Advocacy Trio Presses Administration to Fully Fund NNSA Laser Facilities in 2020

"Advocacy Trio Presses Administration to Fully Fund NNSA Laser Facilities in 2020" 

"The ICF program encompasses three major NNSA-funded laser research facilities: the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.; the Z Facility at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.; and the OMEGA Laser Facility at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y."

https://www.exchangemonitor.com/advocacy-trio-presses-administration-fully-fund-nnsas-major-laser-facilities-2020/

Tax-exempt status

"NNSA Won’t Rule Out Forcing LANL Manager to File for Tax-Exempt Status"

"In a late Monday email to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, Burgess affirmed he received his information directly from NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty during a September meeting in Washington, D.C. Gordon-Hagerty’s office believes Triad is required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation to seek any cost savings possible, including 501(c)(3) status, Burgess said."

https://www.exchangemonitor.com/nnsa-wont-rule-forcing-lanl-manager-file-tax-exempt-status/

Winter shutdown

I just want to know if we'll have a winter shutdown for December 2019? The new LANL calendars were printed up and noticed there is no winter closure that we normally have.

It is not over

I guess the opera isn't over until the fat lady sings:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1235462/lanl-tax-status-now-in-question.html

US will leave INF agreement

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/20/trump-us-nuclear-arms-treaty-russia
Trump says US will withdraw from nuclear arms treaty with Russia
Experts warn of ‘most severe crisis in nuclear arms control since the 1980s’ as Trump confirms US will leave INF agreement

Have blog rules driven contributions down?

I guess all the new "rules" have driven this blog to near-zero contributions. Just as the moderators want, I guess? Less work for them. Controversy is not allowed, only placid, pleasant, agreeable discourse among people who all agree with each other. But, as Hillary and Holder stated, civility is overrated. I wonder how the moderators missed that?

That is how the cookie crumbles

Well it is almost time for the new contract. TRIAD is coming in and LANS is going out. You see lots of hopeful faces at LANL, and a small number of very sad faces mixed with disdain. Lots of high end housing is for sale in the town. A few Santa Fe trolls are still in utter shock, but that is how the cookie crumbles. Lets make LANL great again. MLGA!

DOE kills contract

DOE and Trump administration gives up on MOX, plans further WIPP internment of waste:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-plutonium-mox/trump-administration-kills-contract-for-plutonium-to-fuel-plant-idUSKCN1MM2N0

Fatal Accident

OST Fatal Accident - RIP and speedy recovery to the others. http://www.newson6.com/story/39250455/ohp-identifies-victims-in-fatal-crash-on-i-40-near-okemah

What is the reason behind the recent LANL injuries?

What is the reason behind the recent LANL injuries?

One worker is being treated for internal radiation exposure, after a subcutaneous injection was missed on the initial look.

Another worker was sent to the hospital following injury in a chemical explosion.

Is this normal LANL accident rates, or it is caused by the upheaval of the contract transition and workers become distracted from their jobs?

Worse than reported

Employee was injured worse than Wallace indicated 

It is good news that the accident was not fatal, but the new report adds a higher level of severity to the event.


https://www.lamonitor.com/content/radiation-found-lab-worker’s-wound

Bad bad blog!

I’ve decided I’m not going to look at the blog anymore. Why?

It provides no more information on the labs than a google search.

It is dominated by LANL people who, probably due to their isolation and separation up on the hill, have zero inside information.

I suspect, evidenced by some recent grammar errors of a poster who claims 25% of his division went to lucrative jobs in Silicon Valley, that the educational level of the viewship is very low.

Mason's numbers just do not add up

Mason's numbers just do not add up

Mason claimed that Triad had sent out 10,200 offer letters to LANS employees, yet LANS only has about 8,200 employees of record. Even if you throw in the postdocs you still get only about 400 more. The students are mostly only summer, and gone by now, but even if you throw them in as well that's only 1,100 more. 

Even if Mason was confused and mistakenly counted students and postdocs in his math, it still doesn't add up. There are unionized crafts and guards that are not LANS employees, but are employees of the specific subcontractor, and there are COMPA and other contractors on-site as well that are not LANS employees. All in that is just under 12,000 and still doesn't explain Mason's flaky math.

Mason's video

The full video of Mason presentation to the UC regents is worth watching. He has a subtle different org chart for the regents from the one that is public posted on the Triad website, but mostly had non answers to the regents questions. There was again his categorical claim that every job in Triad is for a Triad employee and that there are no jobs that are not Triad. Also claimed that every job is for the best player and that no jobs were for partner specific filling.

Unfortunately his claims are not supported by the facts. Need to look no more than the capital projects area, where Fluor has advertised for Fluor hired employees to work for Fluor in the AD office at LANL.


http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/videos/sept2018/sept2018.html

Triad Still on Track to Take Over Los Alamos on Nov. 1

Thomas Mason, who will also be lab director, reaffirmed his stance that restoring Los Alamos to nonprofit management — the status quo for most of the storied nuclear-weapon lab’s 75-year history — will be crucial to avoiding the sort of mistakes that prompted the Department of Energy to yank the for-profit incumbent’s contract..., I think, the most important element: is making sure that we do everything we can to have the team function as a team without being pulled apart by conflicting corporate allegiances,” 

https://www.exchangemonitor.com/triad-still-track-take-los-alamos-nov-1/

They still hang on

The federal money to support the local lobbying organization has continued

This group has had one bad story after another in the past six months and yet they still hang on.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1223432/embattled-coalition-says-its-a-powerful-voice-ex-one-critic-calls-the-claim-selfaggrandizing-bs.html