Monday, November 30, 2015
The NNSA experiment
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What happens after the end of the NNSA experiment?
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Anonymous said...
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NNSA is a bureaucracy. Bureaucracies do not go away, so NNSA is here to
stay. Even is the administrator and deputies are replaced, all of the
lower level apparatchiks stay in place (or are promoted), and they are
the ones who actually craft and enforce policy and funding. Sorry to
break that news to you!
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Anonymous said...
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Bureaucracies are the closest thing to immortality that you will find on
this earth. Names will change and the deck chairs will get shuffled
but the ship will sail on.
Friday, November 27, 2015
Is Goldstein just invisible?
Why does no one ever hear anything at all about Goldstein?
We all know that McMillan has been a total and complete failure as a director, and that SNL has an unqualified director that was hand-picked by Moniz, but we never hear much from Goldstein. Is he just invisible?
We all know that McMillan has been a total and complete failure as a director, and that SNL has an unqualified director that was hand-picked by Moniz, but we never hear much from Goldstein. Is he just invisible?
Privatization and punishment
- Well as we approach WWIII we can be rest assured that
privatization and punishment of the labs has left us less prepared to
deal with whatever may arise. Did anyone ever think that our enemies
might be really interested in how we treat our own labs?
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Anonymous said...
- Fortunately 5,000 people had their computers disabled last week
in the midst of a terrorist crisis to facilitate the installation of new
(unclassified) passwords. Go LANS! Way to keep America safe.
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Anonymous said...
- Fortunately 5,000 people had their computers disabled last week
in the midst of a terrorist crisis to facilitate the installation of new
(unclassified) passwords. Go LANS! Way to keep America safe.
November 25, 2015 at 3:49 AM
Another example of LANS just driving the lab and workers (and other facilities) to complete standstill (e.g. WIPP, PF-4, WCRRF, RANT, Area G, WETF, etc.). LANS - Working Hard to do Nothing.
Monday, November 23, 2015
UCRS
Award!
SNL wins 5 R&D100 awards
Anonymous said...
Anonymous said...
Anonymous said...
LANL is reduced to software? Experimental hardware gone bye -bye?
Well, I guess it's easier that way.
Anonymous said...
PNNL wins 5
LANL only gets 1
The quality is on display.
LANL only gets 1
The quality is on display.
Anonymous said...
How about LLNL and LBNL?
Anonymous said...
LLNL wins 3
Anonymous said...Well, I guess it's easier that way.
Anonymous said...
R&D100 are pure BS. I got one of these and they are worth shit. LANL did not even want me to go the award ceremony. Waste of tax payers money, they said. So if the other labs want to showcase how they waste taxpayers money, shame on them.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
So what happened at NSTEC?
Jautaikis announces he's retiring, the board knights Deeney as the new president, Jautaikis changes his mind because of "unforeseen circumstances", Deeney evaporates, and Holt is named acting president with no mention of Deeney. Were there trips with Chinese postdocs in Deeney's past? Does he not have a PhD after all?
LANL funding
Management at LANL and allocation of funding. where did funding for FY16 go? internal funding disputes?
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
LANL humour :)
A Bit of Humor:
At LANL we are having our annual Holiday gift basket auction. One of the premier items
available for bidding is a signed photograph of Charlie "AWESOME" McMillan.
At LANL we are having our annual Holiday gift basket auction. One of the premier items
available for bidding is a signed photograph of Charlie "AWESOME" McMillan.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Empyrean - Wait For It
If you call them 844-750-5567 to adjust your retiree health benefits,
be prepared to wait.
Their Automated Insolence recording assures you that your estimated wait is About 2 minutes,
but it really took about 40 minutes just to talk to someone.
Q> Does anyone know if their website is any better?
Q> Was this toll free?
The biggest stink I have heard was at last year's open enrollment with people griping about the username that is assigned. After the OPM hack, I am not losing sleep over the website username issue.
Is their phone service toll free - no idea, I used the website from the start.
NIF projections
What mission path is NIF on now and what will the funding and staffing levels look like in 12-24 months?
Monday, November 9, 2015
Time Magazine Fusion Article (and reactions)
Time Magazine Fusion Article
There is an excellent article inside and on the cover of the Time Magazine publication dated November 2, 2015 dealing with how various FUSION projects are going.
The major focus of the article concerns an Orange Country California company called Tri Alpha.
Most FUSION projects are using a combination of Hydrogen Isotopes named Deuterium and Tritium as fuel to use in their reactors.
The upside to using these as fuels is that they will fuse at low temperatures. Making things easier.
