Anonymously contributedL
From the lab's (LANL) Daily Clips page:
Weapons Complex Morning Briefing
July 19, 2011
Brooks 'not Been Impressed' With Industrial Partners At LANL
Addressing a National Academy of Sciences panel examining the management of NNSA's weapons laboratories yesterday, former NNSA Administrator Linton Brookssaid the recompetition of the Los Alamos National Laboratory contract to bring in industrial partners as part of the management team is not working out exactly as he'd hoped. Longtime LANL contractor University of California teamed with Bechtel, URS and B&W on its successful bid to keep the lab contract. "Our idea was that we would preserve the great science but improve safety, security and general management," Brooks said. "I think those areas have improved. It is unclear to me whether they have improved enough to justify the turbulence that the contract change caused. I think the jury is still out. I have not been impressed ... with the involvement of the industrial partners. I have not seen from them the same level of commitment and ownership."
As an example, Brooks cited how the key personnel on the contract differ in their commitment to the lab. "The lab director has, thus far, come out of the academic community and therefore has spent his-or someday her-life in the laboratory system," Brooks said. "The senior industrial people rotate in and out and see their long-term future with their parent corporation. I don't know whether that's a problem or just a fact. I did not internalize that as well as I wish I had when we were doing all of this. When I said I hadn't been impressed with the support of the industrial partners that was one of things I had in mind."
31 comments:
It is congress's fault and it will take an act of congress to fix.
Write your congressmen. See link in this BLOG!
Unintended consequences or just a poorly thought out “idea” – doesn’t matter. Imo, all that remains is another corporate welfare waste.
This is using very nuanced language. What it really means is that it has been a complete and total disaster.
"I have not seen from them the same level of commitment and ownership. "
They do not care about the place, mission, people, or quality. They are here to bring in as much gain to the company and nothing else. It is to maximize the profit for the minimum of work.
"Our idea was that we would preserve the great science but improve safety, security and general management," Brooks said. "I think those areas have improved. It is unclear to me whether they have improved enough to justify the turbulence that the contract change caused."
The science was lost, not even Brooks knows if safety and security improved. Due to the loss of transparency no one really knows but most guess there has been no improvement at all. The management got ten times more expensive but 5 times worse.
Who did not see this coming?
I don't think Congress will try to fix this anytime soon. That would mean they would have to admit they were wrong.
Or they will tell DOE to fix it and DOE will state it was NNSA's fault. That's enough blame game and finger pointing to take us through another round of elections.
There is not enough glue or manpower to get this Humpty Dumpty returned to its former state.
Over $200 million (and rapidly climbing) in extra lab expenses at LANL for a CYA corporate management style of revolving doors, "sweet heart" buddy deals, declining science plus plummeting staff morale.
Wow! Who could have seen THIS coming?
Bechtel and their other sleazy corporate partners have their meat hooks firmly embedded in the NNSA's "research" labs.
Nothing will now kick them out. Nothing.
It's not like this was not predicted. He and others just refused to listen. And they took the Labs down with them. It is unlikely they will ever recover.
The privation process has also made it clear to potential employees that any promises DOE might make about health care and retirement are lies, as many LLNL retirees are finding. At least employees know not to believe anything DOE says in future.
Linton Brooks was even more of a disappointment in person than he is in these articles.
Oh my gosh, not Linton Brooks! Here is a guy that was personally responsible for the demise of the Labs and is apparently not done yet. He wants to scavenge the carcass.
Linton Brooks waited 5-years to tell us that his new model for the Labs didn't work. I have three questions. (1) What took him so long? (2) How much was he paid to come forward? (3) Who cares?
Linton Brooks used to send out emails praising the great work that his NNSA retards did. If he is this mediocre about the Lab contract change, he must think it is really bad.
Linton Brooks words and actions speak for themselves. 18,000 current and former lab employees hate his guts.
I wish for him, justice.
An hubritic stumblebum.
Before I left the lab, I created a toilet dedicated to Linton Brooks. It his still there, with this picture posted over the toilet.
It says "Here is where he belongs".
Linton Brooks words and actions speak for themselves. 18,000 current and former lab employees hate his guts.
I wish for him, justice.
July 22, 2011 12:07 AM
I think that number is more 26,000 when you include Sandia.
(CBS/AP) Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Thursday announced the dismissal of the head of the U.S. nuclear weapons program (Linton Brooks) because of security breakdowns at weapons facilities including the Los Alamos laboratory in the western state of New Mexico. Brooks was reprimanded last June for failing to report to Bodman that computers at an NNSA facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, had been breached resulting in the theft of files containing Social Security numbers and other personal data from 1,500 workers.
It appears that Brooks has a "pattern" of not bringing "bad news" forward following a disaster and general incompetence.
