Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...
Comments
This has been brought up time and time again. It is a good idea, however what happens when there is another security or safety incident? They will just say send it back to NNSA. As for closing the labs I don't think they are talking about LLNL, LANL, or Sandia but rather some of the smaller DOE labs.
Also what are all those NNSA people going to do now, work of the GSA or the secret service?
Heather Wilson and Mitt Romney, where are you? Jump on this issue about DOE pushing for national lab closings, weapon lab staff layoffs and Obama's push for America's decine coming from his far left-leaning administration!
Hmmm, I see points on both sides.
He has said no such thing.
"The Pentagon was never asked to look at options for going to 300," says Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, citing conversations with Defense Department officials."
--US News & World Report. John Bennett. April 3, 2012.
Basically DOE would no longer have any direct oversight or influence on NNSA. The only link between DOE and NNSA would be the Secretary of Energy who would only have the power to veto decisions made by the NNSA Administrator. The various DOE HQ offices (safety, security, HR, IG, etc) that now regulate NNSA would be stripped of this authority, and NNSA would have to standup its own limited oversight structure. DOE Orders and Directives would be made null and void - NNSA would have to start from scratch creating regulations. OSHA would take over safety oversight with the exception being safety over nuclear facilities.
NNSA oversight would flow through a new governance model - a single Governing Council composed of all the contractor NNSA Lab and Plant Directors, and NNSA senior managers. This council would then oversee the mission and operation of NNSA sites. The Site Offices would basically be castrated and out of the daily site auditing business of everything going on at the site.
What the House is working on is very similar to what Parney discussed in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. Which would seem to indicate that the two sides of Congress are talking and sharing notes. If both the House and Senate are already thinking about the same idea, there is less to slow it down.
Given the mood in Congress and the White House to make changes to "fix" NNSA, this could very well happen... and soon!
April 27, 2012 1:51 AM
You're joking, right? Every cabinet department and major agency has an independent IG, who works directly for the President, not the agency head. If you have no clue about why these posts are necessary, or the history of rampant corruption and illegal behavior at the tops of the agencies that necessitated their creation, you need to study up.
April 27, 2012 9:05 AM
Name one "rampant corruption" that the DOE Inspector General has identified and corrected. One. I want to hear all about it.
April 27, 2012 7:27 PM
The usual rejoinder when the debater has no clue, and can't prove their point.
Nov 15, 2011 – A report from the Energy Department's Inspector General raises concerns about the Government's exposure to risk inherent in the loan program ...
May 4, 2012 6:10 AM
Re-read the 4/28 9:06 am post. Very carefully. Get it yet?
May 4, 2012 6:10 AM
Unfortunately, this is the case. I've been interviewed by the DOE-IG and they are just of bunch non-technical incompetent bureaucrats. I say non-technical because they are way over their heads on some technical issues.
May 5, 2012 7:48 AM
They are not supposed to be "technical." They are cops. Cops get expert witnesses whenever they need them to prosecute. It doesn't take someone "technical" to see when a law or regulation has been violated, or corruption has occurred. If you think you are smarter than them, you are mistaken. Intelligent in different areas, maybe. But the same "blind spots" that allowed you to excel in science will cause you to fail miserably as a crook.
May 5, 2012 9:19 PM
Thank you Joe Friday.
May 7, 2012 5:49 PM
You are welcome. Anything I can do to provide clarification and realism to the debate.
May 5, 2012 9:19 PM
Yeah they are "cops" alright, Keystone cops. The DOE-IG make Inspector Clouseau look competent.
May 8, 2012 3:49 AM
You can denigrate the IG all you want. It's free until they have a reason to focus on you. Then you are toast no matter what. Your "competence" will not save you.
May 8, 2012 7:24 PM
I must be a "bitch" working for the DOE-IG. How long have you been working for this incompetent "organization"?
May 9, 2012 5:59 PM
Scooby can delete this (again) but I'll post it again. Your comment is unintelligible, apparently due to a typo. Please repost or clarify. I guess the "bitch" comment is ok with him though. Go figure.
LLNL will likely be down-sized too, but perhaps not as aggressively as LANL.
Sandia (SNL) had the foresight over a decade ago to start finding other sponsors for their research so they should be OK.
May 12, 2012 9:04 PM
A good reason to vote for Heather Wilson in the coming weeks.
Parney should take the ball and run while the field is still open.
Parney should take the ball and run while the field is still open.
May 14, 2012 3:34 AM
You got that right. This would be a great time for LLNS (i.e. Parney) to run the ball right up the wide open hole that LANS is leaving open. MacMillan and Knapp are sitting in the stands eating hot dogs (heavy on the chili and cheese for Knapp), peanuts, popcorn, and cotton candy. They don't want to get on the field and their uniforms dirty.
Besides, McMillan makes the same large salary and benefits whether there are 7,000 employees or only 4,,000 employees left at Los Alamos. He'll choose the latter and simply go with the flow.
People should just be glad that he was available at the time and sleep well knowing that this was the outcome of the UC run selection process.
Ha! Good one! You crack me up!
Thanks Charlie, we needed that explained to us. And then, what were your other two points?