Dylan Spaulding

Pete Hegseth Doesn’t Want to Talk About Golden Dome National missile defense is still impossible—and expensive.

Pete Hegseth doesn’t want to talk about his hugely ambitious missile defense project.

Maybe that’s because all anyone knows about Golden Dome is that it will be an expensive, all-azimuth defense against everything that flies - and unlikely to work

www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Scientists can help stop a slide to nuclear war — don’t shut them out again It has taken the United Nations nearly 40 years to commission another study on the effects of nuclear conflict. Better late than never.

Researchers need to keep up pressure to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again. Scientists must “engage with policymakers and the public to create a shared, knowledge-intensive understanding of the calamitous consequences of nuclear war”, says a Nature editorial.

Opinion | I Survived an Atomic Bomb. It’s Time to End the Nuclear Threat.

Aug 6th marks the 80th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima.
"There is no such thing as protection by nuclear weapons... Nuclear deterrence is nothing more than the power to intimidate." - Terumi Tanaka

Columbia and Brown to Disclose Admissions and Race Data in Trump Deal

I don't even know where to begin with this. Brown, Columbia, Harvard are private institutions that can dictate their own admissions criteria. Meanwhile, the govt that sees evil in anything "DEI" related uses discrimination as grounds for intrusion... And the universities comply. The mind boggles.

Longstanding contamination at a nuclear weapons site has produced a radioactive wasp nest. Now DOE wants to repurpose the site to produce new nuclear bomb cores without dealing with this legacy waste first. Sounds like they have their priorities in order…

Meanwhile, DOE spending in NM in FY2024 was reported to be $10 billion (75% of which is for nuclear weapons work). The ENTIRE NM state operating budget in 2024 was $9.4 billion.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has ranked New Mexico 49th or 50th for child well-being every year since 2012. In 2024, it ranked the state in last place for child well-being and 48th in economic well-being, 50th in education, 44th in health, and 49th in family and community.

LANL often touts its job training pipelines in NM, but 80 years of lab presence in the state has not fundamentally altered the poor educational outcomes of its student population.

And good luck with that local strategy: "New Mexico’s SAT® performance data offers a snapshot of college and career readiness across the state. When comparing 2024 data across all 50 states, New Mexico ranks last, as the only state with an average score below 900."

Angela Mielke, LANL executive: “We are focused more heavily on the New Mexico schools, but also the regional schools – so that [new hires] wouldn’t get here and immediately lose their minds if there are no shopping malls or restaurants open past 8 o’clock.” Quite the recruiting pitch, there..

Los Alamos National Lab announces plans to hire up to 1,000 workers While one of New Mexico’s national laboratories prepares for workforce reductions, another is gearing up for a hiring surge.

Most of these jobs are driven by LANL's new production mission to make plutonium pits while funding is eliminated from exploratory science that has historically drawn young talent into the labs. Despite the growth, this doesn't bode well for the future of innovation in national security.

I wonder where they think everyone is going to move to once their regions are devastated through floods and other climate catastrophes? Knowing what’s happening to the climate is one way to stop it.

Plutonium Pit Production The US plan to build new plutonium pits for nuclear weapons is unnecessary, risky, and dangerous to the health of workers and communities.

Chapter 4 of my report on plutonium pit production details some of the sordid environmental history at both LANL and Savannah River, where these radioactive nests were found.

‘Hot Wasps’ Found at Nuclear Facility in South Carolina

"The discovery of additional radioactive nests, he added, “indicate that much greater effort must be made to assess the possible risks and hazards of what appears to be a significant source of radioactive pollutants."

Students, alumni alarmed at part of Brown’s deal with Trump that adopts the administration’s definitions for gender - The Boston Globe Brown's concessions are all the more notable on a campus where nearly 40 percent of Brown students do not identify as straight.

I’m quoted in this piece in the @bostonglobe.com which addresses Brown’s recent capitulation to the administration- an extremely disappointing betrayal of its non-cisgender community and opponents of Israel’s war in Gaza. Not the principles I associate with my alma mater.

The US can maintain a single warhead on either MMIII or Sentinel without building the new W87-1 and without immediate need for plutonium pit production. Better yet, the US could eliminate the land-based leg of the triad, which is vulnerable to attack, antiquated, and which invites a strike on the US

Plutonium Pit Production The US plan to build new plutonium pits for nuclear weapons is unnecessary, risky, and dangerous to the health of workers and communities.

Chapter 2 of my report on plutonium pit production explains some of the vulnerabilities of the existing MMIII system and the logistical and financial challenges facing Sentinel, its (troubled) replacement. (2/n)

America’s nuclear forces too weak against rising China-Russia alliance, report warns America’s current approach to strategic deterrence is not enough to protect the country from growing nuclear threats posed by China, North Korea and Russia and multiple warheads should be rapidly adde...

Going above New START limits, particularly by MIRVing ICBMs, is absolutely the worst thing the US could do to enflame a new arms race (and make each ICBM a more attractive target). Studies show that our silos are increasingly vulnerable to even *conventional* weapons. (1/n)

Erasing history

Two weeks ago, on the 80th anniversary of the Trinity test, Nobel Laureates, nuclear experts, and community leaders discussed the urgency of avoiding nuclear war. I was glad to have been there. The resulting declaration and recommendations, endorsed by 120 Laureates: nobelassembly.org/declaration/

Sent you a direct message!

Radioactive wasp nest found at site where US once made nuclear bombs Workers at a South Carolina site that once made nuclear bomb parts have found a radioactive wasp nest. Officials say there's no danger to anyone.

Savannah River is one of two sites slated for new plutonium pit production. Tell me again why the NNSA claims this site is safe for workers and the public when the wasps are radioactive and 131 MILLION gallons of radioactive waste has been lost to evaporation??

I’m an alum and I concur with your husband. Disappointing, to say the least.

I’m a Brown alum and it pains me to see the university ceding moral ground to this administration in exchange for research funding. Brown is throwing people under the bus in exchange for staying out of the cross-hairs which is a cowardly betrayal of its principles.

NYTimes headline reading "NYC Mass Shooting Was Nearly Impossible to Prevent, Experts Say"

Onion headline: 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens'

THEY LITERALLY DID THE ONION HEADLINE

US placed on rights watchlist over health of its civil society under Trump International non-profit Civicus says ‘sustained attacks on civic freedoms’ put US on par with El Salvador and Kenya

Is this part of the plan for becoming Great again?

We’ve lost all moral authority on freedom of speech and suppression of political opposition.

What Will It Cost to Renovate the ‘Free’ Air Force One? Don’t Ask.

@nytimes.com semi-deep dive on reports the Trump team has taken hundreds of millions of $$$ from the deeply troubled, wildly over-budget, & hugely delayed Sentinel ICBM program to fund Trump' gold-plated Qatari jet that _might_ become Air Force One. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/u...

As we discuss in our recent report, the Sentinel program is deeply troubled and the US could simply eliminate the land-based leg of the triad which would positively impact nuclear stability. If the admin really wants to save $$, here's an easy $200 billion that could be much better used elsewhere.