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Saturday, September 23, 2017

Report: LANL twice violated nuclear safety standards in Aug


Sep 22, 2017 

"The incidents are among the most serious to have occurred at the lab in the last year or more, and come at a time when the lab’s ability to handle nuclear materials — and ensure the safety of its workers and the public — have been questioned by critical investigative reports, the federal advisory board and members of Congress"

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/report-lanl-violated-nuclear-safety-standards/article_6692f11d-6c8d-5b4c-8f5d-1972330d3df6.html

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh, yes. The omnipresent yapping from the combined voice of the DNFSB and the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Anonymous said...

The combined voice of the DNFSB and the Santa Fe New Mexican has spoken. The world must stop and take note!

Anonymous said...

Nope. Not going to happen.

Anonymous said...


Test post.

Blog seems kinda dead. Did something happen?

Anonymous said...

Yes how dare they raise these violations in the media without receiving pre-approval for a sanitized version of the story from LANS first. How reckless of them.

Anonymous said...

maybe not the world. how about the fee determinator at nnsa.

GreggS said...

"Blog seems kinda dead. Did something happen?"

Nope, not dead. Blog admins are now moderating all comments. So there is a delay while we process the incoming queue. Just means you should wait a few hours before expecting your words to hit the public area.

It means a bit more work for us, but should keep the trolls at bay.

Anonymous said...

Editing the blog will kill it. The content becomes the moderators mind not an accurate presentaion of community sentiments.

The unintended biasing and filtering eliminates the edge and style which give this random, autonomous media authenticity.

I man enough to endure the occasional screed, conflict and bile to getthe sentiment of the original poster.

I vote, if votes are allowed for raw unfiltered content. It will be an authentic voice.

Parenthtically, knowing the content is uneditted by drsign, I do not presume the blog manager, whose work I value and appreciate, agrees or approves every post. Toleration of all but the foul is the only expectation.

One voice for openness.

Anonymous said...

but should keep the trolls at bay.

September 23, 2017 at 11:50 PM

Hey Evil,

You must have access to the trolls' IP addresses. Can't you simply blacklist them?

Anonymous said...

"You must have access to the trolls' IP addresses. Can't you simply blacklist them?

September 24, 2017 at 6:38 AM"

That sounds good but did you consider that if this is implemented that you might end up being considered a troll and blacklisted.

Anonymous said...

"You must have access to the trolls' IP addresses. Can't you simply blacklist them?

September 24, 2017 at 6:38 AM"

That sounds good but did you consider that if this is implemented that you might end up being considered a troll and blacklisted.

September 24, 2017 at 7:10 AM


Oh. the horror of having to restrict myself to intelligent, civil comments to keep from being blacklisted!

Anonymous said...


"Oh. the horror of having to restrict myself to intelligent, civil comments to keep from being blacklisted!

September 24, 2017 at 10:49 AM"

I am just saying that some of the anti-LANL trolls wanted others to be blacklisted when they would also be blacklisted under these rules. They probably think it it is intelligent and civil to call everyone at LANL arrogant cowboys and the place a cesspool. So far the blog seems cleaned up a bit from this.

So to some random LANL news/rumors. Someone said that UC MAY bid again, which sounds like it is not a sure thing. If they are talking to Bechtel that could mean that no one else wants to bid with UC since they think it may be loser, or it could be that UC wants to keep in Bechtels good graces at LLNL since they would at least want to keep that for the long haul. As for names they are kicking around Webster which is no big surprise and a few ADs as PADS at least on a possible UC side.

Anonymous said...

September 24, 2017 at 4:31 AM, I presume Scooby or Evil Echo will promptly remind you that if you don't like the neighborhood here, go start your own blog.

As a former Livermoron, I will also remind you that this was LLNL's blog until "LANL: The Real Story" cratered.

Regarding the topic -- I'm astonished the Santa Fe paper has so many technical mistakes in it. Surely they know how to check their sources with real nuclear scientists -- even ones at UNM would have helped their credibility immensely.

Anonymous said...

Some of us have good reason to think LANL has a cowboy culture of arrogance, though cesspool is maybe too much. There is a long line of incidents, continuing to this very day, that supports that view. Black mark after black mark, safety and security violations, fee reductions and penalties, horrible press, it just does not stop. LANL has done a great job of making everyone else in the complex look bad, and is responsible for the very existence of LANS and LLNS in place of UC. Now you might disagree, but it is hard to understand why you do not appreciate why the rest of the complex looks upon LANL as the rebel child that who can't be controlled and might have to be locked in his room.

