LightNews — News, ranked by scholars

Stephen Schwartz

@atomicanalyst.bsky.social

However, SRAMs were not actually removed from the nuclear stockpile until 1993. In 1999, the last W69 was dismantled at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. But not until early 2016 were all of its thermonuclear secondary components finally disassembled at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

A color graphic from the National Nuclear Security Administration titled "W69 Dismantlement Timeline" showing an outline of the United States and the abbreviated names of multiple NNSA weapons facilities in California, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Tennessee, and South Carolina, as well as an annotated timeline for the dismantlement of the W69 warhead, indicating it was first manufactured in the early 1970s, entered the stockpile in 1972, and retired in 1992. The last W69 was taken apart in 1999 at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. Its plutonium pit was stored there and its thermonuclear components (canned subassembly) was shipped to the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Disassembly of W69 canned subassemblies at Y-12 only began in 2012 and ended in 2016.

September 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM

Stephen Schwartz

@atomicanalyst.bsky.social

In 1990, then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney ordered SRAMs removed from all alert bombers after all three nuclear weapons laboratory directors warned that their W69 warheads posed an unacceptable risk in case of fire, an extreme danger they had first warned the DoD about in 1974.

A color photograph of a B-52 bomber in camouflage livery at an Air Force base, with multiple white SRAMs visible on the right-wing pylon.

A three-man Air Force munitions crew in green fatigues pushing very hard on a fully-loaded wheeled transport to position it beneath a B-52 bomber bomb bay prior to loading Short-Range Attack Missiles.

A color photograph of a W69 warhead on horizontal display in a classified Department of Defense museum. It is silver-colored and tapered, with a spike projecting from the top (front).

September 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM

Stephen Schwartz

@atomicanalyst.bsky.social

That would have destroyed Grand Forks (home to approximately 60,000 people) and showered Duluth or Minneapolis-St. Paul with lethal fallout, depending on which way the wind was blowing.

At the time, more than 200 nuclear gravity bombs and SRAMs were deployed at Grand Forks AFB. An additional ...

A Google Maps satellite image of Grand Forks Air Force Base (left, its large runway very visible), showing its location relative to Grand Forks (right) and the North Dakota state line (top). Grand Forks International Airport is to the left (west) of Grand Forks

September 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM

Stephen Schwartz

@atomicanalyst.bsky.social

That night, a southeast wind gusted up to 35 mph. The B-52 pointed in that direction. That alone kept the flames away from the fuselage. Had the nose been facing west, the fire would have engulfed the nuclear weapons in the bomb bay and incinerated all six crew members as they evacuated the plane.

A color photograph of a B-52 bomb bay from below (looking forward), showing three SRAMs on an internal rotary launcher. Two B28 thermonuclear bombs (the bottom two in a rack of four) are also visible in front of them in the bomb bay.

September 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM

Stephen Schwartz

@atomicanalyst.bsky.social

Tonight in 1980 at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, the number five engine on the right wing of a B-52H on ground alert caught fire during a drill. It was loaded with 8 Short-Range Attack Missiles (SRAMs, each armed with a 170-200-kiloton W69 warhead) and 4 B28 bombs (70 kilotons to 1.45 Megatons).

A black and white nightime photograph of the B-52H bomber on fire at Grand Forks Air Force Base, with smoke and flames moving toward the left side of the aircraft.

September 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM

Archidekt

@archidekt.com

Sleepers of Aether Revolt week: Sram's Expertise makes three artifact bodies for four mana plus lets you cast another thing for free. That's a tremendous amount of value for a card in just 20k decks.

edhrec.com/cards/srams-...

#edh #mtg #mtgcommander #commander #magicthegathering

August 31, 2026 at 3:15 PM

Marc Jacobs (he/him)

@trollball.bsky.social

8T memory cells for the win.

Or are you old enough to remember poly load SRAMs?

(My first job was at Cypress)

August 2, 2026 at 3:59 AM

newsarea.bsky.social

@newsarea.bsky.social

Spectral Design & Test (SDT) demonstrates High-Capacity SRAM Memory Compilers targeted at …

SOMERVILLE, N.J., July 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spectral Design & Test Inc. (SDT) an industry leader in custom circuit design of embedded SRAMs & design automation software announced its participation…

Spectral Design & Test (SDT) demonstrates High-Capacity SRAM Memory Compilers targeted at …

SOMERVILLE, N.J., July 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spectral Design & Test Inc. (SDT) an industry leader in custom circuit design of embedded SRAMs & design automation software announced its participation in the 2026 DAC, taking place on July 27...

news-area.com

July 24, 2026 at 2:57 PM

Underfox

@underfox3.bsky.social

In this paper, researchers have evaluated the performance of 3nm GAA-FET SRAMs under self-heating and radiation hardness using different substrate isolation techniques.

arxiv.org/pdf/2607.05789