amplified speculation that was already swirling online about possible connections among prior deaths, including Loureiro’s and Novartis researcher Jason Thomas’s, both in December 2025.

The February disappearance of a 68-year-old retired Air Force general, William “Neil” McCasland, kicked the theorizing into high gear, particularly once a local FBI field office joined the search early last month.

“What is happening to our space scientists?!” one popular UFO account wrote on X, attaching a photo collage of Loureiro, Grillmair and McCasland.

trump invokes Cold War-era law

 The US is ramping up energy production as the Iran war intensifies. trump has invoked emergency powers to boost oil, gas and grid infrastructure under a Cold War-era law.

Is he going over his head?

https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-invokes-cold-war-era-law-white-house-orders-private-firms-to-prioritise-defense-fuel-needs-1776753500405

Trump's energy secretary

Our DOE secretary seems is so sycophantic, I wonder how DOE workers feel about him.

At the 16'55" mark of this video is a clip of his interview with Fox News.

You be the judge.

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sGFY8fVEjLY

Dead Los Alamos chief's secret UFO files revealed

 Anonymous contribution:

Interesting. Not sure who the (recently?) deceased cyber security guy from LANL would be. Knowing some of the fiascos from the early-mid 90s did it even have a head of cyber security then?

LANL UFO files:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15738961/los-alamos-cyber-chief-secret-ufo-files.html

China is pulling ahead

https://www.science.org/content/article/china-now-tops-u-s-r-d-spending-one-key-measure

China now tops the U.S. in R&D spending by one key measure

China reached long expected milestone in 2024.

Still, the OECD analysis suggests China has hit “a significant milestone,” one “in a series of indicators showing China’s increasing strength as a world scientific superpower, if not the world superpower,” says Caroline Wagner, a science policy scholar at Ohio State University. She notes that in 2022, China edged out the U.S. in the number of most cited papers. In 2024, China surpassed the U.S. in the total number of publications indexed in the Web of Science database. The same year China topped the U.S. in the number of papers listed in the Nature Index, which tracks publications in 145 leading science journals.

Is Pacific Fusion a fraud?

 Does anyone here have some relevant information or opinions about Pacific Fusion? I live in ABQ and they’ve been getting a lot of attention since they’re building a facility, near the airport. I looked at some of their white papers and they sound like a classic fraud scheme. For example, they mention a success, the NIF machine, as justification for their business, even though they are using a completely different fusion scheme. I’m concerned because I’ve had local people tell me they want to invest in the company. Hopefully the city doesn’t take a financial hit when they’re finally exposed, like Theranos was.

DOE OHA bias

 Is the DOE OHA legit or a DOE/NNSA contractor protective big brother?

if one reviews DOE OHA past “decisions”, very quickly you’ll see maintaining a DOE/NNSA employee security clearance is a ~50/50 mixed bag.

Essentially, unless you were
a spy for a foreign country, you had an opportunity to correct your behavior. Unless, you repeated the same behavior without a path forward.

In contrast, if you had a DOE/NNSA case before the DOE OHA against a DOE or NNSA contractor, you are f_cked, from the get go.

Google “DOE OHA” decisions to see for yourself.

A bacterium was raised from the dead

 This is a nice Easter story, scientists have raised a bacterium from the dead:

https://youtu.be/gPvFdMh1LAs?si=ikPt9ZJLkjIfkAnJ

I wonder...

 Anonymous contribution:

Historically, what is the legal consequence, for Federal Contractor

false testimony (under oath perjury risk) in ANY case involving the DOE OHA? Hint: basically zerol, 

How Chris Wright went wrong with the White House

Missteps in cutting clean energy spending and friction between staffers has led to questions about whether the former fracking company CEO will remain in the Cabinet.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/17/chris-wright-white-house-00612920

Nuclear agency’s top IT official says AI gains will lead to workforce cuts

 https://fedscoop.com/nnsa-ai-job-cuts-labor-impact/

Nuclear agency’s top IT official says AI gains will lead to workforce cuts
During an event Thursday, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s CIO said he wants to spend money as efficiently as possible.

Huh? How will that work, so far the NNSA labs are just getting bigger and bigger with more overheard non-technical staff, less productivity, and less efficiency,...way less efficiency. The bureaucracy is fighting back and appears to be winning. Has AI done anything?

