LLNL - The True Story -

While the below happened on LANS watch, it is nothing new for LANL. Go back and review the UC record at LANL and you will discover that rigging and hoisting was a persistent problem then as well.  'Of all the FUBARS that Charlie reviewed he forgot to mention the $10M package that was recently dropped and destroyed when inadequate lifts were used and the package toppled to ground. The PADNW confirmed this yesterday, it was an HVAC system. Stated they used 2 straps instead of the required 4. Fortunately, no one was standing under it. Another $10M down the LANS drain.'

On Wednesday, May 31, two post-doctoral researchers at the TA-48 Radiochemistry facility observed flames from the depleted uranium metal turnings that they were cleaning with nitric acid in a fume hood. The researchers choose not to fight the fire, closed the hood sash, pulled the fire alarm, and contacted 911. The Los Alamos County Fire Department, LANL emergency management, and the LANL hazardous materials team responded. No radioactive contamination, injuries, or damage beyond the containment tray in the fume hood occurred. Facility, program, and emergency response personnel held a fact-finding on Thursday to discuss the response. Of relevance to the broader emergency management program at the laboratory, several individuals indicated that they did not receive a mass notification message to stay clear of TA-48 because the notification is based on office location and some TA-48 users have their offices in other locations. No corrective action was assigned for this point. Facility per...

Is Charlie still planning to go ahead with the Gallup poll of employee opinions? What a waste of money after the Kiwi did his feel good cheer for LANS, and then was arrested a few months later for being a sex offender.

In that episode the final Accident Investigation Board report said supervisors had “fostered a culture where employees do not feel comfortable raising safety issues to management.” Ernest Moniz, secretary of Energy from May 2013 to January 2017, said shortly before leaving that the day the drum exploded at WIPP was by far the worst day of his tenure. Los Alamos, he said in a subsequent interview with CPI, had “inadequate quality control in how they were packaging the wastes. There is no sugarcoating that.” Moniz also said that during his tenure, there was “a clear pattern” in which the nuclear weapons laboratories were annually ranked more poorly by his department on their “operations” than on their other tasks, with Los Alamos “in particular…the lowest.” He said he had “no doubt they have had some management problems.” https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/inhaled-uranium/

Phys.Org 2017-06 Multibillion dollar los-alamos lab

Improper LANL shipment involved Plutonium http://www.exchangemonitor.com/publication/morning-briefing/erroneous-lanl-shipment-involved-plutonium/

The Los Alamos Daily Post has obtained a copy of an email issued this afternoon by the director of NNSA's Office of Governmental Affairs. The email states that DOE/NNSA will issue a public notice Tuesday alerting potential offerors of its intent to conduct a competition for the management and operating (M&O) follow-on contract for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The public notice will be available on various websites for which links will go live by close of business Tuesday. http://www.ladailypost.com/content/nnsa-issue-public-notice-intent-compete-management-and-operating-contract-lanl Another rumor is it stays as a for profit LLC. Bidders are Honeywell with U of Texas, UC with Batelle, Lockheed with ?

Has anyone heard about another recent LANL crit safety violation? Word has been leaking out around the complex that they are covering up in order to avoid a large fine.

Your ads and over-writing of text on top of each other renderthe blog unreadble on an android device.

This was just marvelous news - after what LLNL did to retiree health plans. What are we going to have left to turn to when the last insurer bolts? Not just Wisconsin, carriers across the county are leaving the system. http://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/health-care/2017/06/21/health-insurer-anthem-stop-offering-individual-plans-most-wisconsin/416475001/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/los-alamos-shipped-nuclear-material-by-plane-authorities-say/

From politico.com 6/23/17 You haven’t heard of it since chemistry class, but beryllium is a chemical toxic to lung tissue. The Department of Labor took years to finalize a rule protecting workers from exposure, and didn’t issue the final version until the tail end of Obama’s presidency—January 9, to be exact. It was always at risk of removal by the Republican Congress, which could have repealed it with just a majority vote, but it survived until now. On Friday, the Department of Labor proposed a  new rule  on beryllium exposure; it doesn’t change the original exposure limits   imposed by   Obama   but instead eliminates additional safety requirements for the construction and shipyard industries, such as conducting medical surveillance or providing training for those workers who are near, but not above, the exposure limits. Labor groups slammed the change, saying that it would lead to more lung disease and cancer among workers. Industry groups applauded the ch...

Only a matter of time before LLNL and LANL pension plans are sold off to insurance company http://www.reuters.com/article/us-accenture-pensions-aig-idUSKBN19E19Y?il=0 Consulting and outsourcing services provider Accenture Plc (ACN.N) said on Friday it would transfer $1.6 billion in pension obligations to insurers American International Group Inc (AIG.N) and MassMutual. The transfer includes about $600 million in lump-sum payments to about 7,000 current and former U.S. employees of Accenture and $1 billion in purchases of annuities from insurance companies. U.S. insurers are buying corporate pension plans at a record clip as rising interest rates and all-time high stock-market values give companies the perfect excuse to offload them. Calculating they can make more money from selling companies an annuity to cover the cost of the pension plans and then invest the proceeds in bonds and other securities, insurers are competing to persuade corporate America to sell them their pen...

