Montana, Nuclear Weapons Keystone

 

Montana, Keystone to Nuclear Weapons

1. General Situation:

• Fixated on AI, complacency greets the threat of nuclear annihilation (Simon Tisdall, Guardian, October 12, 2026)
• Putin just threatened to deploy nuclear arsenal of 4400 warheads, against NATO because of a supposed plan to invade the exclave of Kaliningrad.
• Trump threatening to “annihilate the Islamic Republic” in the US-Israeli war by saying Iran is weeks away from the bomb, while ignoring Israel’s nuclear weapons and pursuing a deal with Saudi Arabia for civilian capability that can be repurposed.
• North Korea has gained status as nuclear weapons state and we seem to have discarded our post war policy of denuclearization and reunification.
• China’s has 650 operational warheads growing to 1,000, worried about Japan.
• Forever wars continue in Palestine, Iran, Ukraine, Myanmar, Yemen and Sudan.
• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres just said the world’s in itsmost dangerous nuclear moment since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, while Trump says “might makes right.”
• Non-partisan Arms Control Association bemoans lapses of treaties, high level talks between nuclear powers, while threats become more complex.
• There is a developing nuclear contest for control of outer space and the moon.
• Between November 30 and December 4 the First Review Conference on the Treaty Prohibition Nuclear Weapons will meet at the United Nations in New York. President Trump is in a good position to extract himself from the conflict with Iran, which has not yet signed, by signing with them the Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons, he will likely not do that, in favor of moving into high gear with Sentinel & W87-1, Golden Dome and speeding up the nuclear attack submarine program.  The United States, along with other nuclear armed states has consistently opposed the TPNW.  The United States is still free to sign or ratify TPNW at any time, but doing so while doing Sentinel, W87-1, Golden Dome and related nuclear programs into “high gear” will immediately place it in material break of the treaty’s core prohibitions. Compliance will require a plan by U.S. established standards to abandon the newly initiated programs and eventually eliminating our nuclear arsenal.   

2. U.S. Situation:

• General Michael Guetlein just explained strategic necessity for Golden Dome (washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/09/24/golden-dome-director-explains-state-of-the-art-defensive-shield/)
• “There are weapons capable of striking America from anywhere with no warning.”
• “We must shift to an active defense strategy so threat weapons can never succeed.”
• Golden Dome is “deterrence by denial.” to be operational by 2028 end of Trump’s term.
• The already funded Sentinel Missile Modernization program has been shifted to be under Golden Dome in all future defense bills. https://www.exchangemonitor.com/sentinel-shifting-to-golden-dome-under-ndaa-gop-senators-say/?printmode=1
• Sentinel’s core mission to retaliate is being called “deterrence by retribution.” 
• Sentinel costs have lessened by using prefabricated modular silos. 
• The payload costs less than $4,000 per Kg for launching satellites of Golden Dome according satellites SpaceX, versus $78,000 per kg by repurposing Minuteman III launch vehicles.
• Last week’s award of Virginia Class nuclear submarine to Anduril centers on a “software-defined” shipyard near Baltimore to introduce and prove a new way of doing business.
• SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk and Andruril’s Palmer Luckey just tapped for Pentagon’s new group to study the “future of warfare.”

3. Strategic Thoughts:

• Nixon signed ABM Treaty so defensive weapons would not destabilize MAD.
• “Left of launch (cyber, sabotage, special ops)” cost less than “right of launch.” 
• PLA “Unrestricted Warfare” paper, limits of U.S. resources, and ‘the red dancing shoes.”
• Montana’s missile field which will continue to act as a missile “sponge” to reduce the numbers of threat missile that must be defended against over populated areas.
• If there was a time consider the wisdom of nuclear warfare for Montana it is now.
• If there was a time to consider the ethics of nuclear warfare in good conscience it is now.
• My personal realization from being at the Pentagon on 9/11.

4. Sword and Shield:

• Sentinel, with fully remanufactured W87-1 475 kiloton warheads in modular silos.
• 7800 LEO satellites to sense, target, warn, track, and boost phase intercept.
• Upper layer of mid-course wide area defense using land-based missile interceptors.
• Lower wide-layer, THAAD & Aegis for penetrating threats including hypersonic.
• Regional area defense by 11 short-range batteries, patriots, and common launcher.

