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Has anyone heard about Wed's all hands meeting at LANL? Someone mentioned that there could be changes to the pension as one of the additional actions.
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...
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Not to worry, though, as Charlie says that surplus of money (or whatever it is) of about $50 million has now been authorized by NNSA to be de-obligated from supporting the pension and can be spent on programmatic needs for the rest of the year. You know, for critical things... like Charlie McMillan and Brett Knapp's recent trip to Russia and stuff. That sort of thing. No travel allowed for the regular science staff, though. Cutbacks in spending and all, you know.
No more layoffs for the rest of FY2012, LANL is "well positioned for the future", yada, yada, yada.... I'm sure you've all heard this stuff many times before.
He did put up a graph that showed a rather dramatic drop in hires this fiscal year but I think most people already know that. Who wants to come work at LANL anyway these days?
There was talk of reducing the cost of science by increasing the burden on large construction projects (of which there are none with CMRR and the Science Complex effectively dead!). Also talk of looking at slimming down the number of managers since LANL has now lost 12% of the workforce since this spring.
No promises in regards to keeping LANL at the same size for FY2013. That all depends on whether the Super Committee automatic cuts hit on Jan 1st. If they do, then watch out!
June 28, 2012 12:32 AM"
This is what it is really about. I think these cuts are going through. Everyone agrees we need to cut somewhere but no one has the will to do it and this is the only way it can happen. Indeed watch out.
"This is a disturbing trend and hints at a deeper issue. Either it is waste, fraud and abuse resulting from willful deceit, or it is dereliction of duty resulting from gross incompetence. Which is it?"
Maybe not, but can almost hear it.
After giving a large portion of LANL's stockpile stewardship work (and funding) to other NNSA labs, he indicated that now the plutonium work will, likewise, be spread out to other labs beyond LANL.
LANS is the "shut-down crew". LANL is Rocky Flats II. It's undeniable at this point in time.
Additional staffing cuts will be needed in all the outlying years after that to handling the funding reductions.
It will be brutal. Of course, the huge reduction in accumulated severance that LANS implemented last month will help buffer the financial pain of making those cuts.
16 uhs
Newly added 3 coughs
Better than a poke in the eye....
Composite LA/SF february11/Feb12 CPI deflator was 2%.
Is there a 10% maroni?
Not to worry, though, because when the $50 million is needed, it will simply be extracted from the hides of the staff and their declining salaries, per the usual.
16 uhs
Newly added 3 coughs
June 28, 2012 8:26 PM
Sounds like McMillan is taking lessons in speaking or speech therapy. That number is dramatically down from the few hundred during his VRP announcement.
Does anyone trust the executive management running LANL these days?
Choose which you feel is more important. LANS choice has been made.
Charlie McMillan's willingness to hand over a huge $50 million in pension funds to the program side is a hint of things to come.
Oh, you mean THOSE ex-CEOs, as in Enron, Madoff, etc.
July 2, 2012 5:40 PM
It's exactly what LANL's X-Division has been waiting for since NIF was built. Jas Mercer-Smith looked like a cat that just swallowed a fish after McMillan gave his "doom and gloom" answer about LLNL's future following the Ignition Failure. McMillan also bragged about recent toasts in Russia anytime Los Alamos was mentioned. He indicated that the Russians "just lit up" anytime Los Alamos was mentioned.
The sleazy corporate raiders have taken over this once proud lab!
How did this happen?
Charlie was AD for weapons after transition, then PAD for weapons for about a year and a half, and now has been Director for a year. He should know how it happened.
With the CMRR project killed off thanks to McMillan's assistance and the filthy, 60 year old facilites at Los Alamos on their last days, plutonium work will now be shifted to other labs.... like LLNL.
The plutonium R&D will go out the door along with the stockpile stewardship work that McMillan has been so eager to give away.
So sad to watch this play out. LANL is, indeed, being slowly killed off by the LANS crew.
Charlie says he's working on that one. He'll get back to you in a couple of years. Don't hold your breath.
July 8, 2012 10:15 PM"
No, in a couple of years Charlie will be hightailing it back to his California home with a carpetbag full of booty, leaving final destruction of LANL to his attack dog Knapp.
July 10, 2012 8:05 PM
Your giving too much credit to Knapp. At least an attack dog serves a purpose. Anyone with his eyes so tightly spaced has no brain either.
July 2, 2012 5:40 PM
McMillan made this comment about Livermore's decline to make the folks at LANL feel better about their decline. McMillan doesn't realize he's in the same sinking boat. Question is, what side of the boat will sink first.
July 11, 2012 4:37 AM
You don't realize that McMillan has a big Bechtel "personal flotation device" just like all top LANS managers. You will sink. He will float. Not the same boat at all. If you persist in thinking top managers will suffer the same fate they bring upon you, you are delusional.
And why didn't McMillan say anything about this change in RIF policy during his last All Hands meeting?
July 11, 2012 9:31 PM
I wonder how that "personal floatation device" does when a few hundred staff, that are without one, grap onto it (and hum)to save themselves. No, but your right, he'll cut the bait (Los Alamos) when his bank account "is just right".
July 13, 2012 12:20 PM
Your substantiation for this outrageously false claim would be...? Your pants are on fire.