Geoff Brumfiel
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gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Geoff Brumfiel
@gbrumfiel.bsky.social
15K followers 720 following 1.3K posts
I'm an editor/correspondent for NPR. Mostly smart on the radio. Mostly stupid on everywhere else.

ChatGPT describes me as: "Aerospace Sleuth, Nuclear Nerd, and NPR Superfan — with a Side of Surreal Humor."

Signal: https://signal.me/#eu/PoRoBSPUsb1fVLiml
Posts Replies Media Videos
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Just watched “Weapons” and… is that the perfect horror movie? It might be the perfect horror movie.
a woman with red hair and glasses is sitting on a couch next to a lamp
ALT: a woman with red hair and glasses is sitting on a couch next to a lamp
media.tenor.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:33 AM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
NEW: For decade or more, the the majority of U.S. political support for Israel has come from the right. Now there are serious signs that support may be crumbling.

full story
www.npr.org/2025/11/07/n...
Support for Israel among U.S. conservatives is starting to crack. Here's why
For a decade, political support for Israel has come from conservative Christians. But now isolationism and antisemitism are changing the tone.
www.npr.org
November 7, 2025 at 2:47 PM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
BREAKING: Months after showing him the door, Donald Trump has renominated Jared Isaacman as administrator of NASA.
November 4, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
cherylrofer.bsky.social
This needs to be shared more widely. It's on Facebook, which AFAIK doesn't allow direct links to its posts. Terry clearly wants it to be shared, so I don't feel bad about posting it in multiple screenshots.

Terry Wallace was the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
A brown cloud arising from an underground nuclear test in Nevada. Dry Nevadan hills are in the background. The scientific encampment to control the test and take data is in the lower right. This is the Baneberry nuclear test, and it is not how underground nuclear tests should look. Screenshot of a Facebook post: Terry Wallace On December 18, 1970, a nuclear weapons test was conducted in an underground shaft at the Nevada Test Site. The test, code-named Baneberry, was detonated at a depth of about 900 feet. Baneberry was a relatively small weapons test and was conducted at Yucca Flats (a large playa) in alluvial soil derived from surrounding deposits of volcanic tuff. Within the alluvium, there were intermittent seams of montmorillonite clay that were saturated with water. The drill hole was filled with a concrete plug and sorted materials; the procedure for plugging the hole was consistent with previous tests at Yucca Flats, which aimed to fully contain the radioactive products within a cavity produced by the nuclear explosion. In the case of Baneberry, the detonation seemed normal until about 3 ½ minutes after the “boom,” when a large fissure opened up a few hundred feet from the test shaft, and a boiling cloud of radioactive debris rose above the Nevada desert (Figure 1 is an image of the Baneberry release). The cloud rose about 10,000 feet above the test and was visible in Las Vegas, 100 miles away. The cloud spread radioactive dust across a broad area, contaminating 86 workers at the test site. The total radioactive release was 6.7 megacuries (for comparison, Chernobyl released 200 megacuries), including 80,000 curies of iodine-131. Two of the workers who were contaminated died in 1974 from myeloid leukemia. The accident resulted in a six-month suspension of nuclear weapons testing, and a root cause analysis revealed three geological issues that combined to create the release: an unrecognized fault in the alluvium, a buried escarpment between the alluvium and limestone, and the structural weakness of the water-saturated clay. Post continues (2) the structural weakness of the water-saturated clay. The summary conclusion of the root cause analysis indicated that a thorough geological analysis was needed for all future nuclear tests, and it recommended the establishment of a containment evaluation panel (CEP) for the approval of any tests. This panel required that “successful containment means no radioactivity detectable offsite, and no unanticipated release of activity onsite.” Of the 200+ tests that occurred after the creation of the CEP, only four tests had releases—the worst of which was a test called Diagonal Line, detonated about a year after Baneberry, and resulting in a release of 6,000 curies. I started my career at Los Alamos National Laboratory as an undergraduate student in 1975 employed by the J Division, which was responsible for providing the containment package for LANL nuclear tests. My first project involved modeling the small earthquakes that occurred after an explosion. Once an explosion is detonated, it creates a cavity by vaporizing and compressing the surrounding materials. This cavity is expected to collapse over the following days or weeks to create a porous chimney that traps the gases produced in the explosion. This containment strategy is unique to the geology of the Nevada Test Site and is not applicable to other testing environments, especially crystalline rock (like the North Korean Test Site). Over the three years I worked as a student at LANL, I analyzed data from more than 70 tests, which initiated my career in forensic geophysics and eventually led to my becoming the 11th Director of LANL. On September 23, 1992, the U.S. conducted its final explosive nuclear Post continues (3): On September 23, 1992, the U.S. conducted its final explosive nuclear test, code-named Divider (a LANL test). Shortly after the test, President Bush announced a test moratorium that was extended indefinitely by President Clinton. This ushered in a new era in which nuclear weapons were evaluated not through explosions but by scientific tools that verified material properties through dynamic testing and advanced computer simulations that encapsulated the complex physics of nuclear reactions and explosions along with the material properties derived from non-explosive experiments. The Directors of Los Alamos, Livermore, and Sandia are required to write an annual stockpile assessment letter that assures the nuclear stockpile's reliability; this letter is finalized after a yearlong assessment of the safety, reliability, and performance of both the nuclear and non-nuclear components of all weapon types in the U.S. arsenal. The letters are highly classified and closely held, but no letter has indicated that the U.S. needs to return to nuclear testing. This is hugely significant not only for the U.S. but also for the world—the moratorium on testing represents a small step toward a world that recognizes that nuclear weapons are not weapons of war, but rather instruments of deterrence. On October 28, President Trump announced that the U.S. would restart nuclear weapons tests: “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I
November 4, 2025 at 7:15 PM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Wait... is that Mike Lindell?
November 4, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
nktpnd.bsky.social
Dick Cheney, among other things, directed the single largest drawdown of nuclear weapons in US history at the end of the Cold War www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/D...
November 4, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
royalpratt.bsky.social
NEWS: Federal agents crashed with woman’s car, pointed guns at her, dragged her out by legs, tossed her in a minivan, held her and (eventually) let her go without charges. This as Chicagoans say the immigration blitz is out of control. (DHS blames her.)
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/03/c...
Chicago woman dragged out of her car after colliding with ICE demands accountability
The arrest of Dayanne Figueroa highlights growing concerns about the use of force against U.S. citizens and due process. She was released after a few hours without charges.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:26 PM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
NEW: Secretary of Energy Chris Wright says nuclear testing will not involve detonating a device.