Secrets held by LLNL appointees?

Some time ago, division leader Karl, appointed his successor division leader Joe. Appointed, meaning no interviews or challengers to this position were permitted. Within division leader Joes watch, one of his married tech supervisors was allegedly accused of having a romantic affair with a female NM tech that he “recruited”. A clear LLNL and Q clearance violation. Appointed division leader Joes response…was no response to this UC/LLNL misconduct. Got to wonder if the New York Times is looking into this carefully held secret like the Cesar Chavez news?

Energy prices

 With gas prices going up, and likely to stay up for some time there is now talk of rationing or work from home, like 3-4 day work weeks, or other people just staying home. This could have a big impact at LANL where there is such a large amount of the workforce especially the new PIT workers that commute over two hours are more every day. That has got hit the pocket book and the working from home is not an option.

Cesar Chavez Celebration Day

 Will there be a Cesar Chavez Celebration Day at LLNL this month?

In past years, LLNL celebrated the life and work of Cesar Chavez for diversity, inclusion, and social justice.

Just days ago, Cesar Chavez, former president and co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW), was allegedly accused of sexual abuse against young women and minors. Specific allegations have not been released, but scheduled Cesar Chavez celebrations across the Country, have been cancelled. These accusations are horrible if true, and if true, why did it take over 30 years to surface?

The near-future of HR

 90% of HR Staff Gone by 2030

According to Stuart Varney’s guest on Fox Business, 90% of Human Resources (HR) and HR related jobs, could be eliminated by 2030 due to AI.

Has LLNS been reducing its HR staff through attrition, so high HR layoff numbers will be less likely by 2030?

Time to release the reserves

 https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/iea-proposes-largest-ever-oil-release-strategic-reserves-wsj-reports-2026-03-11/

IEA proposes record release of strategic stocks in response to Iran war oil price surge

LANL may need to double plutonium pit production

LANL may be asked to double plutonium pit production, per federal memo.

Up to 60 pits per year.

The comment section in the news article devolves in the usual fight between the two anti-nuke groups "The Los Alamos Study Group" vs The nuclear watch group. These groups are like two age old enemies forever locked in the battle to the death. You almost get the feeling that Los Alamos is really just playing a minor role in what really motivates these guys which is their hatred for each other.

If there is ever WW3 and the earth every last nuke is used and the only two people left alive are Greg Mello and Jay Coughlan, they would still be fighting. It will be like "Let this be your last battlefield from the old Start Trek show" in which each is half black and half white (though on opposite sides from each other), and committed to destroying the other.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/lanl-may-be-asked-to-double-plutonium-pit-production-per-federal-memo/article_3266b341-fb84-4877-8e67-10e8e60145e3.html#comments

Questionable qualifications

 Anonymous said ....

How in the hell, did HEAF in the early 90s, go from a PhD level Facility Manager leadership requirement, devolve into a Faculty Manager that early in his LLNL career, just qualify him for a security guard position? Is this a follow the Bechtel money situation?

trump against science

 Source: CNN

Trump admin is pulling supercomputers out of key weather and climate research center.

 The move is part of the trump administration's 

effort to disassemble the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, one of the world’s top weather and climate research centers, which the admin views as a source of climate change alarmism.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/weather/trump-colorado-lab-ncar-supercomputer-climate

Poland us considering nucs

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15564563/Poland-nuclear-weapons-NATO-member-Ukraine-defend-Russia.html

Poland is considering developing nuclear weapons, with President Karol Nawrocki arguing that the NATO member must strengthen its defences amid the war in Ukraine.

Poland? This is a joke right?

More on fusion

 Anonymous contribution :

(NIF Based) “Nuclear Startup Inertia Raises $450M Series A”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj9KKzdklrE&pp=ygUZYmxvb21iZXJnIHN0YXJ0dXAgaW5lcnRpYQ%3D%3D

(NIF Based) “Laser Fusion Startup Inertia Raises Additional $450M”

https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Laser-Fusion-Startup-Inertia-Raises-Additional/a71954

Idaho National Lab RIF

Anonymous contribution :

Another DOE contractor at INL reduces staff by about 50 employees

https://www.eastidahonews.com/2026/02/another-doe-contractor-at-inl-reduces-staff-by-about-50-employees/

New Mexico fines DOE

 Anonymous contribution:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/us/new-mexico-los-alamos-nuclear-waste-fines.html

New Mexico Rebukes Federal Agency Over Nuclear Waste at Los Alamos

State environmental regulators will also fine the Energy Department up to $16 million for exceeding safe groundwater standards near the nuclear lab.