However, this produces radiation and you have to heat steam, that turns turbines to produce electricity.
With Tri Alpha's approach, they use Hydrogen and Boron as fuel.
This is called Aneutronic Fusion as little or no neutrons are produced in the reaction.
The neutrons carry radiation.
There are two advantages to this, there is very little radiation, and electricity is produced in the reaction itself, not needing to heat steam and turn turbines.
Some naysayers say that the 3 Billion degrees Centigrade needed to do this makes things too difficult.
Tri Alpha personnel point out that heavy ion colliders have produced temperatures of 3.8 Trillion degrees Centigrade.
There are a number of companies throughout the world doing FUSION projects.
If they can do this we are home free on the clean energy front.
NIF was not even mentioned.....it's not a player in the quest for fusion.
http://time.com/4082939/inside-the-quest-for-fusion-clean-energys-holy-grail/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod
REACTIONS:
There is an excellent article inside and on the cover of the Time Magazine publication dated November 2, 2015 dealing with how various FUSION projects are going.
The major focus of the article concerns an Orange Country California company called Tri Alpha.
Most FUSION projects are using a combination of Hydrogen Isotopes named Deuterium and Tritium as fuel to use in their reactors.
The upside to using these as fuels is that they will fuse at low temperatures. Making things easier.
However, this produces radiation and you have to heat steam, that turns turbines to produce electricity.
With Tri Alpha's approach, they use Hydrogen and Boron as fuel.
This is called Aneutronic Fusion as little or no neutrons are produced in the reaction.
The neutrons carry radiation.
There are two advantages to this, there is very little radiation, and electricity is produced in the reaction itself, not needing to heat steam and turn turbines.
Some naysayers say that the 3 Billion degrees Centigrade needed to do this makes things too difficult.
Tri Alpha personnel point out that heavy ion colliders have produced temperatures of 3.8 Trillion degrees Centigrade.
There are a number of companies throughout the world doing FUSION projects.
If they can do this we are home free on the clean energy front.
NIF was not even mentioned.....it's not a player in the quest for fusion.
http://time.com/4082939/inside-the-quest-for-fusion-clean-energys-holy-grail/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod
REACTIONS:
Anonymous said...
Apparently your entire knowledge of science comes from Time magazine. Hint: don't embarrass yourself by trying to create a synopsis of a science article you didn't understand on a blog populated by scientists.
Anonymous said...
"Blog populated by scientists"? This doesn't explain all the LANL people on this site.
Anonymous said...
I don't know what 9:48's problem is. I've worked in the field and find nothing wrong with the synopsis above.
Anonymous said...
The NIF people must be furious with that article, especially those involved in the Moses-Hurricane high-foot break-even scam. I can see Goldstein and others trying to figure out how to upstage this article. No doubt calls have gone out to various press outlets trying to promote some recent "advances" on NIF.
Anonymous said...
I see what you did there, 10:30. Well played, sir, well played...
Anonymous said...
I see what you did there, 10:30. Well played, sir, well played...
November 7, 2015 at 4:18 AM
A well tuned and refined appreciation for snarkiness. The LLNL brand.
November 7, 2015 at 4:18 AM
A well tuned and refined appreciation for snarkiness. The LLNL brand.
Anonymous said...
History will come to view NIF as the Spruce Goose of fusion energy. It could even become a stop-off for tourists visiting the local wine country. Heck, NIF could team up with a local winery and market "NIF Fusion Chardonnay".
Anonymous said...
The Spruce Goose at least got off the ground.
Anonymous said...
Entropy Cellars makes a wine called Fusion. Word is Moses was a big customer.
Anonymous said...
Anonymous Anonymous said...
The Spruce Goose at least got off the ground.
November 7, 2015 at 4:28 PM
I think you mean "off the water."
The Spruce Goose at least got off the ground.
November 7, 2015 at 4:28 PM
I think you mean "off the water."
Anonymous said...
"History will come to view NIF as the Spruce Goose of fusion energy".
Interesting metaphor that may be an appropriate metaphor for LLNL itself. It could be argued that the CA/Berkeley/LLNL role were little more than a token Washington acknowledgement that West Coast liberalism and intellectualism had at least some relevance to the cold war enterprise.
Interesting metaphor that may be an appropriate metaphor for LLNL itself. It could be argued that the CA/Berkeley/LLNL role were little more than a token Washington acknowledgement that West Coast liberalism and intellectualism had at least some relevance to the cold war enterprise.
Anonymous said...
The Spruce Goose at least got off the ground.
November 7, 2015 at 4:28 PM
That is true but it did not really fly it was more like an ekranoplans. Still better than NIF.