“These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions."
a man says " you keep using that word i do not think it means what you think it means . "
ALT: a man says " you keep using that word i do not think it means what you think it means . "
media.tenor.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:13 AM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
NEW: Here's the basics of what a return to nuclear testing would look like for the United States.

www.npr.org/2025/10/30/n...
Trump says he wants to resume nuclear testing. Here's what that would mean
The U.S. has not conducted a nuclear test in over 30 years. Experts say doing one now could make America less safe.
www.npr.org
October 30, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Now is a GREAT time to learn about nuclear testing. As it happens, earlier this year I published a story from the very tunnels where America's most top-secret tests are done. First time journalists had been inside since the 1990s.

www.npr.org/2025/01/29/n...
Step inside the secret lab where America tests its nukes
A thousand feet beneath the desert, the United States conducts experiments to verify that its weapons work. But some fear a live test could come soon.
www.npr.org
October 30, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
nuclearkatie.com
Currently talking multiple people off the ledge about "equal basis" and all that just text me to get in line
October 30, 2025 at 2:48 AM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Now is a GREAT time to learn about nuclear testing. As it happens, earlier this year I published a story from the very tunnels where America's most top-secret tests are done. First time journalists had been inside since the 1990s.

www.npr.org/2025/01/29/n...
Step inside the secret lab where America tests its nukes
A thousand feet beneath the desert, the United States conducts experiments to verify that its weapons work. But some fear a live test could come soon.
www.npr.org
October 30, 2025 at 2:52 AM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
NEW: President Trump says he has instructed the DOD to begin testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Russia and China.

It’s unclear what this means since Russia and China are not currently conducting nuclear tests and the DOD does not conduct testing for the US (it’s the DOE that does).
October 30, 2025 at 1:17 AM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
New A.I. grift just dropped: Spoofing real musicians to steal their follows and listens off Spotify.

