LLNL - The True Story -

It has been a pleasure moderating this BLOG for almost 3 years now. I made every effort to keep it "clean". However, (No! No! I am not bailing out), reading every comment became very time consuming and like everyone else who has a job, a family and other social obligations, I cannot keep doing that. I trust the contributors to this blog and challenge them to make "clean" comments. Therefore, this BLOG is becoming un-moderated as of end of day today. I will accept posts but any comments against them will be un-moderated. Let us see how this works! Thank you for visiting!

Chinese Computer Trumps US One as World's Fastest (CNBC, Oct 28, 2010) http://www.cnbc.com/id/39886462 --- Oh, well. At least the once crown jewel NNSA weapon labs have the Chinese totally beat when it comes to expensive, bloated upper management and inane bureaucracies. They'll never overtake us in those two critical areas of US national security!

Anonymously contributed: Found out today that my LLNL/LLNS Anthem Blue Cross EPO coverage for LLNL/UC retirees premium is going up 25% to over $500 per month. "Official" UC retirees have a host of plans to choose from, none with a cost over $400, and several at much lower cost. Thanks, LLNS. Thanks, DOE. Thanks for abandoning us, UC. Hope the lawsuit succeeds.

This is a long piece on the Knoxville News Blog, but very insightful on why Oak Ridge National Lab is doing so much better than LLNL... ------ Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground Has ORNL outsmarted other national labs? In a recent interview with Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, I asked him about the Spallation Neutron Source and suggestions that the big-ticket project wasn't living up to expectations. I also asked him about other questions/allegations that are floating around about ORNL and the lab's more successful programs. Mason made some intriguing comments about ORNL's success, basically embracing suggestions that the Oak Ridge lab may have had an "unfair advantage" in dramatically growing its research programs over the past decade. ''If you look at the budget growth over the last several years, since 2000 . . . we've gone from being about $650 million a year in 2000 to this year (FY 2010) we'll be close to $1.6 billi...

This HSPD-12 thing at NASA is really bogus. see: http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/10/justice-departm.html#comments Note that the solicitor general made an, err, "mistatement" which he does not intend to retract. The student's story at the top would be funny were it not so sad. These things are not just happening in DOE. It's good to see the NASA employees are taking NASA to court.

Anonymously contributed: I question whether the information contained in the Cancer Incidence Among Employees of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 1969-1980 Peggy Reynolds, PhD and Donald F. Austin, MD, MPH study accurately reflects cancer-related deaths of LLNL employees who have retired since the study was published. I have personally known many previous LLNL employees who have died from cancer-related deaths. Perhaps an online database/list should be compiled listing the following information: employee names, years they worked at LLNL, what their job classification was, what program they worked on, when they passed away, what caused their deaths and whether or not the U.S. Department of Labor's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA)has recognized their deaths as related to their work at LLNL.

LLNL NewsLine Changes to Defined Benefits contributions October 7, 2010 Employees who selected the Defined Benefits retirement plan (TCP1) could begin making contributions to that plan some time during calendar year 2011. Director George Miller made the announcement during his quarterly all hands meeting Wednesday. Miller announced the Defined Benefits (DB) Plan remains healthy, with a funding ratio of 122 percent assets to liabilities – the result of prudent stewardship under both UC and LLNS management. However, since 2008 the plan’s asset performance has been almost flat, due to a weak economy, a volatile stock market and declining interest rates. At the same time, liabilities, as expected, continue to increase, due to an aging workforce with increasing years of service. “As a result, liabilities will likely exceed assets,” Miller said. In order to maintain the funded status of the DB plan, for the long term, the Lab is requesting DOE approval to begin TCP1 contributions in 2011. Wh...

Anonymous said: Miller said that to keep TCP1 well funded, contributions will be needed in 2014. He cites interest rates as the cause for liabilities growth. What interest rate is he referring to? Interest rates have been at an all time low!

From Global Security Newswire Lawmakers Back Nuclear Weapons Budget Boost Monday, Oct. 4, 2010 A continuing budget resolution to keep the U.S. government operating through early December provides a $624 million boost in nuclear weapons funding for the new budget year beyond the amount appropriated in fiscal 2010, the Associated Press reported Friday (see GSN, July 22; Tim Korte, Associated Press/Alamogordo Daily News, Oct. 1). President Obama last week signed the resolution to fund federal activities for the first two months of fiscal 2011, which began Friday, Federal News Radio reported. The resolution continues only through Dec. 3 (Jolie Lee, Federal News Radio, Oct. 3). The funding boost for the National Nuclear Security Administration represented a victory for the Obama administration, which sought the money as part of a planned elevation in nuclear weapons spending over five years, according to AP (see GSN, Feb. 19; Korte, Associated Press). The resolution enables a significant bo...

From LLNL News OnLine LLNL ES&H reorganizes September 28, 2010 The Laboratory’s Environment, Safety & Health directorate has been restructured, effective Oct. 1. The ES&H directorate is part of the Director’s Office, and provides many of the trained ES&H personnel to Lab programs, as well as service, programs and facilities necessary for the Laboratory to successfully meet its objectives in environmental protection, occupational health and employee safety. The restructuring is the result of discussions between ES&H and Lab programs regarding optimization of ES&H support to the programs. Most of the changes instituted by the restructuring will be transparent to the general Lab population, but will increase efficiency and cost effectiveness within ES&H. Changes include a transition of the Hazards Control Department and the Environmental Protection Department into the following distinct organizations: the Worker Safety and Health Functional Area, the Radiation ...