5. Rare Earths and Gallium:

• U.S. military requires 550 metric tons of specialized Rare Earth permanent magnets annually compared to the broader 10,000 metric ton annual U.S. market.
• Defense supply chain reports space and interceptor layers of the Golden Dome will massively surge annual U.S. defense (heavy) rare earth requirements.
• Hypersonic sensors and interceptors require ultra-high temperature ceramics, which demand heavy Rare Earths. Domestic capacity is a few dozen tons annually.
• Rare Earths in the Sentinel modernization program are classified. But at least 21 tons per year will be required for permanent magnets (SR 117-39-NDAA FY 2022)
• The W87-1 warheads appear to require 1.5 to 21 tons of Rare Earths annually (LLNL)
• The annual Rare Earth requirement for Virginia Class subs will be 9.2 metric tons.
• Current pentagon usage, including contractors, is about 3,000 to 4,000 metric tonnes of specialized Rare Earths per year. This will rise to 10,000 tonnes by 2030.
• The 10,000 tonnes per year figure by 2030 comes from widely cited 2026 Sprott Asset Management analysis driven by general modernization, drones/UAV’s, precision munitions, and shift to electrified sensor-heavy autonomous systems.
• The Greenland agreement aimed at exclusive access to Greenland’s Rare Earth resources in order to bypass China’s 85% control over global Rare Earth processing.
• There will be need not just for Rare Earths, but for a dramatically increased (classified) requirement for Gallium, of which China historically controls 98% to 99% of global supply and for which the U.S. suffers 100% import dependence.
• Effective January 2027, under a July 2026 Executive Order defense contractors are prohibited from supply chain waivers to source metals like Gallium from China, Russia, Iran or North Korea. $2.05 billion has been invested in Louisiana and Tennessee enterprises to extract 200 tons of Gallium annually from gold mine waste.

6. Sheep Creek:

• We should expect the current federal administration will make extraordinary efforts to align Montana’s Environmental Review of Sheep Creek with the ongoing Federal FAST-41 review expected to culminate April 28, 2007.
• Sampling shows exceptionally high content of Gallium, establishing it as the highest-grade gallium deposit (avge 393 ppm; outlier over 1200 ppm) in the United States vastly out-performing 50 ppm grade of gallium historically imported by the U.S. from overseas supplies.
• Gallium at Sheep Creek in Montana is a primary asset alongside Rare Earth Elements (REE).
• The DOE’s INEL and U.S. Critical Materials have extended their partnership through February 2027 to develop a specialized process, an Electro Membrane Reactor, to isolate the Galllium and all the REE.
• Greenland has 43 of 50 minerals considered critical by the U.S. including Gallium. The fast tracked Tanbreeze project in southern Greenland will not export concentrates until Q3 2029  and the Skaergaard Project will export in about 2033.