LANL safety record topic of senate hearing for Perry The probe of Los Alamos by the nonprofit journalism organization caught the attention of top officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the lab, and members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, who say safety should be the top priority given the lab’s role in maintaining and modernizing the U.S nuclear stockpile. During a Senate subcommittee hearing Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., asked Energy Secretary Rick Perry about safety concerns surrounding pit operations at Los Alamos. He asked Perry for assurances that the Department of Energy would commit to increasing safety requirements and accountability as part of the new management contract for the lab, currently being rebid. Udall mentioned the safety issues raised by the Center for Public Integrity series to Perry, asking, “In your opinion, and the opinion of DOE, is Los Alamos making acceptable progress to fix all identified issues with ...

Asked about the persistence of the Los Alamos lab’s problems, former NNSA director Miller smiled and said her colleagues at the nuclear oversight agency sometimes told the following joke: If Washington sent all three of America’s nuclear weapons labs an order to study how to “jump,” they would all respond differently. Lawrence Livermore, she said, would convene a conference and produce a three-inch stack of reports about “jumping.” Officials at Sandia would simply jump. But at Los Alamos, she said, officials would instinctively respond with a “**** you, we’re not jumping. June 21, 2017 at 10:35 AM   COMMENTS   Anonymous  said... Yep. Los Alamos would instinctively know that there is zero value in DOE directed "jumping" studies. June 21, 2017 at 5:55 PM     Anonymous  said... I first heard that joke in 1980 as a postdoc at Los Alamos. It was old then. June 21, 2017 at 6:49 PM     Anonymous  said... Given the response o...

A California university’s decision to put a limit on the number of American citizens it enrolls — while placing no such restrictions on illegal immigrants who want to attend the school — is drawing sharp criticism from education activists. The regents in the University of California system recently instituted Regents Policy 2109 in response to state lawmakers threatening to withhold from the university system nearly $20 million if school officials didn’t cap the number of out-of-state American students. The university’s response to the state government’s threat was to limit the percentage of out-of-state American students in the student body to 18 percent on most campuses.  http://www.wcbm.com/2017/06/20/university-of-california-favoring-illegal-immigrants-over-out-of-state-americans/

The NNSA head, Klotz, alerted the Secretary of Energy, Moniz, and the two of them flew to Los Alamos to meet with McMillan, a man known for both charm and hubris. “Los Alamos is a legend,” McMillan has boasted in a promotional video. “It’s an icon. And of course, because of that, everybody notices what we do here; and we’re held to a very high standard.” Moniz said he told McMillan personally that “I was not entirely satisfied with the reactions of some of his senior managers.” As a result, he said, “actions were taken,” without offering details. But progress was not swift. The NNSA, in its annual evaluation of Los Alamos’ overall performance for fiscal year 2014, judged the criticality safety program to be “below expectations” with deficiencies “similar to issues identified in past” evaluations; it particularly faulted the labels the lab had placed on nuclear materials and the guides the lab had prepared for workers performing plutonium handling chores. Some of these shortfalls persis...

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/many-question-lanl-s-willingness-ability-to-address-safety-issues/article_b2f78faa-8027-5611-840e-f0749db9f1d6.html

Sunday June 18, 2017 07:32 PM - Associated Press An extended shutdown of the nation's only scientific laboratory for producing and testing the plutonium cores for its nuclear weapons has taken a toll on America's arsenal, with key work postponed and delays looming in the production of components for new nuclear warheads, according to government documents and officials. The unique research and production facility is located at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, the birthplace of the U.S. atomic arsenal. The lab's director ordered the shutdown in 2013 after the Washington, D.C., official in charge of America's warhead production expressed worries that the facility was ill-equipped to prevent an accident that would kill its workers and potentially others nearby. Parts of the facility began renewed operations last year, but with only partial success. And workers there last year were still violating safety rules for handling plutonium, the unstable man-made...

llnlthetruestory welcomes Evil   Echo  as a co-moderator and contributor to the blog.  His help is greatly appreciated!

