LLNL=civil service

The following is a comment on "federalizing" post:

I moved it here as a post to allow readers to comment: Are you seeing the same phenomenon at LLNL?

LLNS has become like civil service because there's no monetary gain for doing a good job and no growth to be had. LLNS job seems to be focused on demoralizing the old employees so they'll leave, only to hire two inexperienced people at half the pay and then expect them to do the same quality work. Dream on LLNS, dream on. Heck, most employers can't find people with good work ethics as it is. The only reason LLNS is getting good work out of people now is because most of those doing the work are the old people. Once they're gone, which should be able 5 - 10 years, you'll get to witness a demise in productivity. The new employees are of a different breed in many, many ways especially in their mannerism, dress code and daily acts of defiance against authority, task schedules or for that matter even giving the employer an honest eight hour day. In my area, 50% of the work force carries the other 50% who're substandard employees and basically no-loads

Raises

Question asked by (name pending contributor's permission):

Has anyone heard any facts/rumors about what the possible raise packages will be?

Retirees Blog

The blog entry "Seeking retiree's support" is out of date. We now have a New Web Site . We are working with three law firms and are collecting contributions for purchasing legal action. Our lawyers have done a preliminary analysis of our situation and believe the case should be pursued.

You will find the information posted on your blog In one of last year's status reports. Under the Status Reports heading on the left hand side of our main page, you will find a first in last out pushdown stack providing a history of our activities. There are also newspaper articles and other documents that may be of interest.

Anyone who would like to join our efforts can do so by clicking on "tell me yes" on the web site or sending their name and email address in an email to llnlretiree@comcast.net. Our only way of reaching retirees is by word of mouth since we can't obtain a list of retirees.

Joe

Joe Requa
jrequa@comcast.net
llnlretiree.com

Obama to Seek $5B Nuclear-Weapon Complex Spending Boost

From Global Security Newswire

Obama to Seek $5B Nuclear-Weapon Complex Spending Boost
Friday, Jan. 29, 2010

The Obama administration plans to seek more than $5 billion in additional funding over five years for sustaining the U.S. nuclear complex and deterrent, starting with a $600 million increase in fiscal 2011, Vice President Joseph Biden wrote in a Wall Street Journal commentary published yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 19).

The funding boost is necessary even as President Barack Obama pursues the nuclear-disarmament agenda he laid out last April in Prague, Biden stated (see GSN, Jan. 28).

"As long as nuclear weapons are required to defend our country and our allies, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear arsenal," he wrote.

"Among the many challenges our administration inherited was the slow but steady decline in support for our nuclear stockpile and infrastructure, and for our highly trained nuclear work force," according to Biden.

"For almost a decade, our laboratories and facilities have been underfunded and undervalued. The consequences of this neglect -- like the growing shortage of skilled nuclear scientists and engineers and the aging of critical facilities -- have largely escaped public notice," he said in the column, noting that the congressionally mandated Strategic Posture Commission took the same position last year (see GSN, July 28, 2009)...


GSN

Federalizing security contactors: good or bad?

Anonymously contributed:

Just what we need - a bigger, fatter bloated Security cow . If unions are so bad for nuclear security why not just do away with them?

Federal Diary: Federalizing security contactors might make our country safer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/28/AR2010012804005.htm

We cannot quit now!

Contributed by: anonymous

In case you missed it here’s a good article recently in the Wall Street Journal:

How to Protect Our Nuclear Deterrent
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704152804574628344282735008.html?mod=googlenews_wsj


Some rehash of the JASON study & reiteration of the degradation of our National Labs.

“The United States must continue to attract, develop and retain the outstanding scientists, engineers, designers and technicians we will need to maintain our nuclear arsenal, whatever its size, for as long as the nation's security requires it.”

“The study team said it was "concerned that this expertise is threatened by lack of program stability, perceived lack of mission importance, and degradation of the work environment."

The 2010 Nuclear Posture Review will be released soon & will generate renewed interest in the issues cited in the WSJ article. The tragic death of Frank Young comes at a time when, imo, we most need a renewed push on the “degradation of the work environment” at LANL & LLNL.

Perhaps it will not matter but, I feel there are many important people who will be interested in the 2010 NPR & what is being stated by GEORGE P. SHULTZ, WILLIAM J. PERRY, HENRY A. KISSINGER, & SAM NUNN.

I’m making sure members of Congress who represent me hear what I have to say.

We can't quit now!

Frank Young Reported as Dead

The LANL Blog is shutting down. Doug Roberts reported that Frank Young has died, at that Doug was shutting the blog down.

Frank's involvement on the blog was fueled by his search of being contaminated while working at the lab. He never found his answer, and now he never will.

We've lost a porthole that looked into the sinking ship that was once proudly known as LANL.

http://lanl-the-rest-of-the-story.blogspot.com/

NIF (totally) explained

Or NIF for the layman.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/222792

Where Does All the Money Go?

Top 10 Recipients of Federal Contract Awards for FY 2010

FY 2010 Rank Parent Company Name Dollars % of total

1 Lockheed Martin Corporation $1,717,259,591 8.324%

2 Los Alamos National Security LLC $1,552,664,849 7.526%

3 Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC $1,036,264,902 5.023%

4 Ut-Battelle, LLC $736,105,314 3.568%

5 Battelle Memorial Institute Inc $670,678,244 3.251%

6 Honeywell International Inc $477,616,671 2.315%

7 Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Pantex, L.L.C. $469,238,894 2.274%

8 Merck & Co., Inc. $400,360,817 1.941%

9 Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, Lls $400,226,463 1.940%

10 Bechtel Group, Inc. $362,732,024 1.758%

Source: usaspending



Just one big fat happy NWC

How is Oak Ridge?