Sheep Creek, Montana

7. Operational Situation:

• Unique high grade deposit averages 9% total REE content and includes substantial Gallium. USCM executives have noted plans to pivot toward aggressive underground extraction operations by 2027 if exploratory drilling and final site permits align. The remarkably low radioactive Thorium is below the threshold requiring Nuclear Regulatory Commission Oversight.
• Forest Service West Fork District of the Bitterroot National Forest has held the hearings. Opposition is bipartisan and very serious. County Commissioners do not want it and argued against fast track. Congressman Zinke and Senator Sheehy agreed.
• Local state lawmakers and a powerful coalition of 21 conservation organizations demanded a full multi-year Environmental Impact Statement instead of a less challenging Categorical Exclusion. Montana’s State Department of Environmental Quality did not give an exclusion to the project and appears intent on processing the project under the Montana Metal Mines and Montana Environmental Policy Act. 
• The prototype 1 to 2 ton per day electric membrane processing facility has already been completed at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory near Idaho Falls. Scaling to a 25 to 50 ton per day facility is required to yield 18 to 21 tonnes of high-purity REE and Gallium needed annually to fully insulate the four high priority defense systems. Ore grades have a 9% total rare earth oxide content and severe concentrations of Gallium.  An EMR facility processing 50 tons of ore per day with a 90% extraction efficiency will annually yield approximately 1,500 tons of mixed rare earth concentrates and roughly 5.5 to 7 tonnes of ultra-pure gallium. This will easily clear the minimum baseline required by the Pentagon.
• A permanent materials processing facility has been funded for Toole Army Depot near Ogden to avoid slowing effects the might be caused by zoning. However, the REE that will be processed there to final high purity materials may not come only from Sheep Creek.
• A 50 ton per day of feedstock facility could fit in a 20,000 to 30,000 square foot industrial facility. The primary input will be electricity requiring a dedicated highly stable grid-tie-in capable of delivering continuous industrial power to drive the electric reactor. 
• If the EMR is located at the staging area in Conner (for example) a CH-47 Chinook with a sling load capacity of 13 tons would have to make 4 flights per day; a CH-53 King Stallion with a capacity of 18 tons would need 3 flights per day. This bypasses road permitting and puts the 3 MW to 5 MW load closer to the utility grid. 
• The dry neutralized tailings (filter cake) will amount to 45.45 tons per day or 16,589.25 tons per year of harmless calcite and iron-bearing Dolomite (essentially natural limestone and marble). This low risk, non-radioactive industrial waste could be sold as fill or a neutralizing agent for agricultural soil or road construction aggregates.
• The annual pile would be as high as a five story building and as wide as a football field from one sideline to the other. Daily plant tailings pile would be 6 feet high and 18 feet wide, storable indoors.  

Area Map    

Circling the Drain

With help from my wife, Kathy, I was able to keep to my decision not to run for the U.S. Senate, especially after President Trump went to war without a word of objection from Montana’s delegation. I was headed for the Secretary of States Office with our checkbook and a filing statement when she told me, “This country doesn’t need another 80 year old white guy!” A few minutes later Daines pulled out and picked his replacement. Good woman, married have I. 

My radio show, IMPROMPTU, on Last Chance radio.com Mondays 9 to 12 has been fun. My Electric Bison podcasts just had me out in Miles City where once I was an 11 year old kid who found some human bones on the bluffs across the river. I think I solved the mystery,.and Now I’m that guy from Helena, Montana, commenting on lead articles in the New York Times and Washington Post, as Earthwarrior7, which is my Youtube Channel with all the Butte and Smokejumper oral histories.  Including all of the above and more about life in Montana when we were run by a corporation, I just wrote a $10 book titled Winter Tapestry. There’s 80 Montanans in it. Maybe you are one of them. You can see its pretty black and white cover on Amazon as it moves through channels to bookstores. Life circling the drain out here in the pasture is good.  Happy Fathers’ and Grandfathers’ Day!

 

Nuclear Codes Investigation

Bottling Survival

 A Nuclear Free Future

WHEREAS, the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences of any use of nuclear weapons would be long-lasting, global, and irreversible;

WHEREAS, nuclear weapons pose an existential threat to humanity, and their continued existence increases the risk of nuclear detonation by accident, miscalculation, or design;

WHEREAS, the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force on January 22, 2021, fills a critical gap in international law by creating a legally binding instrument to prohibit the development, testing, production, possession, stockpiling, transfer, and threat of use of nuclear weapons;

WHEREAS, the TPNW complements the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by strengthening the non-proliferation norm and fulfilling the obligation to pursue effective measures for nuclear disarmament;

WHEREAS, the TPNW places human beings at the center of disarmament by providing for victim assistance and environmental remediation for communities harmed by nuclear testing and use;

WHEREAS, the TPNW aligns nuclear weapons with other weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological weapons, which are already subject to comprehensive bans;

BE IT RESOLVED, that we officially endorse the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW);

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we urge the federal government to sign and ratify the TPNW, and to make nuclear disarmament a centerpiece of national security policy;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we call for the immediate halting of modernization programs designed to extend the lifespan of nuclear arsenals, and instead redirects those resources toward human needs, including public health, education, and climate action;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we advocate for taking nuclear weapons off high-alert status, adopting a "no-first-use" policy, and ending the sole authority of any single leader to initiate a nuclear strike;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we commit to educating the public on the catastrophic risks of nuclear weapons and the urgent necessity of global, verifiable abolition.