November 7, 2015 at 4:28 PM
That is true but it did not really fly it was more like an ekranoplans. Still better than NIF.
Anonymous said...
NIF and the Spruce Goose? Has anyone seen Ed lately? Any chance he his hair is now down to his waist, he has three-inch fingernails and is holed up at Extended Stay and guarded by Mormons?
Anonymous said...
6:18 - awesome Howard Hughes reference
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Accident report
Joint Accident Investigation Team (JAIT) Report of the 5-3-15 Arc-Flash Accident at LANL
https://engineering.llnl.gov/content/assets/docs/efcog/7_9_15_TA_53_FinalReport.pdf
https://engineering.llnl.gov/content/assets/docs/efcog/7_9_15_TA_53_FinalReport.pdf
Los Alamos guard contract dispute
Whatever happened with the Los Alamos guard contract dispute? Did Wackenhut win it, or did SOC keep it after their protest?
Three-quarters of U.S. OPM hack victims still in dark
Your highly dysfunctional federal government at its very worst as shown below. And to think, this massive hack involved all your clearance data and your biometric data, too. And the data for your relatives. Nothing but silence from the OPM, though, with no help for those who have been compromised. Imagine if some business was hacked and responded this slowly to the compromised data of their customers.
*** Three-quarters of U.S. OPM hack victims still in dark - Reuters, Nov 3rd, 2015 ***
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fewer than a quarter of 21 million federal workers hit by a major computer hack have been officially told that their personal information was compromised, six months after the breach was detected, a U.S. government official said on Tuesday.
About 5 million notifications about the hack have been sent out so far, a spokesperson for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) told Reuters in an email.
The slowness of the notification process underscores Washington's struggles in dealing with its computer vulnerabilities, a growing problem that the Obama administration has been trying to address.
After it fell victim to two successive cyber attacks, both begun in 2014 and revealed earlier this year, OPM was roundly criticized by lawmakers for its response.
OPM had no immediate additional comment on the matter on Tuesday, or on its expected notification timetable ahead.
*** Three-quarters of U.S. OPM hack victims still in dark - Reuters, Nov 3rd, 2015 ***
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fewer than a quarter of 21 million federal workers hit by a major computer hack have been officially told that their personal information was compromised, six months after the breach was detected, a U.S. government official said on Tuesday.
About 5 million notifications about the hack have been sent out so far, a spokesperson for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) told Reuters in an email.
The slowness of the notification process underscores Washington's struggles in dealing with its computer vulnerabilities, a growing problem that the Obama administration has been trying to address.
After it fell victim to two successive cyber attacks, both begun in 2014 and revealed earlier this year, OPM was roundly criticized by lawmakers for its response.
OPM had no immediate additional comment on the matter on Tuesday, or on its expected notification timetable ahead.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
More news from LANL
Area G – Safety Basis: On Monday, Area G personnel conducted a fact-finding after they determined that material-at-risk values for certain types of nitrate salt wastes may be underreported by a factor of as much as 10. Personnel determined that the historical data from the Plutonium Facility relied on safeguards values that did not accurately reflect the content of americium-241. Area G personnel are assessing the implications for the safety basis and are reviewing the extent of condition for other waste streams that may have elevated americium content.
http://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/Board%20Activities/Reports/Site%20Rep%20Weekly%20Reports/Los%20Alamos%20National%20Laboratory/2015/wr_20151002_65.pdf
http://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/Board%20Activities/Reports/Site%20Rep%20Weekly%20Reports/Los%20Alamos%20National%20Laboratory/2015/wr_20151002_65.pdf
Nuclear Safety Enforcement Letter issued to Sandia Corporation
October 26, 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Enterprise Assessments’ Office of Enforcement issued an Enforcement Letter (NEL-2015-03) to Sandia Corporation relating to the loss of an ionizer containing a radioactive source that was on lease to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sandia National Laboratories."
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/10/f27/Sandia%20Enforcement%20Letter%20NEL-2015-03.pdf
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/10/f27/Sandia%20Enforcement%20Letter%20NEL-2015-03.pdf
Monday, November 2, 2015
Labs need more money and less oversight
Just give them a larger
share of the federal budget and stop asking them so often what they are
doing with the money. Sounds like another superbly conducted
congressional study.
http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/102815-Glauthier-and-Cohon-Testimony.pdf
http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/102815-Glauthier-and-Cohon-Testimony.pdf
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So there is talk that we will know something near Dec 10-11 about the LANL contract
when the official scores come out. There are certain provisions in the contract that should happen if the score is too low.