Anonymous said...

The culture is poor but think it is generally driven through a sense of entitlement, low skill-sets, and lack of pride in their work. I do not think "cowboy" represents this well and I do not feel that the science side of LANL exhibits this culture at all...

Anonymous said...

The culture is poor but think it is generally driven through a sense of entitlement, low skill-sets, and lack of pride in their work. I do not think "cowboy" represents this well and I do not feel that the science side of LANL exhibits this culture at all...

September 28, 2017 at 6:57 PM

Interesting point particularly about the lack of pride in the work. You may be on to a real problem at certain parts of the lab. However saying the problems are the arrogant cowboy culture sounds good and fits in much better with the popular image of scientists. People watch the Big Bang theory and think this is what scientists are actually like and they hate them. So every time the word culture is brought up the only thing that will come to mind is scientists. I would add that there are many people that need this misconception about the lab and it is in their interests to keep it going. The whole idea of arrogant scientists does not make any sense when you look at the actual incidents. So we have several criticality incidents, WIPP, a burned technician, fences that do not work, faculties that have been closed for long times, ethic violations by the deputy director Beth Sellers, Rich Marquez and so on. None of these had anything to do with scientists arrogant or otherwise but if you want to keep attention off certain things than blaming scientists is the way to go.
It is also odd that after 10 years of LANS the number fraction of Phds to non Phds is at an all time low so soon there will not be any scientists to blame.

Anonymous said...

Yet all of the LANS managers in the management chain, from the FLM, to the ORS, to the group leader, the division leader who manages all of these employees, to the AD, are still smiling and coming to work each and every day. They have reorganized, creating new groups and new divisions (more unqualified managers) except it is the same dumbshits at the helm! The incident itself was not covered up as some may claim, and only the workers were punished. One hopes when the new contractor arrives that the AD and division monkies will be gone, and hopefully a few group leaders will also be shown the door.

Anonymous said...


Yet all of the LANS managers in the management chain, from the FLM, to the ORS, to the group leader, the division leader who manages all of these employees, to the AD, are still smiling and coming to work each and every day. They have reorganized, creating new groups and new divisions (more unqualified managers) except it is the same dumbshits at the helm! The incident itself was not covered up as some may claim, and only the workers were punished. One hopes when the new contractor arrives that the AD and division monkies will be gone, and hopefully a few group leaders will also be shown the door.

September 29, 2017 at 4:54 AM


If UC wins, nothing will change. I have never understood the nostalgia around UC. We are LANL. UC has done nothing that I have ever seen to better the lab in the past 25 years I have been involved.

Anonymous said...

However saying the problems are the arrogant cowboy culture sounds good and fits in much better with the popular image of scientists. People watch the Big Bang theory and think this is what scientists are actually like and they hate them.....
September 28, 2017 at 9:26 PM

What does "cowboy culture of arrogance" have to do with scientists, never mind a TV show about fake scientists? Scientists often think the world revolves around them, which is arrogant, but in fact only a small fraction of LANL (20%?) is scientists, and by and large they aren't the people responsible for the myriad safety and security lapses that have plagued LANL for many years.

Anonymous said...

The scientist are not the problem at LANL. Everyone at LANL knows this. The problem is the arrogant PADs and ADs, the shameful local population, including city/county/state governments, who milk the Lab dry and do little work if any at all. Read the questions to the RFP, they tell this story clearly.

Anonymous said...

I have never understood the nostalgia around UC. We are LANL. UC has done nothing that I have ever seen to better the lab in the past 25 years I have been involved.

September 29, 2017 at 7:16 AM


In the last 25 years, UC gave us McMillan and Nanos, the two worst Lab Directors in the history of the US nuclear weapons program.

Anonymous said...

The UC of Dynes et al. most certainly has a shameful legacy at LANL.

Anonymous said...

The UC of Dynes et al. most certainly has a shameful legacy at LANL.

September 30, 2017 at 7:55 AM

Nope, Dynes fought for UC during the crazy witch hunt. You have some kind of agenda against UC, why what did it do you any and perhaps you may be partially responsible for what as happened to you not some UC conspiracy.

Anonymous said...

Who said there was a conspiracy? Regardless of the reason, UC put losers in charge and continues to do so to this day.

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