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Monday, October 26, 2015

LANL contract gossip

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Did NNSA make the right decision?

Lots of whispers in the hallways that LANL was informed this week about the contract status. Stay tuned to see how the decision gets spun.
October 23, 2015 at 10:56 AM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
what was the decision?
October 23, 2015 at 1:00 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
I'm guessing no-bid, because the NNSA aparatchiks are too lazy and incompetent to manage a real competition.
October 23, 2015 at 3:26 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hearing that LANS is out and will not bid again. UC is also out. Another crazy rumors is that LANS will terminated in Jan and LANL will be under some kind temporary NNSA management for a year or two. In any case it seems pretty clear that this end for LANS.
October 23, 2015 at 4:45 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
Oh great! NNSA is going to run LANL? Revenge of the D-students!
October 23, 2015 at 5:17 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
Good grief! Does anyone in Washington value economic competitiveness, or national security? DOE/NNSA have turned world-class national laboratories into dumping grounds for bureaucrats and corporate raiders. It's truly pathetic to witness and tragic on so many levels.
October 23, 2015 at 5:43 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
LANS LLC is a "deadman walking" as they say in the death row prison movies.
October 24, 2015 at 9:26 AM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
If LANS management is on the way out for chronic poor performance, what happens to its nearly twin sister LLNS management?
The LANS LLC dream team is a dismal failure, but when these same corporate heads put on on their LLNS hats its all good?
If the for profit LLC recipe is subpar in NM, its subpar in CA too.
October 24, 2015 at 9:45 AM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
LANS LLC is a "deadman walking"

October 24, 2015 at 9:26 AM

IF LANS loses the contract to run LANL, it will immediately dissolve as a LLC. That has always been true. It has also always been true that the parent companies have no stake in the LLC except to make as much money as they can before "lights out," when they will go their merry way. The LLC can't be a "deadman" because it has no life to lose.
October 24, 2015 at 9:48 AM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
"The LLC can't be a "deadman" because it has no life to lose."

The demise of the LANS LLC reflects badly on the LANS president, his appointees, and on the parent companies. Just accept it. 
October 24, 2015 at 11:19 AM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
The demise of the LANS LLC reflects badly on the LANS president, his appointees, and on the parent companies. Just accept it.

October 24, 2015 at 11:19 AM

Sorry, no one in the country except the poor sods at LANL and LLNL even knows who the LLC parent companies are. The LLC "President" is just the lab Director. Most of his "appointees" will remain as managers working for the new LANL contractor. Also, the parent companies' involvement in LANS LLC is very minor compared to all the other things they do. So, no, I'm not accepting it, and not just because it is only your personal opinion.
October 24, 2015 at 11:39 AM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
"The LLC "President" is just the lab Director. Most of his "appointees" will remain as managers working for the new LANL contractor."

+

"Also the parent companies' involvement in LANS LLC is very minor compared to all the other things they do."


By your observations the LANS president and his appointees must also go bye bye in order to comprehensively improve LANL management per DOE/NNSA expectations. Good Point.
October 24, 2015 at 11:57 AM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
IF LANS loses the contract to run LANL, it will immediately dissolve as a LLC. That has always been true. It has also always been true that the parent companies have no stake in the LLC except to make as much money as they can before "lights out," when they will go their merry way. The LLC can't be a "deadman" because it has no life to lose.

October 24, 2015 at 9:48 AM

I guess you are not familiar with the phrase.

LANS LLC has zero chance of winning the upcoming bidding competition for the contract to run LANL. However it will continue as the LANL M&O until the new contractor takes over. The LANS LLC parent companies (Bechtel, UC, B&W, and URS) know this now, and according to reports at LLNL they are activity looking for different partners to form competing LLCs for the LANL contract. Keep in mind that a parent company cannot be in two different LLCs bidding on the same contract. LLNL employees were officially warned this week of this conflict potential and what to do if one of the LLNS/LANS parent companies approaches them to work on a LANL bid - this is a clear indication that LANS LLC is dead.

The LANS LLC is "dead" no mater what happens on the upcoming contract - It either doesn't bid on the contract because the parent companies are teaming with other partners or it loses to a new LLC created by companies not involved in LANS to bid on the LANL contract. Nonetheless, LANS LLC will continue to run LANL until transition to the replacement M&O contractor. This is the definition of a "deadman walking."
October 24, 2015 at 12:33 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
October 24, 2015 at 12:33 PM

I am hearing that they are trying move away from a "for profit" model.
October 24, 2015 at 12:43 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
I am hearing that they are trying move away from a "for profit" model.

October 24, 2015 at 12:43 PM


If you are "hearing" it, someone must be saying it. Who is that?? And what is meant by "trying"?
October 24, 2015 at 1:15 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
It is disgusting to see what privatization has done to the National Laboratories.
October 24, 2015 at 3:19 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
I work at LANL and am hearing, through chatter amongst the staff supported by the very happy directors and their staff on the 6th and 7th floors in the NSSB, that LANS will be getting a contract extension! After the CNS mess NNSA does not want to do anything with new contracts.
October 24, 2015 at 3:20 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
LANS executive team is awesome and I'm awesome! You sour-puss people are all wrong, you'll see.

Executive bonuses are planned for all my top managers. LANS will be keeping the LANL contract for decades to come!

