Sandia downhill

Speaking of LANL directors having gone downhill, Sandia's went downhill in a big way with the new director Jill Hruby. They covered up the fact that she doesn't even have a PhD by using her gender and shoving that in everybody's face. If you said you thought she is a bozo unfit to run a Natl lab, they'll just call you a sexist.

I had to GTFO after her appointment, having realized the UNM and non-PhD crowd had completely taken over the place finally.

Sandia home page

Is this statement from the Sandia home page still correct?

'Sandia National Laboratories is operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation.'

In view of what happened with the NNSS contract it might be prudent for Sandia to issue a release for the record.

Nuclear accident in New Mexico ranks among the costliest in U.S. history

Nuclear accident in New Mexico ranks among the costliest in U.S. history




When a drum containing radioactive waste blew up in an underground nuclear dump in New Mexico two years ago, the Energy Department rushed to quell concerns in the Carlsbad desert community and quickly reported progress on resuming operations.

The early federal statements gave no hint that the blast had caused massive long-term damage to the dump, a facility crucial to the nuclear weapons cleanup program that spans the nation, or that it would jeopardize the Energy Department’s credibility in dealing with the tricky problem of radioactive waste.

But the explosion ranks among the costliest nuclear accidents in U.S. history, according to a Times analysis. The long-term cost of the mishap could top $2 billion, an amount roughly in the range of the cleanup after the 1979 partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

from LA Times
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-88147659/

The suits are already piling up

The suits are already piling up and the courts have not yet ruled on Liedos NNSS protest. Looks like the contract losers from NSTec have turned the lawyers loose on the NNSA.


http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2016/09/21/contractor-teams-seek-to-challenge-leidos-nuclear.html

Hanford whistleblowers

Hanford whistleblowers awarded $216,000 in back pay, compensation"

"...trial judge characterized some of CSC's arguments as "astonishing display of chutzpah""

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article102764252.html

Why Are More Cleared Candidates Job Hopping?

https://news.clearancejobs.com/2016/09/08/cleared-candidates-job-hopping/?utm_campaign=Defense+Industry+Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=34332969&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8g813hybHLU5fYmx2VXHs1_IpoRN7Y2YlmuVdOdK-kEa1aBZFwdrmH2FIHRU1UjCYwdJpl5SIPvjfhBw3gXjYtHPXAC5gU1pV8FOjspmmhEXPJ4Ew&_hsmi=34332442

GAO report

NNSA should Evaluate the Role of the Enhanced Surveillance Program in Assessing the Condition of the U.S. Nuclear Stockpile

Another typical GAO report on NNSA, indicating that the 2007 plan is to be updated by 2017...


http://gao.gov/products/GAO-16-549?source=ra

LANL PhD's mock-up triggered Sunport lockdown

How's that national service working out for you and your family now?

LANL PhD's mock-up triggered Sunport lockdown. Charged with felony for business travel.

https://www.abqjournal.com/843660/los-alamos-employee-traveling-with-device-arrested-in-sunport-bomb-scare.html

Danielson, 40, is now facing a fourth-degree felony of having a facsimile or hoax bomb or explosive, according to court records. He has no criminal history and Los Alamos National Laboratory confirmed he was an employee traveling on business.

September 13, 2016 at 10:06 AM

 

Comments:

 

Anonymous said...

This charge is going to be dropped like rock, it makes no sense that this arrest was done, none. Just a misunderstanding of reality by some folks.

September 13, 2016 at 1:38 PM

 

 Anonymous said...

Just a misunderstanding of reality by some folks.

September 13, 2016 at 1:38 PM

Yeah, a misunderstanding of the reality of the terror threat and airport bombings by some jerk who thought his work was more important and no one would mind a little "mock" device. Earth to LANL: Get a clue. Check with TSA first never entered their myopic little brains.

National Nuclear Security Administration rescission of Contract Award

Leidos protested the rescission of the NNSS contract on Friday. They're not wasting time--straight to federal claims court.

Today the Nevada Site Science Support and Technologies Corporation (NVS3T) protested the Department of Energy’s, National Nuclear Security Administration rescission of Contract Award DE-NA0003379 for the management and operation of the Nevada National Security Site. The protest was filed with the United States Court of Federal Claims

Los Alamos man shuts down airport

http://www.ladailypost.com/content/los-alamos-man-shuts-down-albuquerque-sunport

Stressed out!

