Latest news with #JillHruby
Gizmodo
19-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Record-Breaking Fusion Lab More Than Doubles Its 2022 Energy Breakthrough
The world's only fusion experiment that actually gives back more energy than it takes in is now breaking its own records. According to TechCrunch, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently pushed its fusion yield—first to 5.2 megajoules, and then to 8.6 megajoules—more than doubling the energy released in its historic shot in 2022. That original breakthrough was the first time scientists had ever achieved 'ignition'—a fusion reaction that generated more energy (3.15 megajoules) than the lasers put into the fuel (2.05 megajoules). Importantly, that achievement does not take into account the amount of energy put into the system to power the reaction—essentially, 300 megajoules of energy from the plug in the wall. Nevertheless, the accomplishment indicated the tantalizing promise of nuclear fusion as a carbon-free, essentially limitless source of energy. Jill Hruby, the under secretary for nuclear security, summed it up as 'the first tentative steps towards a clean energy source that could revolutionize the world.' Fusion isn't new—scientists have been chasing it for nearly a century. The problem has always been scale: It generally costs way more energy to trigger a fusion reaction than what comes out of said reaction. The NIF's achievement changed that—for a moment, humanity replicated the energy source of stars and came out ahead. The new surge in energy yield is a large jump for the experiment, though it's still very far off from providing a sustainable clean energy source (consider the 300 megajoules necessary to power the 2022 experiment). And that's to say nothing of building an actual fusion energy plant, and figuring out a way to produce fusion power at scale and integrate the budding technology into the world's power grid. The system works via inertial confinement fusion, using 192 laser beams to compress a diamond-coated pellet the size of a peppercorn—basically giving it a tiny, star-like explosion inside a golden cylinder. The laser blast occurs inside a 10-meter-wide vacuum chamber, heating the fuel to over 100 million degrees Fahrenheit and pressures hundreds of billion of times Earth's atmosphere. The team repeated the trick in 2023, and by the recent report, it seems the experiment's efficiency has only improved. Experts still see big roadblocks for inertial confinement as a practical energy source. That's why other teams are pursuing other means of fusion—namely magnetic confinement, which uses magnetic fields to hold plasma—to prove that pathway to clean energy. Other projects like ITER—a massive tokamak under construction in France—are attempting to generate record amounts of energy output, though they will never be part of the energy grid. Still, fusion's long-held reputation as a pipe dream—'always 30 years away'—might finally be changing. The engineering problems ensnaring the field are vast, but the substantial progress of NIF is an indication of the field's momentum at a time when the world is in dire need of clean energy solutions at scale.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Foreign adversaries are seeking federal workers angry about Trump's layoffs as potential intelligence sources, report says
Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies are looking for disgruntled former or current federal workers as possible sources, according to CNN. The effort comes as the Trump administration continues with its plans for mass layoffs, some of which it has tried to quickly reverse after discovering workers' national security roles and knowledge of secret information. Foreign adversaries like China and Russia are trying to recruit federal employees who are angry about the Trump administration's mass layoffs as possible intelligence sources, according to CNN. In particular, foreign intel agencies are looking for recently fired workers with security clearances as well as current probationary staff at risk of being laid off with information about critical infrastructure and key details about the federal bureaucracy, sources told the network. The efforts include the creation of recruitment websites and aggressive outreach to federal employees on social media, the report added, with one source saying adversaries see them as especially vulnerable now as they are "out of a job, bitter about being fired, etc." "It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see that these cast aside federal workers with a wealth of institutional knowledge represent staggeringly attractive targets to the intelligence services of our competitors and adversaries," another source told CNN. CNN also cited a document from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that said the intelligence community has "high confidence" foreign adversaries are trying to "capitalize" on the Trump administration's layoff plans by seeking out federal workers. A spokesman for NCIS, which coordinates counterintelligence activities across the Navy Department, declined to comment on or confirm the existence of any investigations or operations. But he told Fortune that service members and civilian personnel with security clearances are indeed at a higher risk of being targeted by foreign intelligence agencies, adding that NCIS routinely briefs commands across the department on such threats. The spokesman added that NCIS is also investigating the unauthorized disclosure of information originally reported by CNN. The White House and CIA as well as the Chinese and Russian embassies didn't respond to requests for comment. The Department of Government Efficiency has spearheaded a wave of layoffs, especially of federal workers still in their probationary periods, across a range of agencies. But some workers with critical national security duties have already been caught up in the culling. For example, recent Energy Department layoffs included specialists at the National Nuclear Safety Administration who are responsible for designing and maintaining US nuclear weapons. Because the laid-off staff hold national security secrets, the agency quickly reversed the decision and sought to recall the workers. But some may be gone for good. "These people are likely never going to come back and work for the government," Jill Hruby, who served as the NNSA administrator during the Biden administration, told Bloomberg last month. "We've had a very active program requiring an increase to our staff so the indiscriminate layoffs of people will be really difficult for the coming years." Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced plans to cut 5,400 as part of an initial phase of reductions, and the CIA is planning an unspecified number of layoffs, though it reportedly would be the largest in nearly 50 years. President Donald Trump has signaled that the Defense Department is especially ripe for budget cuts, claiming last month that there's "hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse." Weeks later Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the military services to identify $50 billion, or about 8% of the Pentagon's budget, that could be cut next year. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dismissed Nuclear Bomb Specialists Recalled by Energy Department