Safety is better? Yes, because we are so enmeshed in rules that any real lab work has become impossible. What's the point of a Lab without lab work?
Linton Brooks said something like
"LANL's safety record is orders of magnitude worse than the entire complex" It was later shown that LANL's safety record was actually better than most
of the other labs. Brooks had to apologize for saying this. Ya real great guy.
Ha, I have news for him. The areas of safety, security and general management are worse now than ever.
I don't want to say it but "I told you so" or a bunch of knew this would happen. Well, its really screwed up now. Thank you very much Mr Brooks and company. I am sure you all got rich.
Here is a good one regarding Bechtel people that come to LANL for short duration. I know a Bechtel individual that gets a 25 thousand dollar yearly allowance for housing while at LANL. Another one who probably got the allowance as well was shifted to our insurance was on dialysis when Bechtel transferred him and he subsequently received a kidney transplant. In a few weeks he is going back to Bechtel. I have no gripe regarding the transplant but it just shows what kind of games Bechtel is playing at our expense. I am sure thats just the tip of the iceberg but we will never know since coverups are alive and well at the labs.
It takes a lot of gall to deploy a failed concept (LANL/LLNS) and then placing the blame on others for it's failure. Linton Brooks is a "loser" from the get go.
Notice how all the top former players like LLNL Director Miller, LANL Director Anastasio and now NNSA Chief Brooks wait until they leave and then spill the beans on just how bad it has become under the for-profit LLCs?
Miller and Anastasio told how they really felt during the recent NAS investigations into the privatization of the NNSA labs last fall. Now Brooks is doing the same.
These are people who should know what is going on. Will it change anything? Not a chance! Riley Bechtel and his politically powerful friends have it all locked up. They'll be going after the Sandia contract as their next "victim".
I think that number is more 26,000 when you include Sandia.
July 22, 2011 12:57 AM
Add another 20,000 DOE/NNSA employees, now totaling almost 50,000. I wouldn't doubt that this guy also pissed off the dog catcher, mail man, and paper boy.
Not a chance! Riley Bechtel and his politically powerful friends have it all locked up. They'll be going after the Sandia contract as their next "victim".
July 22, 2011 11:06 PM
Don't forget Norm Pattiz who didn't even show his face or provide a penny of his billion dollar bank account to help those in need (e.g. people that lost their homes) following the fire at Los Alamos. These guys (Bechtel and Pattiz) are not "March of Dime" poster boys.
Linton Brooks is just peeved because he didn't get offered a lucrative VP slot by Bechtel on his retirement from government.
Tom D'Agostino knows better. He knows to keep his mouth shut. He'll be extremely well rewarded by the 'Bechtel Boys' once he leaves office.
Tom D'Agostino knows better. He knows to keep his mouth shut. He'll be extremely well rewarded by the 'Bechtel Boys' once he leaves office.
July 24, 2011 10:51 AM
Which might explain why Chu gave the entire Environmental Management (EM) Program to D'Ago, so he could give it to the "Bechtel Boys". Why doesn't DOE/NNSA just give themselves to Bechtel? In effect, they have. Yeah, DOE/NNSA is just a "front office" for Bechtel.
Heard on CNN this morning that the FAA has now furloughed 4,000 workers without pay due to the budget shutdown.
It is probably only a short matter of time before the DOE does likewise. When they do, you can assume they will also demand that their contract workers (inc. the labs) do likewise.
Be sure you have plenty of money in your bank accounts to cover your mortgage and car payments for the next few months. You made need that cash!
Bechtel has many mediocre thinkers in senior management.
It will be looking for no-BS leaders like Schultz, Foster and Friend, not politico-flunkys like D'Agostino and Bodner.
The last two illustrate again the Peter principle, as does Chu.
Heard on CNN this morning that the FAA has now furloughed 4,000 workers without pay due to the budget shutdown.
It is probably only a short matter of time before the DOE does likewise.
July 25, 2011 9:36 AM
Obviously you are not capable of, or unwilling to understand that there is no connection between the current budget negotiations and the FAA shutdown, which was solely due to a failure of congress to reauthorize FAA funding through specific legislation. Get a clue, and stop being a fear-monger.
The motto of the Boy Scouts is "Be prepared!". Not a bad idea given the unstable nature of the current budgetary process in Washington DC, don't cha' think, 6:21 pm?
don't cha' think, 6:21 pm?
July 26, 2011 10:33 PM
Yep, unlike you, apparently,
"The motto of the Boy Scouts is "Be prepared!""
For what? a large asteroid, alien invasion, Nights of the Templar attack, locusts, or massive food shortages? I think the scouts mean be prepared for something reasonable. So clearly the locusts are what to what out for.
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