I have been considering applying for a position at Oak Ridge National Lab. In searching for information online (hoping to get a feeling for the work environment), I found the LLNL/LANL set of blogs, but I have seen nothing similar for ORNL.

Given that ORNL is also run by a private entity (UT-Battelle), are there similar problems? Do any readers have any opinions on ORNL?
Thank you!
Signed: anonymous coward

LANL BLOG shut down?

Anonymously asked:

Has the LANL Blog shut down? (LANL: The Rest of The Story)

Salary comparisons at simplyhired.com.

Compare salary average of the Lab against other companies!


http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-lawrence+livermore+national+laboratory+llnl/l-Livermore,+CA/q_1-Sybase/l_1-DUblin+CA

Be thankful!

To the complainers in this BLOG:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_14193481

LLNL is hiring!

Anonymosuly contributed:

This from R and D magazine dated Dec 22 2009:
"With a staff of about 6,500, LLNL anticipates hiring 5% of that number in 2010."

The naysayers who frequent this blog will be slitting their wrists and drinking coo-laid over this.

Looking pretty bad

Scooby's note:

This was a comment directed to the post "GM's talk". I have no idea what the commentator is talking about; I was going to delete the comment but then decided to make a post (its own topic). Please stay on topic.

Anonymously contributed:

Well if that be the case you may all want to read this. We're in a nose dive with no cure in sight. It's looking pretty bad all through 2010 and 2011. Then in 2012, LLNL will need to downsize any way. Enjoy the reading. I hope 99% of you get the big picture of what's to come.
http://www.modbee.com/featured/story/1002798.html

Has Chu began DOE reform?

It has been exactly one year since this
article was published.
The author said among Steven Chu's most daunting challenges will be reforming the Energy Department. Has he started? What do you think?

GM's Talk

Anonymous said...

Heard a good rumor today but I doubt there's any substance to it, but with Miller's talk coming tomorrow it may be a good question to ask. We're hearing LLNL has taken a 25% cut in this years budget. With 8,000 employees, they'd have to cut 2,000 people by April 2010 to balance the budget. Wouldn't that be a kick in the butt...

January 6, 2010 6:11 PM

Cover-up?

FROM THE LANL BLOG: by Doug:

Back in early 2005 when the bid preparation activities for the LANL contract were hot and heavy, NNSA's Tom D'Agostino justified the 10-fold increase in the new LANL contract award fee by stating that "increased efficiencies of operation" by the new Corporate M&O would "more than offset" the additional cost of the contract.

Now, five years later we see that the real additional cost of running LANL is on the order of $200 million more than it was back in the days of non-profit operations when the University of California ran the place for a mere $8 million per year. Since LANL is now run by a for-profit corporation, it has to pay Gross Receipt Taxes to the state of New Mexico, which accounts for most of the additional cost of operations over and above the current $79 million award fee.

Have we seen any cost savings due to increased efficiencies of operation by the new corporate M&O of LANL? Let's innumerate some of the efficiency improvements that the NNSA and LANS, LLC have brought to LANL:

JB Weld! Stuffed into the USB ports of every lab computer in sight. In addition to making use of the computer less efficient, it voided the warranties of thousands of LANL machines.
Ladder Training.
Shoes that GRIP!
LOOK out for each other!
Tripling the number of upper-level managers.
NNSA-mandated 5% annual staff attrition rates.
Glovebox computing.
Efficient loss of all email accrued during the 2008 holiday shutdown.
Efficient (and friendly) service by the laboratory's Personal Security Group.
Abysmal "Employment Engagement" survey results, with planned 5-month results "rollout".
"Secret" NNSA lab Performance Reports.
Automatic LANS, LLC annual contract renewal, in perpetuity.
On again, off again manned guard stations.
Ballooning overhead burden. This may have something to do with the 40 - 50 additional highly-paid top level managers who now enjoy employment at LANL. It may also be related to the increased efficiency of operations.
A new, efficient T&E system, with blazingly fast turn-around.

Considering that one person, NNSA's Tom D'Agostino was the sole person responsible for selecting the Bechtel-led LANS, LLC to be the new LANL contractor, and

considering that the promised "efficiency improvements" never materialized, and

considering that Mr. D'Agostino has declared that the annual NNSA Performance Evaluation awards by which NNSA judged LANS, LLC deserving of an Outstanding, 90% performance rating this year are Secret, Not For Public Viewing,

You don't suppose that there is a government/corporate cover-up in progress, do you?

Nah, me neither.

What did you think of Garemendi's address

Congressman John Garamendi spoke to LLNL employees on
Tuesday 1/5 at 2:30 PM.
Your opinion?

This is where our money goes!

Anonymously contributed:

I sure hope NIF works and we win back our energy independence. Articles like this make me realize where our money goes:
Tallest skyscraper opens in Dubai

If NIF does work, LLNS we can hire that fireworks crew(see video) and show the world who's boss.

Meanwhile, I'll go put another 60$ of arab gas in the tank.

For those who were fired the last few years, I guess they can't share in the NIF glory. Their contributions don't matter anymore.

What is your political spectrum?

This Quiz will let you know where you fall on social liberties, economics, foreign policy-- even the culture war.

No need to post your results as this is just meant to be fun - I am a centrist social moderate. Right: 0.38, Authoritarian: 0.35