Is GEN Z dumber than their predecessors?

 I never take it seriously when people say the young generation is worse or dumber than newer generations, since that is has been said for every generation, so it really cannot be true. I figured it is just some psychological thing that if some group does something different you think it is bad. However I do get the sense with younger tech people. I have just brushed it off thinking it is just me, but maybe not. If the report below is correct does it have implications for the future workforce at the labs? Maybe AI will compensate for all this so there is no real issue.

The generation born between 1997 and 2010 is the very first generation who did worse in school than the generation before them, according to a top neuroscientist.

And shockingly, they are proud of it.

“They’re the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized academic tests than the one before it,” Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, 43, told The Post. “And to make matters worse, most of these young people are overconfident about how smart they are. The smarter people think they are, the dumber they actually are.

https://nypost.com/2026/02/07/us-news/gen-z-the-first-generation-officially-dubbed-dumber-than-the-last/

US accuses China

 https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-has-been-clear-wanting-new-nuclear-arms-control-treaty-says-us-official-2026-02-06/

US accuses China of secret nuclear testing

"I can reveal that the U.S. government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons," U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno told a Disarmament Conference in Geneva.

A laser-beam dream team is born

 “A laser-beam dream team has been assembled to advance nuclear fusion”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/team-heavyweights-launches-effort-unlock-170000213.html

End of US-Russia nuclear pact

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/05/russia-us-nuclear-new-start-treaty-expires-un-warning

Grave moment’: end of US-Russia nuclear pact comes at worst possible time, UN chief warns.

“For the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals of … the two states that possess the overwhelming majority of the global stockpile of nuclear weapons,” Guterres said in a statement on Wednesday.

So does this mean LANL can go back to being Cowboys?

AI chatbots social media

 Have you heard about the new social media for AI chatbots?

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/ai-agents-now-have-their-own-reddit-style-social-network-and-its-getting-weird-fast/

This builds upon the recent trend of letting AI chatbots run 24/7 as personal assistants with access to personal information:

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/viral-ai-assistant-moltbot-rapidly-gains-popularity-but-poses-security-risks/

Aggressive schedule for the W80-5 warhead

 W80-5 “just came up,” will go on SLCM-N, weapons directors say

By Sarah Salem
Exchange Monitor
January 28, 2026

ARLINGTON, VA – The W80-5, a new variant of the W80 warhead family, is on a “more aggressive schedule” to go on the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N), weapons directors said on the final day of Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit.

Rita Gonzales, Deputy Laboratories Director for Nuclear Deterrence at Sandia National Laboratories, and Bradley Wallin, Deputy Director of Strategic Deterrence at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, both spoke on a panel about the new warhead the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is developing.

“This one just came up and we’ve been working on it for less than a year at this point, but really looking at accelerating that program as well and looking at some creative ways where we might be able to deliver that capability to the Department of War earlier than anticipated as well,” Gonzales said.

Congress had ordered that SLCM-N be developed by the Navy and use a W80-4 variant, but in a 2024 congressional testimony, Jill Hruby, then-administrator of NNSA, said the agency needed $70 million in funding for the sea-launched W80-4. However, Hruby also testified that year that the agency would look into alternatives to the W80-4 that might “be simpler to do without disrupting our current production flow.”

“As part of the congressionally mandated SLCM-N program, NNSA went through a selection process to determine what the best warhead would be for it,” Wallin told the Monitor after the panel. “And so it’s within the W80 family.”

NNSA is currently refurbishing the W80-4 warhead through its life extension program to tip the Air Force’s planned long range standoff (LRSO) cruise missile once completed. Boeing’s B-52H will be the first aircraft to carry LRSO, which eventually will fly aboard the B-21 Raider bomber that Northrop Grumman is building. The fiscal 2025 Stockpile Stewardship Management Plan (SSMP) said the first production unit of the W80-4 would be complete by the end of fiscal 2027; the W80-5 was not on the fiscal 2025 SSMP.

Gonzales said NNSA is focused on “getting the W80-4 system out the door.”

