== Count Down == === The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weapons === ==== Sarah Scoles . . 2024 . . Beaverton Lib 355.8251 ==== 264 pages including references and index. I lost interest around page 70. Perhaps I will try again after I read the other thousand books in my incoming pile. The focus is on stockpile maintenance. Electronics upgrades, new circuit technology replacing old unavailable devices, But the main problem is radioactive decay of the "pits", the vaguely described balls of plutonium/uranium/?? that radioactively decay into inert or fission damping elements. Very slow decay; the pits ''probably'' work fine, like the last US weapons tested in 1992, and the [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Nuclear-Test-Ban_Treaty | Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ]] signed by Clinton in 1996, but ''not'' [[ | ratified ]] by the Senate, or by China, Russia, US, Iran, and Israel . The subject matter is necessarily vague, because the most "interesting" information is classified. Hence my loss of interest. Some pointers to other books and documents that I might read someday. .p37 [[ https://books.google.com/books/about/Nuclear_Rites.html?id=x6QwDwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description | Nuclear Rites ]] by Hugh Gusterson, a 1996 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography | ethnography ]] of scientists at LLNL. .p37 [[ https://www.acq.osd.mil/ncbdp/nm/NMHB2020rev/ | Nuclear Matters Handbook ]] revised 2020 .p45 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James | William James ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essays_in_Radical_Empiricism | Essays in Radical Empiricsm ]] .p56 [[ https://www.usni.org/people/alex-larzelere | Alex Larzelere ]] [[ https://search.worldcat.org/title/727360512 | Delivering Insight ]] .p57 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W93 | W93 nuclear warhead ]] .p58 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Capitan_(supercomputer) | El Capitan ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exascale_computing | exascale supercomputer ]] at LLNL .p60 LLNL(?) [[ https://www.sandia.gov/quantum/quantum-information-sciences/projects/qscout/ | QSCOUT ]] quantum computing testbed based on trapped ions, five [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qubit | qubits ]] in 2023 .p144 [[ https://www.michigan.gov/mpscs/-/media/Project/Websites/MPSCS/Interoperability-Conference/2024-Presentations/Cobalt-Magnet-2025-Exercise.pdf?rev=d584ec2f9e5f45fa8713826a96561a51&hash=7F96F805DE3C2E212D2DC48B18D0D56E#:~:text=The%20Cobalt%20Magnet%20exercise%20series,a%20radiological%20or%20nuclear%20incident. | Cobalt Magnet ]] nuclear security exercise == References == . AIP [[ https://www.aip.org/fyi/2023/fy22-budget-outlook-national-nuclear-security-administration | FY22 Budget Outlook: National Security Administration ]] . Baker & Silbernagel [[ https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1471684 | The Vega Subcritical Experiment (SCE) at the Nevada National Security Site U1a Complex ]] . Jack Beyrer 2021 [[ https://freebeacon.com/national-security/white-house-stalls-nuclear-updates-in-hopes-of-appeasing-liberals | White House Gives in to Liberal Push to Stall Nuclear Modernization ]] . Joseph Choi 2021 [[ https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/575483-us-discloses-size-of-nuclear-stockpile-for-first-time-since-2018 | US discloses size of nuclear stockpile for first time since 2018 ]] . DOE [[ https://www.acq.osd.mil/ncbdp/nm/NMHB2020rev/ | NUCLEAR MATTERS HANDBOOK 2020 [REVISED] ]] . [[ https://searchlightnm.org/the-ukraine-war-has-put-lanls-nuclear-weapons-mission-in-the-spotlight/ | The core debate ]] Annabella Farmer 2022 March 23 . [[ https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-nuclearpower-idUSKBN2BA0CN/ | Advanced nuclear reactors no safer than conventional nuclear plants, says science group ]] 2021 March 18 . [[ https://www.osti.gov/biblio/10185731 | The Nuclear Detonation Detection System on the GPS satellites ]] 1993 July 27 . [[ https://www.sipri.org/yearbook/2022/10 | 10. World nuclear forces ]] . [[ https://www.energy.gov/articles/what-stranger-things-didnt-get-quite-so-right-about-energy-department | What “Stranger Things” Didn’t Get Quite-So-Right About the Energy Department ]] Paul Lester 2016 August 5 . [[ https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/16/the-bomb-in-the-backyard/ | The Bomb in the Backyard ]] . [[ https://trivalleycares.org/2021/groups-fire-back-at-feds-move-to-dismiss-plutonium-pit-lawsuit | Groups Fire Back at Feds’ Move to Dismiss Plutonium Pit Lawsuit ]] . [[ https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/trumps-troubling-nuclear-plan | Trump’s Troubling Nuclear Plan ]] . [[ https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/w87-1-modification-program-fact-sheet | W87-1 Modification Program fact sheet ]] . [[ https://media.nti.org/pdfs/WG1_Verifying_Baseline_Declarations_FINAL.pdf | Nuclear Thread Initiative: Innovating Verification: New Tools & New Actors to Reduce Nuclear Risks ]] . [[ https://archive.org/details/myjourneyatnucle0000perr | My Journey at the Nuclear Brink ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Perry | William J. Perry ]] . [[ https://archive.org/details/nuclearfirststri0000ques | Nuclear First Strike: Consequences of a Broken Taboo ]] [[ https://gvpt.umd.edu/feature/memorium-professor-emeritus-george-h-quester | George H. Quester ]] . [[ https://search.worldcat.org/title/869589429 | Underground Bases and Tunnels: what is the government trying to hide? ]] Richard Sauder 2014 . [[ https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116787515251566636 | A World Free of Nuclear Weapons ]] By George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn 2007 Jan 4 . [[ https://search.worldcat.org/title/141386436 | Doomsday men : the real Dr. Strangelove and the dream of the superweapon ]] by search.worldcat.org/title/141386436 | Doomsday men : the real Dr. Strangelove and the dream of the superweapon ]] 2007 . [[ https://thenwwrdor.blogspot.com/2016/08/photo-of-united-states-air-force-tunnel.html | The 'New World Order' ]]