I recall Tom McNaughton (retired, PF-4 Maintenance Manager) calling a meeting (at the request of Bob Mason, TA-55 FOD) of all PF-4 Cognizant System Engineers (CSEs) to immediately reduce all maintenance on safety class and safety significant vital safety systems (VSSs) to the absolute "bare bones". As an other example, Bill Kerley was the Chief Engineer at PF-4 for 4-years, while he sat idle on Larry Goen's (ES-Division Leader) office. We were informed that Bill was "stressed out". Poor Bill. Really, so were all the CSEs there! Operations, Maintenance, and Engineering are a "joke" at PF-4. and TA-55 in general.

September 11, 2016 at 11:58 AM 

Anonymous said...

September 11, 2016 at 11:58 AM

With contract change coming up there is lots of very "stressed out" managers particularly those that are closest to Bechtel. Some of the stress may be due to things being uncovered about the way certain operations have been done.

Corporate cult

Is there a corporate cult or an attempt at creating a corporate cult like culture at the labs. The key characteristics are listed below. 

Obedience 

devotion 

discourage individualism and encourage group think. 

persuasion

isolation

top down communications

When will DOE learn how to administer a contract?

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-529

Follow the money, Charlie boy

“There is no magic in this,” McMillan added. “It’s dollars.”

Follow the money, Charlie boy, follow the money.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/congressional-subcommittee-grills-lanl-chief-over-backlog-of-repairs/article_f2ec942b-846b-5abc-b4be-98036d8ab6d0.html

Lab cell phones

Did I miss something? I see more and more people using their lab issued phones as personal phones. I was under the impression that these phones are for business purposes only and personal use was limited to incidental use. 

I would assume these phones are capable of being monitored and it would be easy to when and where these phones are being used. 

Seems like a waste of tax payer money to supply these phones for business purposes only to have them being used for personal purposes

North Korea is at it again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3780874/Monitors-report-unusual-seismic-activity-North-Korea.html
North Korea detonates 'its biggest-ever nuke': Huge earthquake at nuclear testing site follows 'hydrogen bomb' in January

Maybe we could strike a deal with them where they are allowed to keep their 
weapons program but they must put Bechtel in charge of their labs.

DOE finds problems with missile program

The report lists lots of problems and not much is offered to address them. Maybe it is time to move the nuclear weapons mission out of DOE?


http://www.lamonitor.com/content/doe-finds-problems-missile-program

September 2, 2016 at 10:17 AM 

Anonymous said...

The report lists lots of problems and not much is offered to address them. Maybe it is time to move the nuclear weapons mission out of DOE?

Under most circamstances that would seem reasonable however where wold you move it to DOD? As incredible as that sounds that would be even worse as DOD is even more incompetent that DOE. DOE still gets some stuff done, DOD, nope, nada billions and billions and billions for stuff that is guaranteed not to work.

Who ran the labs before DOE?

September 2, 2016 at 12:00 PM 

Anonymous said...

Who ran the labs before DOE?

ERDA, AEC, and the War Department.

Lockheed Martin signals date for IT merger with Leidos

There was no way that Lockheed could have done their notifications differently. Both the Leidos and Lockheed shareholders had to vote to approve the deal, and those votes only happened in the past few weeks. The proposed merger had been in open press since the first of the year, and DoE comes off as moronic for claiming not to have known about it. In any event, it should not matter one twit what corporate logo is on the team, what should matter is that the leadership team from the bid remains in place for two years after transition. That is a requirement of the RFP. All this silliness about mergers having an impact on the award are just distractions stirred up by sore losers.


http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/fedbiz_daily/2016/07/lockheed-martin-signals-date-for-it-merger-with.html

September 1, 2016 at 10:54 AM 

COMMENTS:

Anonymous said...

September 1, 2016 at 10:54 AM

Not buying it, they should have told DOE that they would do this. The whole thing is dirty.

September 1, 2016 at 11:57 AM 

Anonymous said...

Fallout from this debacle will obviously have an affect on contract awards for Sandia and LANL. The next couple of bid wars in NM should be very amusing.

September 1, 2016 at 6:15 PM 

Anonymous said...

Fallout from this debacle will obviously have an affect on contract awards for Sandia and LANL. The next couple of bid wars in NM should be very amusing.

September 1, 2016 at 6:15 PM

Agan LM is getting LANL, it is already a done deal, the only question is who gets Sandia, Boeing is the best bet.

September 1, 2016 at 7:42 PM 

DOE extends ‘bridge contract’ for clean-up work at LANL

LANS gets yet another contract extension at LANL, this time for EM work.

Folks, it is looking more and more like DoE will grant several more years for the current M&O. Despite the announcement that the lab will be under new management next year, prepare yourselves for one excuse after another for extensions. Yep, Charlie and his PAD and AD minions will continue to rule for years to come.

https://www.abqjournal.com/836778/doe-extends-bridge-contract-for-clean-up-work.html