NIF is falling behind?

 From an anonymous contributor:

Is NIF falling behind more promising fusion technologies?

In 2012, NIF failed to reach ignition and the “LIFE” program was mothballed. In 2026, NIF “still consumes significantly more energy than it produces, indicating that practical, commercial fusion power is still a long way”.

TAE Technologies is doing aneutronic fusion research that may cost 10x LESS per GW than a post NIF fusion power plant, and do so with significantly reduced neutron radiation damage lowering reactor maintenance.

If the NNSA brings back underground nuclear testing at NTS in 2026, will funding for NIF increase, decrease, or be unaffected?

Is another government shutdown coming ?

Odds of another Government shutdown just went way up

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/us/democrats-congress-reaction.html

The odds are like 75% now. This will be fun, so we go through the whole thing again?

Rehoming nuclear weapons

 Our Nuclear Weapons Need a New Home

by Franklin Miller & Frank Rose,
Real Clear Defense, January 23, 2026

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2026/01/23/our_nuclear_weapons_need_a_new_home_1160419.html

"The Energy Department is the Wrong Place to Manage Our Nuclear Stockpile.

Nuclear deterrence is once again central to U.S. national security. The relative calm of the post-Cold War world has been replaced by an era of dangerous competition with two nuclear armed adversaries. China is rapidly expanding and diversifying its nuclear forces. Russia is modernizing its strategic and non-strategic arsenal while integrating nuclear signaling into conventional operations. Emerging technologies—from cyber operations to artificial intelligence and space-based systems—are compressing decision timelines and increasing the risk of miscalculation.

Yet the U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise is organized for a different era.

At precisely the moment when speed, accountability, and delivery matter most, responsibility for the nation’s nuclear deterrent remains embedded within a large civilian department whose leadership incentives, culture, and political priorities are largely oriented toward domestic energy and environmental policy. The result is an institutional mismatch: a mission that demands singular focus is governed by a structure designed to balance competing objectives.

This is not primarily a question of leadership talent or commitment within the workforce. Nor is it a comment about the current leadership of the National Nuclear Security Administration: in fact, quite to the contrary. From all accounts, Administrator Brandon Williams and his deputy Scott Pappano understand the vital role of our nuclear deterrent and of the infrastructure on which it rests and are seeking to lead the enterprise in the right direction. But the problem is above them. Fundamentally, it is a question of institutional design, of attempts to rationalize where in the Federal government the responsibility for the nuclear weapons infrastructure belongs...

...We therefore call on the Trump Administration to create a new an institutional home designed to re-establish the nuclear weapons infrastructure purpose as the firm foundation on which our national deterrence policy should rest.

The National Nuclear Security Administration should be established as a stand-alone sub-cabinet agency, reporting directly to the President, with clear authority and a singular mission: delivering the U.S. nuclear deterrent. The moment calls for nothing less."

---------
Franklin C. Miller served for decades as a senior policy official in the Department of Defense and on the NSC staff. He was a member of the Mies-Augustine Commission and the Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States.

Frank A. Rose is a former Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, a professional staff member on the House Committee on Armed Services, and a policy official at the Department of Defense.
---------

So what does everyone think ?

Will ICE intimidate foreign scientists ?

 With all the foreign national scientists at LLNL and LANL should we be worried about the ICE abusing their powers to intimidate people?

Is Orion’s heat shield really safe?

 

From ARS TECHNICA:

Is Orion’s heat shield really safe?

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasa-chief-reviews-orion-heat-shield-expresses-full-confidence-in-it-for-artemis-ii/

Will natural intelligence be relevant?

 Scientists at the labs better start worrying. You will soon have nothing to offer the labs.

Nvidia’s CEO Just Dropped a Hard Truth: “Smart” Is About to Become Worthless.

AI can generate everything.
Only humans with discernment can decide what’s worth keeping.

In other words all you "I am so smart scientists" are about to worthless since, brains, knowledge and skill will be free for all to use, at hundreds of times faster and better than what any scientist can do

What will matter will be leadership and management skills who can than ask the AI what to do. They will not have to ask humans anymore.

Impact of wars on NNSA

 Does war with Venezuela change anything for the NNSA labs?

Does China take Taiwan now? 

Are we back to war with Iran? What about Cuba and Mexico?