(By @bobbyallyn.bsky.social)

www.npr.org/2025/10/27/n...
Your favorite band has a new single? It might be AI
With AI music generators widely available, scammers are uploading songs to the pages of inactive artists and dead musicians. Spotify says it is cracking down, but the practice persists.
www.npr.org
October 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
thebarentsobserver.com
No radiation measured in Norway after Putin's nuclear-powered Burevestnik missile allegedly flew 14,000 km over the Arctic last Tuesday ☢️ 🚀 ⚛️
No radiation measured in Norway after Putin's Burevestnik missile allegedly flew 14,000 km
The Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, told Vladimir Putin on Sunday that a successful test of the Burevestnik missile was carried out on October 21, with the missile flying 14,000 km and s...
www.thebarentsobserver.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
armscontrolwonk.bsky.social
David was all over that Burevestnik test.
puca.bsky.social David @puca.bsky.social · 22d
Vessels appear to be beginning their migration from Matochkin Shar, northwards to monitoring positions, either side of the north island.

Current Burevestnik related NOTAMs cover out to 22 OCT.
October 26, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
jenlucpiquant.bsky.social
AI Is the Bubble to Burst Them All www.wired.com/story/ai-bub...
AI Is the Bubble to Burst Them All
I talked to the scholars who literally wrote the book on tech bubbles—and applied their test.
www.wired.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:36 AM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Before and after images from Planet Labs of the White House east wing.
October 24, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
atomicanalyst.bsky.social
At 10:00 AM EDT today in 1962—as the US naval quarantine around Cuba was coming into effect—Commander-in-Chief of Strategic Air Command General Thomas Power ordered all SAC forces to Defense Condition (DEFCON) 2 for the first time ever. All other US armed forces remained at DEFCON 3.
An official color portrait of General Thomas Power in uniform, sitting at his desk at Strategic Air Command headquarters and looking slightly up at the camera. A red emergency telephone is visible over his right shoulder. A black and white photograph of SAC commander General Thomas Power sitting at a desk at a command post and speaking into a microphone while surrounded by four other senior male Air Force generals.
October 24, 2025 at 3:44 PM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
OK, so I just put out a long thread on some of the things experts had to say about "A House of Dynamite" (and I wrote a story, below).

But here's a much more philosophical (and personal) 🧵 on why I don't think it works as a nuclear war movie.

www.npr.org/2025/10/24/n...
Here's what experts say 'A House of Dynamite' gets wrong (and right) about nuclear war
Some praised realistic elements like the depiction of the White House situation room. But others said parts of the plot didn't ring true.
www.npr.org
October 24, 2025 at 2:29 PM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
A House of Dynamite is a gripping nuclear thriller... that makes no sense?

Here, finally, is my piece about what experts have to say about the movie (short 🧵 and then I'll do another 🧵 on what I think about it)....

www.npr.org/2025/10/24/n...
Here's what experts say 'A House of Dynamite' gets wrong (and right) about nuclear war
Some praised realistic elements like the depiction of the White House situation room. But others said parts of the plot didn't ring true.
www.npr.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
katieharbath.bsky.social
Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.
October 23, 2025 at 5:16 PM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
I've been looking for a bolt-action bayonet...
covertshores.bsky.social H I Sutton @covertshores.bsky.social · 18d
AI slop everywhere?

This is the cover of a youtube video about the Lee–Enfield.. presumably real photos of those must be hard to come by?!?!?!?
October 23, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
NEW: After The Washington Post reported Monday on the demolition of the "East Wing facade," a new picture obtained by Law Dork that was taken on Tuesday shows that a substantial portion of the entirety of the East Wing has been demolished.
Photograph of ongoing demolition of the East Wing of the White House. Monday's photo from the Washington Post
October 21, 2025 at 8:13 PM
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Is AI actually replacing programmers?

"[It] produced this just kind of messy blob of code that didn't work and nobody understood it. And the thing I'm working on now is just trying to actually do it kind of the old way."--Amazon software engineer to NPR's Huo Jingnan.

www.npr.org/2025/10/21/n...
Tech CEOs say the era of 'code by AI' is here. Some software engineers are skeptical
While AI is increasingly used to write code, every line is still reviewed by humans. Some engineers complain about having to clean up AI-generated code.
www.npr.org
October 21, 2025 at 6:25 PM