(Bloomberg) -- The Energy Department is seeking to bring back nuclear energy specialists after abruptly telling hundreds of workers that their jobs were eliminated, according to two people familiar with the matter. Progressive Portland Plots a Comeback Why American Mobility Ground to a Halt SpaceX Bid to Turn Texas Starbase Into City Is Set for Vote in May Saudi Arabia's Neom Signs $5 Billion Deal for AI Data Center Cutting Arena Subsidies Can Help Cover Tax Cuts, Think Tank Says The employees, responsible for designing and maintaining the nation's cache of nuclear weapons at the National Nuclear Safety Administration, were part of a larger wave of workers dismissed from the Energy Department, drawing alarm from national security experts. Between 300 and 400 NNSA workers were terminated, according to a person familiar with the matter. The agency's quick reversal was announced Friday in an all-staff meeting. The NNSA is seeking to recall the workers because they deal with sensitive national security secrets, according to the people, who weren't authorized to talk about the matter, which is not public. Those cuts are especially concerning because the positions typically require high-level security clearances and training that can take 18 months or longer, said Jill Hruby, who served as the NNSA administrator during the Biden administration. 'These people are likely never going to come back and work for the government,' Hruby said in a phone interview. 'We've had a very active program requiring an increase to our staff so the indiscriminate layoffs of people will be really difficult for the coming years.' The firings — part of a wave of terminations across the federal government this week spurred by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency — underscore the chaos as the world's richest man seeks to quickly overhaul the federal bureaucracy in Trump's image. At the Small Business Administration earlier this week, some workers who were told they were being fired, received a second message telling them that they weren't being terminated and that their jobs were safe — only to receive a third message telling them they were, in fact, out of a job. The NNSA firings were part of a wider swath of dismissals across the Energy Department, which included employees at the Loan Programs Office, a recently formed unit to fund clean energy projects, the group responsible for preventing cyberattacks against the power grid, and the department's general counsel office. The Energy Department and the NNSA did not respond to requests for comment. Nuclear Programs The NNSA is a semi-autonomous arm of the Energy Department responsible for producing and dismantling nuclear weapons, providing the Navy with nuclear reactors for submarines and responding to radiological emergencies, among other duties. The agency also plays a role a key role in counter-terrorism, transporting nuclear weapons around the country and responding to nuclear incidents around the world. Recent focuses have included examining how AI can be used to make it potentially easer for people to make nuclear bombs, Hruby said. 'These are areas where we've been concerned and staffed up to respond to that,' Hruby said. 'These are working with high skill-levels that are willing to work around- the-clock if needed.' Among the deepest cuts was to the Energy Department's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, where roughly 25% of its staff was eliminated, according to a breakdown of the cuts seen by Bloomberg News. That office received some $27 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as bipartisan infrastructure law, to finance carbon capture, hydrogen and advanced nuclear projects. Among it's priorities is managing an $8 billion plan to establish a network of hydrogen hubs throughout the US. 'This program helps bring competitive manufacturing back to American shores, so weakening it is only going to help foreign competitors,' said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit group that advocated for the funding. Other cuts included roughly 50 people from the Energy Department's Loan Programs Office, according to a person familiar with the matter. The green bank swelled to $400 billion in lending authority under President Joe Biden and has funded loans to companies including Rivian Automotive Inc. and California utility PG&E Corp. for a host of clean-energy projects. The program, which was among those frozen amid an ongoing review of Energy Department funding by the Trump administration, has nearly $47 billion in conditional commitments to companies it has yet to finalize. In addition, according to the breakdown, cuts included roughly a dozen people from Energy Department's General Council's office and approximately 20 individuals in its Grid Deployment Office, overseeing some $22 billion in federal funding for power grid projects. In addition, about 15 people in the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains and about half a dozen from the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, which guards against threats to the power grid and other energy infrastructure, were dismissed. In addition roughly 10% of the Energy Department's information technology team was eliminated as well, according to a person familiar with the matter. --With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Jamie Tarabay. The Undocumented Workers Who Helped Build Elon Musk's Texas Gigafactory The Unicorn Boom Is Over, and Startups Are Getting Desperate The NBA Has Fallen Into an Efficiency Trap Japan Perfected 7-Eleven. Why Can't the US Get It Right? Elon Musk's DOGE Is a Force Americans Can't Afford to Ignore ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