LANL still struggles to correctly label waste containers.  Correspondence between Los Alamos National Laboratory and New Mexico regulators shows the lab has failed more than once to accurately label drums of liquid waste shipped to a disposal center in Colorado. http://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/local/colorado/2017/06/18/new-mexico-lab-ships-mislabeled-waste-containers-colorado/406735001/

  Anonymous  said... Is it true LLNL cannot attract qualified people and when they do hire someone, they quit few months later? Have you seen that happen in your department? June 16, 2017 at 4:18 PM  

  Anonymous  said... So now Scooby is terminating posts on any blog that he doesn't like the trend of, or that criticizes the blog in any way. No more contentious or argumentative threads allowed! Pretty much eliminates all the regular posters here. It was nice arguing with you. No more of that stuff now. Must play nice or Master Scooby will provide needed correction (i.e. his fascist crap). (See how fast this gets deleted!) The use of abusive language was reason enough to remove the posting, not any criticism of Scooby. Likewise the comment about fascist crap is out of line. If you cannot write in a civil way, then don't expect your posting to make it on this blog. Criticize away, but do so in a respectful manner. Otherwise find another blog.

https://www.quora.com/Lawrence-Livermore-National-Laboratory-Is-LLNL-the-true-story-generally-on-point-or-way-off-base

After the cases of Manning, Snowden, and now Winner one wonders about such people managed to get and hold a clearance. Is the background check now that sloppy or are they getting let through on purpose. Either way, it's worrisome.

This may result in even less LEP work for LLNL and even more reliance on NIF funding to keep the doors open. "In February 2017, DOD and NNSA representatives agreed to use the term “IW1” rather than “W78/88-1 LEP” to reflect that IW1 replaces capability rather than extending the life of current stockpile systems." http://allthingsnuclear.org/syoung/the-ugly-post-3-of-the-nnsas-fy2018-budget-request

How long will the LANL transition be delayed by the Nevada contract protests? With two pending GAO appeals of the NNSA second decision on the NNSS award, this can drag on for months. Even though GAO is expected to make a decision by sometime later this year, that may not be the end of the road. The botched Y-12 contract endured an appeal to the US Court after the GAO made their decision and that delayed the final answer for even longer. If NNSA delays the LANL bid until the NNSS one is sorted out then it could be 2020 before a new group takes over. 

Only a matter of time before something major happens at LANL under the present leadership Among issues raised Wednesday was a poor evaluations from the Department of Energy, which reported to the board in February that Los Alamos was the only national laboratory to receive a failing grade for its nuclear criticality safety program, a program designed to prevent a nuclear accident and radiological release during work related to nuclear weapons development. Then in April, during Earth Day cleanup activities, a fire broke out on the ground floor of PF-4. Workers opened an unlabeled container they believed held powered graphite but in fact contained lanthanum nickel. The materials started to warm, then self-combusted, causing a small fire. One worker suffered second-degree burns. http://www.santafenewmexican.com/los-alamos-lab-officials-learning-curve-with-more-plutonium/article_ef41f518-3cbd-56fd-bd9d-8d0e3e22b7da.html

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 7, 2017 -- At Los Alamos National Laboratory, home to more than 100 supercomputers since the dawn of the computing era, elegance and simplicity of programming are highly valued but not always achieved. In the case of a new product, dubbed "Charliecloud," a crisp 800-line code helps supercomputer users operate in the high-performance world of Big Data without burdening computer center staff with the peculiarities of their particular software needs. "Charliecloud lets users easily run crazy new things on our supercomputers," said lead developer Reid Priedhorsky of the High Performance Computing Division at Los Alamos. "Los Alamos has lots of supercomputing power, and we do lots of simulations that are well supported here. But we've found that Big Data analysis projects need to use different frameworks, which often have dependencies that differ from what we have already on the supercomputer. So, we've developed a lightweight 'con...

 After 9 years and on their way out, LANS wants our input in their first survey. To: LANL-ALL From: Charles F. McMillan, DIR Date: June 7, 2017 Subject: Employee Engagement Initiative Begins Soon Creating a positive, inclusive, and supportive work culture is essential to a vibrant workplace. In support of this, we will soon release an Employee Engagement Survey that will enable you to give us your direct feedback about working at the Laboratory. The information gathered through this survey will help shape the organizational culture at the Laboratory. This effort is one of several initiatives that supports the Laboratory’s Strategic Plan Goal 3 that aims to position the Laboratory as one of the best places to work.

 Nevada is under protest,again https://www.gao.gov/docket/B-414750.1 https://govtribe.com/vendor/asec-international-incorporated-gaithersburg-md

Really Scooby? Google ads on the blog? So much for your vaunted "volunteer" service. Hypocrite! Reply Delete Anonymous May 30, 2017 at 7:02 PM Really Scooby? Google ads on the blog? So much for your vaunted "volunteer" service. Hypocrite! May 30, 2017 at 5:46 PM I agree, the blog must be shut down now!!! I am sick of this blog, I go to it every other day and stuff just makes me sick. No one should be forced to read this blog, yet everyday people come to read the blog. Crazy I tell you crazy. Do you not realize the blog has offended me!? Me personally. I now longer want to go to this blog and be offended, so I say shut it down so the next time I try to look at this blog I will not be able see anything Google ads or otherwise. It is for my own good. Reply Delete Anonymous May 30, 2017 at 7:48 PM May 30, 2017 at 7:02 PM So subtle, so light-hearted, so sublime. Your perspicacity is amazing. Bottle and sell it. You are a treasure. Me, I...