Pension or 401k

Has anyone heard whether LANL's TRIAD will offer a traditional pension (rather than 401k matching) to stop the constant early career brain drain?? A pension was explicitly allowed in the newest RFP. Since DOE encourages benefits to trend together, both LANL and LLNL would be affected eventually. California has lots of Representatives to amend the LLNL operating contract fairly quickly....

LANL worker hurt

"LANL worker hurt by chemical reaction"

https://www.abqjournal.com/1224908/lanl-worker-hurt-by-chemical-reaction.XHTML 

LANL explosion sends one to hospital

LANL explosion sends one to hospital and results in "imminent and substantial endangerment to human health"


An explosion in a densely staffed sector of Los Alamos National Laboratory on Sept. 14 left one employee with multiple cuts and prompted lab officials to request emergency approval from the New Mexico Environment Department to safely detonate two compromised vessels containing highly explosive hazardous waste.

Both of the approximately 1.7-ounce containers were "unstable due to heat exposure and the presence of etching on the vessel exterior," an incident report said.

"This condition posed an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health and the environment," the report reads


https://taosnews.com/stories/explosive-accidentally-detonates-at-lanl,52007

Incoming LANL Director to Give Update on Lab Transition

Incoming LANL Director to Give Update on Lab Transition 

"The head of Triad National Security is slated Wednesday to brief the University of California Board of Regents’ National Laboratories Subcommittee about the company’s progress in assuming the management and operations contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico."

https://www.exchangemonitor.com/incoming-lanl-lab-director-give-update-lab-transition-today/

Energy Savings Performance Contract

What the what? Half a billion bucks for heating of "residential spaces" and other at LANL.


Siemens‘ U.S. government subsidiary has received a potential $554.6M energy savings performance contract to update power generation and heating systems within an administrative area at the Energy Department‘s Los Alamos National Laboratory.

DOE announced the award of the three-phase LANL Steam Plant Replacement Project to Siemens Government Technologies through a FedBizOpps notice posted Thursday.

SGT will replace the TA-3 Steam Plant’s aging steam distribution system, as well as repair or rebuild natural gas high-pressure pipelines at the facility.

The building includes residential space for LANL employees and multiple laboratories for experimental sciences, biological and nuclear research, materials synthesis and metallic and ceramic processing efforts.

The project is expected to be completed in 2021.


https://www.govconwire.com/2018/09/siemens-receives-555m-contract-for-repair-work-at-los-alamos-national-laboratory/

Stop moderating blog

"If you stopped moderating comments altogether the stale blog would improve. Few care any longer."

A little harsh. The blog moderator needs to operate the blog as he deems appropriate, but he has been open to helpers. Are you interested? By the way, employees and retirees are still interested in value of this blog and have been since its inception, when LLNS took over operational management of LLNL.

Bechtel Injury Record Keeping

September 12, 2018 DOE Office of Enforcement FNOV against Bechtel for a November 4, 2016 Hanford Waste Treatment event, involving injury, improper injury record keeping, improper training, and other violations 

https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/09/f55/Final%20Notice%20of%20Violation%20Bechtel%20National%20Inc.pdf

June 2018 DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments Assessment of Occupational Injury and Illness Record Keeping and Reporting by Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS) for CY 2015-2017 involving a number of work related injuries that were improperly reported as not work related

https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/06/f52/Assessment%20of%20OII%20Recordkeeping%20and%20Reporting%20at%20LLNL.pdf

WFO is not a big deal to the Labs

WFO is not a big deal to the Labs

For years this was the unstated policy and now it is becoming more of a firm stance. After the new SNL team came in there was a big change because under L-M the leadership was always pro WFO and they had very experienced and well respected WFO leadership. The new SNL team doesn't have much in this regard, at least compared to the L-M team.

At LANL the WFO is an undesired fit in any location. They had in under weapons, then made it a stand alone and now Triad has pushed it way down under STE. Hard to see that it matters much to them when the numbers have dropped sharply over the recent several years. It winds up that maybe the projects just aren't all that important to the Labs after all.

Two significant issues in nuc facility in same week

Two significant issues in nuc facility in same week

DEFENSE NUCLEAR FACILITIES SAFETY BOARD
August 24, 2018 
SUBJECT: Los Alamos Activity Report for Week Ending August 24, 2018
MEMORANDUM FOR: Christopher J. Roscetti, Technical Director 
FROM: J.W. Plaue and D. Gutowski, Resident Inspectors

Plutonium Facility–Infrastructure: On Saturday, a worker replacing degraded braided wire cable for a glovebox door counterbalance received a skin contamination due to a glovebox glove breach. The skin was not damaged and was successfully decontaminated. There is a substantial effort to replace these cables in plutonium-238 gloveboxes; one cable failed during use earlier this year. The sharps review process had not been used for this work package. During recent construction activities, workers received permission to cut a lock on a position controller for the Zone 1 ventilation system because the key could not be found. Following a cut, they accidentally dropped the bolt cutters, which impacted a glovebox window. The window cracked, but contamination surveys indicated it was not breached. Workers replaced the window later in the day.

Two significant issues in nuc facility in same week

DEFENSE NUCLEAR FACILITIES SAFETY BOARD
August 24, 2018 
SUBJECT: Los Alamos Activity Report for Week Ending August 24, 2018
MEMORANDUM FOR: Christopher J. Roscetti, Technical Director 
FROM: J.W. Plaue and D. Gutowski, Resident Inspectors

Plutonium Facility–Infrastructure: On Saturday, a worker replacing degraded braided wire cable for a glovebox door counterbalance received a skin contamination due to a glovebox glove breach. The skin was not damaged and was successfully decontaminated. There is a substantial effort to replace these cables in plutonium-238 gloveboxes; one cable failed during use earlier this year. The sharps review process had not been used for this work package. During recent construction activities, workers received permission to cut a lock on a position controller for the Zone 1 ventilation system because the key could not be found. Following a cut, they accidentally dropped the bolt cutters, which impacted a glovebox window. The window cracked, but contamination surveys indicated it was not breached. Workers replaced the window later in the day.

