"These executive orders are trying to change the agreed-upon scientific model (LNT) and approach to decisionmaking (ALARA)...Over time, doses would increase across society, including in medical facilities."

"At this point, China alone already has 50 percent more production capacity for PV panels than is thought to be necessary to hit an “optimized” Net Zero trajectory for CO2 emissions."

The day after Trump suggested the US would resume explosive nuclear testing "immediately," the US was the only nation to vote against a UN statement affirming the importance of the treaty that prevents it.

In this piece, my colleague @gkucs.bsky.social discusses the implications and potential Chinese response to Trump's recent suggestion that the US will resume nuclear testing. China has much more to gain from testing than the US and its not clear POTUS knows this. @ucs.org #Nukesky

"Sometime in the next few days Xi will receive a briefing from his nuclear weapons laboratories that will almost certainly contain an assessment of what China stands to gain if the existing taboo on explosive nuclear testing is broken by the United States."

"By withholding soybean purchases and rare-earth exports, China extracted relief from U.S. tariffs and delayed export controls, without conceding much in return."

The president has ordered the “Department of War” to immediately resume nuclear testing. Here’s a thread on what you need to know (1/n)

"The Chinese are also pursuing technologies that use less uranium, such as thorium reactors, or recycle spent nuclear fuel. It’s a recognition that China doesn’t have enough domestic uranium for a massive build-out of traditional reactors."

"The GMD test program is like T-ball practice when the real world is major league baseball. It’s irresponsible to say the GMD system provides effective protection when it has not been demonstrated to work in conditions expected in a real conflict…"

🎬🍿Are you planning to watch Kathryn Bigelow's new film, A House of Dynamite, this weekend? Download our free bingo cards to learn more and play along while you watch: act.ucsusa.org/48MjQsO

Our @ucs.org Scoville fellow Sean Manning has this important piece on #HouseofDynamite, laying out exactly how throwing billions or trillions of $$$ at missile defense is not how we solve the nuclear threat. We need solutions that reduce that threat instead. inkstickmedia.com/dont-get-the...

"The problem may not be just that Washington may be failing to assure its Korean ally, but that it no longer considers such assurance—and the nonproliferation it is meant to underwrite—necessary."

"For over a century, Chinese intellectuals grappled with this challenge: how to achieve modernity without losing cultural identity, how to become powerful without abandoning what made China distinctive. That historical chapter may now be closing. China appears to have found that path”

Probably the most important thing you need to know about the risk you’ll be killed if someone launches a nuclear-armed missile in your direction.

"Humanity cannot coexist with nuclear weapons forever." - critical takeaway from my @ucs.org colleague Jenn Knox's must-read piece "Five Things to Know Before Watching A House of Dynamite," the @netflix.com movie premiering in theater's tomorrow: blog.ucs.org/jknox/five-t...

"Amidst the rich sea life around us, it was hard to imagine some of the largest nuclear weapons in history vaporizing distant parts of this same ocean... What feels abstract today were immediate realities for Bigelow and his crew…"

"We live in a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape where the established rules and norms of the post–Cold War era are dissolving quicker than we can devise new ones to take their place. It’s a transition fraught with dangers but also ripe with new possibilities."

"They believe large language models, powered by neural networks, may be five to 10 years away from “takeoff”. Zhu insists that these ideas are built on sand."

"The Ellisons have also made no secret of their intention to move CBS News to the right. They are negotiating to acquire The Free Press, a heterodox publication co-founded by Bari Weiss that prioritizes criticism of “woke” culture, and put Ms. Weiss in a senior position at CBS News."

“As the United States revives production capabilities that haven’t been exercised in decades, it seems likely that the scope and cost of its ambitions will prove unwieldy. ...clumsy execution and failure to complete overly ambitious plans may actually undermine perceptions of US deterrence."

"A reflexive defense of the status quo is better than nothing. But that should not be confused with a political strategy….Do the Democrats have a vision beyond reaffirming the 1990s’ best practices?”

"Even when researchers control for big urban centers, the red-state murder problem persists. Remove the largest city from every red state, and their homicide rate still far exceeds that of blue states.”