No Half Measures

U.S. Senate Non-Filing Statement 

My name is John B. Driscoll, and I’m doing what I can to insure voters of Montana have a full chance to assess our fine slate of Democratic candidates for the United States Senate. 

Every opportunity should be organized to create venues for these folks to show us their abilities, and views. Television and radio aids people who won’t be able to attend in person gatherings. Financial contributions to each campaigns that interest us will, I’m sure, be useful, within the bedrock principle and clear promise: “Montanans First, Money Last.”

I’ll be sharing my thoughts on, Old Glory (johnbdriscoll.blogspot.com) and Electric Bison (https://driscolljohn37.substack.com/subscribe).

We need to work together to grace Montana with a strong Democratic Party, filled with capable leaders at every level. Let’s put people before self-interests and principle before special interests.

John B. Driscoll
“Montanans First, Money Last.”

Letter to President Trump

 

John B. Driscoll

30 South Davis Street

Helena, MT 59601

406-443-2724

driscolljohn37@gmail.com

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

president@whitehouse.gov

Subject: Less Time in Purgatory Enroute to Heaven.

Dear Mr. President,

I write to you with respect for the office you hold, for the responsibility you carry for the security of the American people, and for the historical moment now before you. As the February 5, 2026 deadline for renewal of the New START Treaty approaches, you face a choice that few presidents ever encounter: whether to extend a familiar framework that manages nuclear risk or to begin a new and far more consequential process that could ultimately end the nuclear danger itself.

I respectfully urge you not to renew New START, but instead to sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), initiating a long-term process that would place the United States, under your leadership, at the center of a new global security architecture, one defined not by mutual annihilation, but by strength, verification, and moral clarity.

New START, while useful in its time, is a treaty of maintenance. It manages decline; it does not inspire progress. It locks the United States into a bilateral framework with a single adversary whose compliance, intentions, and stability are increasingly uncertain. Renewing it would be seen globally as a cautious holding action, competent, but not historic. Signing the TPNW, by contrast, would be bold, disruptive in the best sense, and unmistakably presidential.

Importantly, signing the TPNW does not mean immediate disarmament, unilateral vulnerability, or surrendering American deterrence. It means beginning a process on American terms. Your signature would signal that the United States is prepared to lead the world away from weapons whose only purpose is the destruction of civilization, while insisting on verification, reciprocity, and enforceable compliance.

This distinction is crucial for the United States Senate. You would not be asking the Senate to ratify the treaty immediately. Instead, you would be inviting it into a structured, conditional, and distinctly American strategy that preserves U.S. security while reshaping the global norm.

A viable Senate strategy could rest on the following pillars:

First, you would explicitly condition any future ratification on verified, reciprocal participation by all nuclear-armed states. This makes clear that America will not disarm alone and transforms the treaty from a symbolic document into a leverage tool. Your message to the Senate would be simple: the United States leads, but it does not go first into weakness.

Second, you would insist on a robust verification and enforcement regime, drawing on American technical superiority in monitoring, intelligence, and inspection. This positions the United States not as a rule-taker, but as the architect of the most stringent compliance system ever devised, one that rogue states would find nearly impossible to evade.

Third, you would frame the treaty as an extension of American strength rather than a rejection of it. The United States built the nuclear age in our generation; only the United States has the credibility, alliances, and capability to responsibly lead the world beyond it. This argument resonates with conservatives and moderates alike, particularly when paired with continued investment in conventional superiority and missile defense.

Fourth, you would preserve the Senate’s constitutional role. By signing but not immediately submitting the treaty for advice and consent, you respect the chamber’s authority while giving it time to shape the conditions under which ratification might one day occur. This approach defuses institutional resistance and invites statesmanship over partisanship.

