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.”