"In at least 15 coups and coup attempts with links to the military since Brazil overthrew its monarchy in 1889, Thursday marked the first time the leaders of one of those plots have been convicted.”

"For Koreans, this incident was more than a moment of indignity; it raised a fundamental question: Is the U.S. a safe and welcoming place for the very investments its leaders once championed? “

Excellent @sciam.bsky.social Golden Dome article details the lack of information about the proposed system, the enormous amount of taxpayer $$$s it will consume (even as it fails), & the negative ramifications for US security overall: www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-...

@tayloraloy.bsky.social Apologies for lack of context. I agree that given public concern, venting into another container would seem logical and I voiced that to NMED. LANL rejected that option because it results in additional waste. Given the obvious public concern, another FTWC seems better to me.

"Rushed Approval of Tritium Venting for Los Alamos National Laboratory Ignores Public Input, Alternatives" - statement by my colleague @dkspaulding.bsky.social www.ucs.org/about/news/r...

"That middle class has so eroded in size and in purchasing power, and the wealth of our top earners has so exploded, that America’s most important market today is its affluent. "

You should budget more for #coffee in the coming months (and possibly years) and expect lower quality as US buyers look for alternative supplies.

US “defense” contractors are more interested in making money than in making weapons that work. Trump’s “Golden Dome” is aptly named and their dream come true.

Nations don’t rise or fall. There are no laws of history. Individuals make decisions. Nations are abstractions with no will or agency. That said, it seems impossible to deny the “West” is failing. The individuals who own and run it are some combination of incompetent, irresponsible and corrupt.

But wait! Like pit production, that new missile is also vastly over budget and behind schedule. Its costs went up 81% and the production schedule so far behind that the Air Force announced they may need to keep the existing Minuteman missiles until 2050!  news.bgov.com/bloomberg-go...

Here's the good news. My colleague @dkspaulding.bsky.social has already done a deep dive on plutonium pit production and concluded that there is no need for the US to produce new pits. They are not required to maintain US security. Here's the report summary: www.ucs.org/sites/defaul...

The Department of Energy, correctly concerned about the NNSA's efforts to produce new plutonium pits, has mandated a review of the deeply troubled - and unnecessary - effort. Here's the DOE letter announcing the study, courtesy of the Los Alamos Study Group: lasg.org/MPF2/documen...

Friendly reminder that DOE also manages the nations nuclear stockpile.

"In policy dialogues in Beijing this summer, Chinese scholars and decisionmakers repeated a simple phrase that captured their newfound sense of empowerment: “So what?” “There is a trade war. So what?” “Trump might dial up the pressure on China. So what?” More resignation than “enjoyment” IMHO.

My 80th anniversary act of reflection was to watch what the translators titled "Dead to Rights.” The Chinese title is 南京照相馆 (Nanjing Photograghy Studio). It tells a story many Americans don't know, and Japanese government officials minimize or deny. Ilived in Nanjing for 5 years and know it well.

"The ability to tell the truth, especially when it does not suit any particularly partisan aims, is an essential prerequisite for a free society. Scientists can leverage their substantial social standing and trustworthiness to preserve this vital ingredient. "

They are "training" A.I. using every bit of garbage they can scrape from the web, so it should not be surprising that "...the payoff for businesses ... is lagging behind (and) plagued by ... an irritating tendency by chatbots to make stuff up." Garbage in, garbage out.

Share your Day 13 action on socials! You can tag me, @standupforscience.bsky.social, use our hashtags #31days #standupforscience and #summerfightforscience ✊🏼❤️ We don’t want to spam email inboxes, so if you want the daily email, make sure to sign up here: www.standupforscience.net/31-days-of-a...

South Korea’s National Assembly passed a bill on Monday stripping artificial intelligence-powered digital textbooks of their legal status as official teaching materials, dealing a heavy blow to the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s flagship education reform project.

China’s claims to "the South China Sea, the Taiwan Straits, Taiwan, the Senkaku Islands, and huge pieces of India” existed long before Trump - long before the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, in fact. It’s hard to resolve territorial disputes if you misperceive their origins.