Internationally, your signature would be transformative. Allies who privately fear nuclear escalation but publicly cling to deterrence would gain political cover to support a phased transition. Non-aligned states would see, for the first time, that the world’s most powerful nation is willing to match its rhetoric about peace with action. Adversaries would be forced to respond, not with propaganda, but with choices.

History shows that Nobel Peace Prizes are not awarded for caution, but for opening doors that once seemed permanently closed. A U.S. president who initiates the global abolition of nuclear weapons without sacrificing national security would stand in the company of leaders who altered the course of human survival itself. That recognition would not be ceremonial; it would be earned.

And beyond history books and prizes, there is the deeper moral ledger that every leader ultimately confronts. Few men are given the chance to reduce the risk of annihilation for every living person and every generation yet unborn. Acting to remove the most indiscriminate weapons ever created from the world is not weakness; it is an act of courage that resonates far beyond politics. If there is a purgatory on the way to heaven, I cannot imagine a deed more likely to shorten the stay.

Mr. President, renewing New START would be safe. Signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would be consequential. It would redefine American leadership, restore global respect rooted in moral authority, and secure your place as the president who began the end of the nuclear age.

Respectfully submitted,

John B. Driscoll 

Road Agent Bait and Switch

You can’t take your bird dog hunting on lands being mined or filled with oil rigs, even if they are “public” lands, by Hedges, in The Daily Montanan.

While Montanans were right to celebrate removing the sale of public lands from the recent Congressional budget bill, some may not know that our representatives still voted to put millions of acres of public lands on the chopping block. Selling public lands was just one of a dozen different ways that the billionaires’ budget bill privatized our public lands. Just try big game hunting, bird-watching, camping, hiking, or biking on public lands mined or fracked for corporate profit, and see how quickly you’re escorted away. This is the bait-and-switch our elected representatives pulled on Montanans. They crowed about removing provisions requiring the sale of public lands, but the new law mandates quarterly oil and gas lease sales on public lands, regardless of whether it makes economic sense. It slashes royalty rates, guaranteeing that the public does not receive the compensation it is due for public resources. It lets industry decide which land needs to be offered for oil and gas leasing – regardless of who else uses that land and for what purpose. It increases the duration of drilling permits so that companies can retain leases and tie up public lands for longer periods of time. And, appallingly, it reinstates the practice of allowing noncompetitive leases on public lands, ensuring that the public will not receive the true value of the public resources that are being given up. But it gets worse. We know that coal mining has devastated huge swaths of public lands and waters that agricultural users depend on. However, instead of helping communities transition away from expensive, dirty coal towards cleaner energy, it incentivizes even more coal mining on public lands and slashes royalty payments for mining corporations. It expedites new coal leases and mining permits on public lands, even though coal mining is at historic lows and projected to continue declining. For example, the bill allows the notoriously corrupt Signal Peak mining company to mine more than 50 million tons of coal without consideration for the surface landowners whose water has been lost due to the mine’s operations. And finally, the bill mandates the opening of four million acres of federal land to coal mining, without providing details about where those lands are, what resources they hold, or what the impacts may be. In short, it’s a firesale, thanks to our bait-and-switch congressional delegation. If they repeat the tired trope that they are trying to increase jobs or support “all-of-the-above energy,” I say hogwash. If that was true, they wouldn’t have gutted incentives that help create thousands of good-paying solar and wind jobs in Montana and across the country. And while our congressmen hide behind press releases hyping this new law, keep in mind that it will result in not only lost and destroyed public lands, but higher energy bills, increased wildfires, increased drought, more flash floods, and more intense heat waves. A changing climate isn’t a conspiracy theory or a partisan issue; it’s a fact that we can and need to deal with. Heat waves are worsening, extreme weather is killing more people, and drought is reducing rivers such as the Dearborn to a trickle in June. This bill will set us back decades, so remember who to thank for making those problems worse now and in the future. Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy and Reps. Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing, you’ve given us higher deficits, less public land, lower revenues, higher electric bills and more heat, wildfire and drought. You have jeopardized our public lands and our future for your rich friends’ profits. We are definitely less safe thanks to you.