NEW: Valar Atomics announces its raised $1 Billion in funding from numerous companies including Sequoia Capital.
Geoff Brumfiel
@gbrumfiel.bsky.social
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: gbrumfiel.13 https://geoffbrumfiel.net/
UPDATED STORY: Google has paused a tool that allowed users to briefly create deepfake AI satellite images with the click of a button. www.npr.org/2026/07/31/n...
Google pauses AI satellite images, after fears of deepfakes in the sky
Journalists, human rights advocates and open source analysts recoiled in horror at the initial decision: "The opportunities for abuse and disinfo are literally boundless," said one.
npr.org
NEW: Google adds AI to satellite images, raising fears of deepfakes in the sky. Full story here: www.npr.org/2026/07/31/n...
Incredible story: With the help of AI, U.S. officials created a map that mislabeled every country in Africa. www.reuters.com/world/africa...
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screen...
reuters.com
What Visuals Show About Recent Damage to U.S. Military Sites in the Middle East www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/w...
What Visuals Show About Recent Damage to U.S. Military Sites in the Middle East
Video footage and satellite images reveal new details about Iranian strikes on U.S. targets during the latest flare-up in fighting.
nytimes.com
GUYS! I'm going on vacation for a little bit, but I didn't want to leave you without quality content. So please enjoy this THERMONUCLEAR RAGEBAIT! 😘✈️🌴
Valar Atomic's nuclear powered website has been down since their demonstration event last week. That means the reactor isn't running at the moment...
NEW: After Valar Atomics produced the first electricity last week, I got a brief interview with Isaiah Taylor, their founder and CEO. I learned some interesting stuff that's probably a bit niche for NPR's audience, but #nukesky, you're going to love it.... Here we go! 😀☢️🧵
Proposed rule revisions of federal grant guidelines by the OMB will limit transparency and the communication of scientific findings. Learn more: www.nasw.org/article... Honor America's 250th by letting your voice be heard. Log your opposition by July 13: www.regulations.gov/...
Proposed OMB changes would gut science communication — Comment by July 13
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget recently proposed extensive changes to [federal grant guidelines](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/29/2026-10817/regulation-for-federal-financial-assistance) that would severely restrict how scientists communicate their research findings to the public and American taxpayers.
nasw.org
Sayonara ALARA. The NRC is proposing removing the "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" standard from their rules for radiation exposure. The DOE removed the standard about six months ago. www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2618/...
After more than fifteen years, I've resigned from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. 280 characters isn't enough to name all the colleagues who, against all better judgment, became friends. You know who you are — whether you should admit it is a separate question.
Please note the scientifically accurate CHERENKOV joke in this headline.* (Edited by @astrokatie.com and @eaterofsun.bsky.social 😉 ) www.npr.org/2026/06/29/n...
Red, white and glowing blue: Trump's push for new reactors reaches the finish line
A program initiated by the Trump administration has allowed small companies to rush their testing of several new nuclear reactor designs. Some worry that safety is being compromised.
npr.org
Please note the scientifically accurate CHERENKOV joke in this headline.* (Edited by @astrokatie.com and @eaterofsun.bsky.social 😉 ) www.npr.org/2026/06/29/n...
Red, white and glowing blue: Trump's push for new reactors reaches the finish line
A program initiated by the Trump administration has allowed small companies to rush their testing of several new nuclear reactor designs. Some worry that safety is being compromised.
npr.org
Please note the scientifically accurate bremsstrahlung joke in this headline. www.npr.org/2026/06/29/n...
Red, white and glowing blue: Trump's push for new reactors reaches the finish line
A program initiated by the Trump administration has allowed small companies to rush their testing of several new nuclear reactor designs. Some worry that safety is being compromised.
npr.org
Scientific American Union Rally June 30, 2026•05:00 PM Springer Nature Offices (NYC) • 1 New York Plaza, NY, NY actionnetwork.org/events/scien... Come hear what happened to Scientific American. Nice weather at Battery Park. Check out the fancy digs that research grant money buys.
Scientific American Union Rally 6/30
On Tuesday, the international scientific publisher Springer Nature sold Scientific American, the iconic 181-year old publication famous for its authoritative coverage of science to LabX Media Group. L...
actionnetwork.org
AI: delivering the facts you want to hear. (Also a bit miffed they’re using the NPR badge to brand their errors).
Valar Atomics just dropped a video of their criticality test for the Ward 250 SMR, which is being run in a tent in Utah. Overheard "In accordance with the approval letter from Bob Boston, go to a step value of 20.5k" (Bob Boston is overseeing safety oversight of the RPP for DOE INL).
Staples and/or nail guns are acceptable however.
Funranium (AKA Phil Broughton)@funranium.bsky.social · last mo.A fine thread, but I can give some related advice: Do NOT use any kind of glue/tape/sticky thing to mount radioactive sources to surfaces. You may discover that the source is much more delicate than you thought when you try to remove it. Tends to cause leaking source incidents.
That's some quality British humor that is.
Sanho Tree@sanho.bsky.social · last mo.Technically, they’re Remains now.
EXCLUSIVE: Eli Lilly gave compassionate use access to retatrutide, their unapproved powerful obesity drug, to a 79-year-old man in April. The application was arranged by a top doctor at NIH, and cleared by the FDA. www.statnews.com/2026/06/23/e...
Eli Lilly gave extraordinary obesity drug access to a 79-year-old patient. Who was it?
Exclusive: STAT has learned that Eli Lilly and the FDA allowed a 79-year-old to gain extraordinary access to an experimental obesity drug through the agency’s “compassionate use” program.
statnews.com
If there's one thing I wouldn't have guessed when I moved to DC in 2001, it's that Le Diplomate would still be around and get featured regularly on 20-something's social media posts in 2026.
🛰️ ⬇️ 🔥 🌏 ☠️ but wait 🚀 🤖 + 🛰️ ⤴️ will it work? Words by me 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A spacecraft is falling to its doom — can NASA save it?
A successful rescue of the Swift space observatory could be a good omen for the Hubble Space Telescope.
nature.com
EXLCUSIVE: An analysis by two MIT researchers shows how Russia's nuclear-powered cruise missile actually works. And guys, it's not pretty. 🚀☢️🤢🧵 www.npr.org/2026/06/18/n...
Report: Russia's nuclear-powered 'Skyfall' missile is dirty and dangerous
MIT researchers think they've worked out exactly how Russia's Burevestnik nuclear-powered missile flies. "It's almost certainly a terrible idea," one analyst said. "But it's not an impossible idea."
npr.org
GUYS! Ukraine has dropped plans for a balloon launched rocket. According to this report, the DART rocket is designed to be EW resistant. But guess what? It's also a really bad idea! You know I can never let a balloon-weapon go uncommented on, so here we go... militarnyi.com/en/news/ukra...
EXLCUSIVE: An analysis by two MIT researchers shows how Russia's nuclear-powered cruise missile actually works. And guys, it's not pretty. 🚀☢️🤢🧵 www.npr.org/2026/06/18/n...
Report: Russia's nuclear-powered 'Skyfall' missile is dirty and dangerous
MIT researchers think they've worked out exactly how Russia's Burevestnik nuclear-powered missile flies. "It's almost certainly a terrible idea," one analyst said. "But it's not an impossible idea."
npr.org