Over the last few years, allegations of secret, exotic technologies have reinvigorated claims that the DOD may be concealing scientific breakthroughs from the American public. However, if the U.S. government, or some faction within it, hypothetically came across a groundbreaking development in energy production or applied physics ... such a revolution would likely be housed deep within the Department of Energy (DOE) rather than DOD. A DOE special investigative panel concluded in 1999 that the department is "a dysfunctional bureaucracy that has proven it is incapable of reforming itself." More recently, the DOE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Defense to confirm and enhance the "the longstanding partnership between DOE and DOD on space-related research and technology development." The MOU establishes joint working groups and promotes scientific exchange between the two departments in emerging and disruptive research fields such as advanced power and propulsion, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, next-generation communications, and autonomous or remotely piloted vehicles. The DOE also currently operates a Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program, an Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, and a Nuclear Sciences program, the latter of which seeks to put together "a roadmap of matter that will help unlock the secrets of how the universe is put together."