Future cuts to nuclear weapons budget?

Anonymously contributed: Future cuts to nuclear weapons budget? Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, told an audience at the National Press Club this week that any deal to stave off sequestration should include at least $100 billion in new Pentagon savings over ten years. “When you look at plans to avoid sequestration, $100 billion over 10 years is a number I look at, because I think defense has got to contribute,” Levin told the gathering. Levin also suggested that additional savings could be drawn from funding for military family housing needs in South Korea as well as from the nuclear weapons budget. June 28, 2012 11:26 AM

LANL all-hands meeting

Anonymously contributed: Has anyone heard about Wed's all hands meeting at LANL? Someone mentioned that there could be changes to the pension as one of the additional actions.

Prison privatization

Anonymously contributed: from Paul Krugman: "And, sure enough, despite many promises that prison privatization will lead to big cost savings, such savings — as a comprehensive study ... concluded — “have simply not materialized.” To the extent that private prison operators do manage to save money, they do so through “reductions in staffing patterns, fringe benefits, and other labor-related costs.” "So let’s see: Privatized prisons save money by employing fewer guards and other workers, and by paying them badly. And then we get horror stories about how these prisons are run. What a surprise! http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/opinion/krugman-prisons-privatization-patronage.html?_r=1&hp Krugman is a polarizing figure, but his comments really resonate here. Just substitute "laboratory" for "prison"!

A Cut Too Far

Anonymously contributed: A Cut Too Far == Obama set to seek deeper cuts in nuclear arsenal == Washington Free Beacon, June 19th President Obama has decided to seek deeper cuts in deployed strategic nuclear weapons to as few as 1,000 warheads, sharply below the target of 1,550 warheads required under a 2010 U.S.-Russia arms treaty, U.S. officials said Monday. Critics say the steep cuts, which the administration will seek in new talks with a growing anti-U.S. government in Moscow, would undermine U.S. strategic deterrence for the United States and its allies in Asia and Europe. The lower warhead levels also would be contrary to recent congressional testimony from a strategic forces commander who said further cuts would weaken the ability to deter nuclear states like Russia and China. ...The deeper nuclear cuts are outlined in a forthcoming report the Pentagon calls the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) implementation study, dubbed the mini-NPR, and reflect President Obama’s announced 2009 effort to completely eliminate all nuclear weapons. The announcement comes despite reports that Russia and China are engaged in a major buildup of their nuclear forces, and North Korea and Iran are developing nuclear arsenals. http://freebeacon.com/a-cut-too-far/

Koonin to join LLNS Board

Anonymously contributed: Koonin to join LLNS Board The Los Alamos Monitor had a story that Koonin is joining the Laboratory Governing Board for both LLNS and LANS. Wonder if that IDA study he was leading a few months ago on 'laboratory governance' had anything to do with this? Nah, not likely.

NIF, RIF

Anonymously contributed: Would a 40% reduction in NIF's operating cost result in a VSIP at LLNL and if so how soon will we know? Will LLNL get the same good deal as LANL. Two weeks pay for every years of service up to 30 years. http://www.aip.org/fyi/2012/079.html

Who shot CMRR?

Anonymously contributed: Looks like there may be more than one suspect. The storyline is taking some odd turns as it unfolds. http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/lab-directors-urged-plutonium-facility-delay-ex-white-house-aide/

Future of NIF

Anonymously asked: What is the future of NIF in light of its failure to make progress toward achieving ignition?

Is boredom setting in?

Anonymously contributed: A whole weekend with no posts. Maybe it's all too boring, given the advent of summer and all the outside activities. One can only hope that venues like this will disappear as people who are frustrated, lonely, angry, fearful, curious, or just in need of some validation for their views all find more healthy things to do. The real world is so much more interesting! Happy Summer!