Please post anon:
After years of reading the LLNL and LANL blog, having gone through mood swings that vary from hatred, to depression, onto anxiety, then helplessness and now hopelessness and finally calmness I've come to the conclusion there's nothing any of us can do about the downsizing and eventual closure of LLNL.
Since 1995 the plan to downsize all DOE weapons facilities was concocted and the LLNL directors knew what the outcome was to be. At that time the directors should have started downsize the weapon programs to a skeleton crew and sought a new mission for the lab, such as alternative energy and fuels. I
nstead what they did was believe that downsizing of the weapons complex would never come about and told everyone to "stay the course", sound familiar. LLNL for 12 years after this known fact continued to concentrate on weapons related work and that my friends has gotten us where we are today.
If in 1995 they would have looked beyond the tips of their noses there would be no lay-offs today. LLNL would have been ingrained in projects that were for the benefit of the nation if not the world, and fuel dependency would have been nullified.
In essence the directors of the labs, DOE and NNSA are in fact to blame for this dilemma, and now that gas is $4.00 a gallon at the pumps and well on its way to $8.00a gallon; we still have no direction and claim inadequate funding with no national mission insight.
We as a nation are idiots and now we'll pay for the rest of our lives for this stupidity.
The undisputed truth on the side bar is a simplified version of who gave the orders, who passed the buck, who is tasked with the dirty work and finally the cost and outcome.
The order for destruction came from the top and there's nothing ANYONE at LLNL can do to stop this roller coaster ride. The sooner you accept this fact, the sooner you will become calm and move forward with your life.
11 comments:
Looks like another entropy entry...
Scooby: we need less Brownian motion posts...
Why bother to help the little people below by taking on the hard task of diversifying the NNSA labs? It's easier to be an executive who just works off the money that regularly comes from Uncle NNSA each and every year. To go out and secure other sources of funding would be hard work.
The little people may scurry around like scared little mice, but, so what? Life at the top is safe, secure, and nicely rewarded. In fact, after the LLC transition it became a whole lot nicer!
May 8, 2008 9:07 PM
The post is right on the money. The truth hurt but that's really to bad. Facts are facts. The flow chart is correct too.
May 8, 2008 9:07 PM
What? No explaination from the peanut galary? Just a meaningless statement and then move on. Troll...
The fact is the flow chart is correct and so is the fact they've known since 1995 this has been coming and did nothing except concentrate on weapons. A good example is NIF. Maybe in decades to come she make be useful as a power plant but not soon enough to save us from the $8.00 a gallon at the pumps to come. As of this morning oil is $121.00 a barrel with no end in sight. $200.00 a barrel should be here by year end. Can you say $1000 a month in gas to get to work.
Wow, Look at this energy inflation:
http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
This is just one day. We used to get this kind of inflation over a full year!
Look at the ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour) change for the west coast.
I'll dispute the truth. How many "management" changes have we been through since 1995? I count two very different presidents with a good possibility of a third by next year. Pray tell who made this decision and how it is going to last through three administrations? No strategy in government lasts that long.
The lab is not going away. Is it changing? Yes. Is it getting smaller? Yes, are we going to want to work there in the future? Hard to say. The continued existence of the lab is not in doubt. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or deluded.
Here's some more undisputed truth for you people in denial. After you review the article below and see who's paying what for a gallon of gas can any of you braianiacts figure out what you'll be paying at the pump very soon. Enjoy the news
You Will Pay & Like It
What did you say it was going to cost you per month to come to work?
May 9, 2008 7:16 PM
If it's doing anything worthwhile in the future I'll be real surprised. The labs been in denial for the past 13 years or more. Why would it change now?
If we get away from weapons work and go green or maybe hydrogen, solar, geothermal,etc I'll agree with you. Until I see that I will continue to feel it's dead.
Real science at the Lab has been decreasing since the end of the Cold War and will continue. During the next decade we will no doubt spend as much effort on downsizing and cleaning up as we do on real work.
If you really think the Lab will last forever, look at what used to be Rocky Flats.
The only possibility for continued real science at LLNL is NIF. However, as the other programs die away, who will subsidize the real cost of NIF?
LLNL's death was foreshadowed by the ill conceived creation of NNSA. When NNSA was born it was as big as it was going to get, and naturally was going to get smaller - so too would its components (ie. the 3 national labs). SNL recognized this and as an "engineering" lab made a big push to non-NNSA work. LANL worked behind the scenes to be the pit production site. And LLNL worked to become...?
Post a Comment