NM senators use budget bill to protect nuke safety board

"NM senators use budget bill to protect nuke safety board" 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.abqjournal.com/1219536/nm-senators-use-budget-bill-to-protect-nuke-safety-board.html/amp

How do you feel about the future of LANL?

How do staff feel about the future of LANL with Triad? Seems like it could put things on a slow, but upward trajectory. Sure, the labs still lack a mission and they don't command the respect or secure funding they had during the Cold War. But I'm thinking about going back to the labs in an R&D role once I cash out in Silicon Valley and can buy a nice house in Santa Fe mortgage free. Now seems like the right time since they are non-profit again, and the economy is likely to enter recession in 1-2 years.

LSEO has "multiple openings for Division Superintendents"

 

"You will be responsible for the effective management and leadership of a large and diverse workforce consisting of electronics, mechanical, and operations technical personnel who support the National Ignition Facility & Photon Science (NIF&PS) Principal Directorate and the Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF)."

https://careers-llnl.ttcportals.com/jobs/3114667-lseo-division-superintendent

LANS' Board of Directors and TRIAD's

LANS/LLNS is overseen by a Board of Governors while Triad has a Board of Directors. Years ago I was told by the Lab Directors Office when the DD was reviewing a presentation I had prepared, not to refer to the LLNS Board of Governors as the Board of Directors. So is there any real significance to this difference in names? Does a Board of Directors have more legal authority/responsibility than a Board of Governors?

Triad benefit package

Triad benefit package approved. LANL employees getting two paid Holidays stripped from their benefit package.
Retirement, insurance remains the same as presently offered.

TSA Pre-Check?

I found out recently that apparently US State Department and DOD employees with security clearances automatically get access to the TSA Pre-Check expedited airport screening lines. As far as I'm aware, that's not the case for LLNL employees with clearances and, presumably, not the case for cleared LANL employees, either. Anyone know what the story here is? The only thing that I can think of is that we're not directly employed by the US government. Still seems that we should be automatically eligible for TSA access if we have clearances, though.

-Doug

Unpaid invoice

UNPAID INVOICE_FRAUD CASE
Not sure if this is the right place but I am posting this out of desperation
with the Accounts Payable department at LLNL. 
I am a small contractor who performed work for the lab earlier this year and am still waiting to be paid. The date on the invoice is 05-29-18. To be brief, my email account was hacked and fraud was committed against me. The hacker signed a EFT form in my name and had the invoice payment deposited to his bank account. I have since been fighting with AP at LLN to be paid. It is my hope that this post will find its way to the right person who can resolve this issue, as I would be happy to send them all the documentation I have.

Tony Tonon
Tonon Electrical & Controls Inc
San Francisco Bay Area
land 650-873-4962 cell 650-224-1269
tonytonon@sbcglobal.net
A GE-Zenith Authorized Service Station Since 1988
Working With Zenith Controls Since 1977
The Transfer Switch People

Governing board on Triad's website

Triad has released the membership of the governing board and it is on their website. Can anyone recall ever having a lobbyist on the governing board of any other National Laboratory?

There were some LANL people sitting behind us

"There were some LANL people sitting behind us"

Maybe the scandal of using GRT to fund this lobbying effort is not yet over, if the investigation uncovers the 'LANL people' that were at the baseball game paid for by taxpayer funds!




The game was listed as a nighttime activity on the RCLC board’s itinerary for a four-day trip to Washington, D.C., last September to meet with government officials and attend a workshop on nuclear waste cleanup put on by the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA).

Gonzales is not even a baseball fan. He doesn’t recall what teams were playing, just that he was among a loose group of mostly New Mexicans at Nationals Park. “(Then-Española Mayor) Alice Lucero was there with her husband. There were some LANL people sitting behind us,” he said.


https://www.abqjournal.com/1215296/new-group-takes-over-embattled-regional-coalition-of-lanl-communities-ex-connections-to-former-executive-director-andrea-romero-include-an-ostrich-farm.html

Bechtel bid was not competitive

So I guess enough time has passed but people are talking a bit about the LANL bid. One thing I heard it was not as close as people thought. This would go along with the rumor that way back in Feb that UC had essentially won may have been right. The other is that Bechtel was not thrilled about bidding but a cadre of LANL people pushed them to put in a bid, what is surprising is that these where not former Bechtel people at all but some long term "older" LANL crew, pre LANS people. It is not hard to figure out who these people are since there seems to be a slow burn of these people out of management if you know what I mean. Also think of the most sleazy, cut throat or dumb and it is exactly who you would guess, not to mention that all of their names have been
brought up numerous times on this blog. The Bechtel bid was seen as simply not competitive. Not sure about the Texas people but they seem to be seen in a better light.

The Trump administration reins in a nuclear weapons safety watchdog

"The Trump administration, acting in an open partnership with the profit-making contractors that control the industrial sites where U.S. nuclear bombs are made and stored, has enacted new rules that limit the authority and reach of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, created by Congress in 1988 amid broad public concerns over civil and military nuclear safety lapses." 

https://www.publicintegrity.org/2018/08/30/22191/trump-administration-reins-nuclear-weapons-safety-watchdog