AI poses ‘risk of extinction’

 Are the labs and nukes irrelevant now with the coming AI age? For past 80 years nuclear war has been the biggest immediate threat to humanity with LLNL and LANL being

part of this. Now the the real threat is AI, does that mean the labs are irrelevant and we should close them down and make a new project to fight AI, call the Brooklyn project where we assemble the best minds to create a AI to to protect humanity
against other AIs? I it is starting to look that way so we better start rethinking our budget and science priorities if we are go survive. As such the importance of the labs must fade.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/ai-poses-risk-of-extinction-on-par-with-nukes-tech-leaders-say/ar-AA1bT5yh

LLNL Salary comparison

 Salary ratios at LLNL before and after the 2007 transition from UC/LLNL to LLNS

Have the salary ratios of the employees listed below changed if we use pre-2007 salary ratios as a baseline, or have these ratios been fairly constant through 2023?

1. Division Leader to Engineer (non-manager)
2. Group Leader to Engineer (non-manager)
3. Supervisor to Tech Associate (non-manager)
4. other

The reasoning or support for salary differences between manager and non-managers is not in question for this topic. The ratio of those salaries (1-4) pre and post transition, is the question asked.

162 top US nuclear researchers working for China

 In September 2020, a former LANL scientist was sentenced to probation and fined for lying about his participation in a Chinese state-sponsored recruitment program.

The report offered DOE seven recommendations for its insider threat program. In a written response included in the report, the DOE said it agreed with all the recommendations and provided plans to address them.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/162-researchers-from-top-us-nuclear-facility-now-working-for-china-report_4748811.html

Price gouging by defense contractors

 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pentagon-budget-price-gouging-military-contractors-60-minutes-2023-05-21/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7d&linkId=215720704

You would almost think that having a for profit company run a nuclear weapons lab is a bad idea.

In March, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks announced the largest Pentagon budget ever: $842 billion. Almost half will go to defense contractors.

Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, who spent his career overseeing the purchase of some of the country's most critical weapons systems, said there's an inherent conflict between the Pentagon and defense contractors.

"They are companies that have to survive, make profit. The Department of Defense, on the other hand, wants the best weapon systems it can have as quickly as possible and as inexpensively as possible. Those are opposite ends of the spectrum.

How true is this?

 https://www.thebrighterside.news/amp/nuclear-waste-powered-battery-lasts-thousands-of-years

The fall of Bakhmut

 It looks like Bakhmut has fallen. Are we even closer to WW3 now?

Clean coal?

 

 Anonymous said...

“Clean Coal”? The ugly truth is it is dirty power well beyond CO2 emissions.

“Americans living near coal-fired power plants are exposed to higher radiation doses than those living near nuclear power plants that meet government regulations…the main sources of radiation released from coal combustion include not only uranium and thorium but also daughter products produced by the decay of these isotopes, such as radium, radon, polonium, bismuth, and lead…the energy content of nuclear fuel released in coal combustion is more than that of the coal consumed”

https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0932/ML093280447.pdf