- Charlie "Awesome" McMillan
October 24, 2015 at 6:49 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
Charlie: "Whoops! This news won't have any negative consequences to my annual salary and bonus, will it? "

**************************************************
Radioactive materials stolen from LANL ( Albuquerque Journal, Oct 22nd )

Federal officials are investigating the theft of radioactive materials from an area at Los Alamos National Laboratory set aside for contaminated waste – among them a bandsaw that registered 500 times the allowable limit of contamination.

Individuals who take property from the lab typically move it to their homes, garages or outbuildings, according to a federal court filing. In 2015, there have been 76 thefts of lab property by LANL personnel, according to the document. The Los Alamos Police Department has looked into 13 reported thefts from various lab areas, including the contaminated storage yard.

The individual suspected of removing the items has not been criminally charged, according to a record check. A spokesman for LANL referred questions to the FBI, which did not respond to a request for comment.
October 24, 2015 at 7:01 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
How can DOE/NNSA expect to lead and operate LANL when they can't even lead or operate themselves?
October 25, 2015 at 7:43 AM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
DOE/NNSA cretins are going to extend LANS contract because they are too lazy to manage a competition.
October 25, 2015 at 3:47 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
"I work at LANL and am hearing, through chatter amongst the staff supported by the very happy directors and their staff on the 6th and 7th floors in the NSSB, that LANS will be getting a contract extension! After the CNS mess NNSA does not want to do anything with new contracts.

October 24, 2015 at 3:20 PM"

This is the exact opposite of what I have been hearing.
October 25, 2015 at 7:03 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
Everybody on this blog is "hearing" things, but nobody is willing to say who is saying them. Just hallway gossip I guess, no validity whatsoever. What a bunch of crap. If all you know is gossip, what is your point in posting it??
October 25, 2015 at 7:09 PM
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
How does a small company like Compra Industries keep getting lucrative LANS contracts? And where did Compra find a loser like Richard Atencio? Compra Industries is the same company that employed Jessica Quintana, the lady at the center of the USB thumb drive fiasco back in 2006!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a nstional defense disaster. No one in DC, nor anone they can hire can preserve LANLs vital contibution to nuclear weapons science oand stewarship. A Trillion dollar investment in an existential national security capability squandered.

Your grandchildren are much more vulnerable.

Pearls before swine.

Anonymous said...

Holy Smokes, what happens to LANL employee and retiree pensions, benefits, and commitments?

Do they bring back Tyler Pryzbylek as temporary lab Czar? Will SAC accept his personal stockpile readiness certification?

Do Snowden, Assange or the Chinese know what's going on¿

Anonymous said...

The UC of governor Napolitano is not the UC of Ernest Lawrence. Though scientific talent exists, management talent does not.

No one, not NNSA, not the East Coast Mafia, not Batelle, not SAIC, not the Texas Universities, not a nee collaboration , not even UC itself has the ability, history or competence to sucessfully manage LANL under NNSA. This is not basic science, it is far more important strategic weapons science. It is different.

This is a national disaster, I do not understand how a few minor events can prompt such a suicide.

Anonymous said...

I am surprised the military hasn't stepped in. Maybe Ash Carter is asleep as well.

Shortly, if this path is chosen, no one competent is going to be able to certify the stockpile.

Anonymous said...

Will ours go bang, or will they squib like the North Korean's?

Will they auto detonate? Can they be hacked?

Some itchy trigger fingered General LeMay wannabe is gonna be pressing a cowering President Clinton for action after the first nuclear terrorist attack. In this kafaesque futurepic, some BOZO is gonna say, "good to go ".

Do you want this to be a dedicated lifer like Hecker or Miller, or rather a Pryzbylek, Nanos, or DAgostino lookalike?

Continuity is existential. We cannot relearn that which is forgotten or dicarded.

Anonymous said...

Id prefer it be Drell or Sack. Where in the next generation did we hide our leaders? Did ee bothrr to cultivate and prove them?

Anonymous said...

Its not anybody's fault. The American majority is not silent, it is a cowering adolescent. Insurmountable mountains are imagined from molehills. Minor becomes major by acclamation. Perspective on what is important is lost...In civic decisions in self-preservation.

What our competitors fear in us is baffling. Special Ops, financial tomfoolery and an exploding debt and only go so far.

Coastal Americans are foolish I am ashamed to share the commons with them.

Anonymous said...


Wow someone is hitting the bottle hard tonight and it's only a Tuesday. I think he must have passed out at 9:00pm.

Anonymous said...

Has the Fuzzy Ewok (former Director) still got a lucrative sub-contract with LANS?

Anonymous said...

He is not a "subcontractor." He is a paid "Advisory Member" of the LANS Board of Governors. Along with a couple of senior Bechtel VPs.

Anonymous said...

He's a whore and always has been. Now he's just a has been whore.

Anonymous said...

Now he's just a has been whore.

October 30, 2015 at 5:17 AM

Who's making probably 5 X the $$ in his "retirement" than most LANL staff make while they are working.

Anonymous said...

He is simply better than you, hobbit.

Anonymous said...

I still see Ewok in his robe early on Saturday morning at Trader Joe's in Santa Fe pushing around two baskets of wine. The guy is a wino too.

Anonymous said...

The "not for profit" model is DEAD. Why? Because it requires NNSA to stay out of the Lab's business and they refuse to do so. The plants used to be essentially not for profit too and the operating contractors (DuPont for example) abandoned operating them because the DOE violated the only thing they asked for: to be left alone by the "D students".

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