Anonymously contributed:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shocking news report - NNSA budgets not credible!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing in
this article is a surprise, but having it all put together in one story
is pretty damning. Four major construction projects (LANL, Y-12, LANL
again, and LLNL), each over budget, behind schedule, and failing to meet
performance specs -- it has been a busy six months for NNSA. Not to
mention that there was still time to have the Y-12 nun breach and the
LANL radiation exposures.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The B61′s cost and schedule problems
compound increasing difficulties the agency faces as a result of
repeated instances of similar problems on other major nuclear weapons
projects.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
♦ In February, the agency was forced to indefinitely
defer work on a new plutonium laboratory after its estimated cost
ballooned from $800 million in 2007 to an estimated $4 billion to $6
billion, too much for the agency’s budget.
♦ Last month, agency
officials acknowledged they had to redesign a similar multi-billion
dollar building they are trying to build to do nuclear weapons work in
Tennessee after realizing the current design is too small to hold the
equipment needed.
♦ Also last month, the agency acknowledged that
a new $213 million security system at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s
most sensitive nuclear facility did not work, forcing the lab to spend
significant extra money to add the necessary guards to keep a major
stockpile of nuclear weapons-usable plutonium safe while the agency
figures out how to finish the project.
♦ In September, the agency
acknowledged that the $5 billion National Ignition Facility at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, built for $5 billion over more than a
decade to support nuclear weapons research, had failed to achieve its
goals in simulating the fusion blast of a weapon."
http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/11/04/news/billions-more-needed-to-refurbish-bombs.html
2 comments:
Of course it's going to take more people and money. All the ludicrous red tape, layers of rules, imported managers from partners and 10x cost management contracts drive up expenses. All the players have gotten big increases except the workers, who keep taking home less and less every year. Thanks Sec. Chu. thanks Congress. You reap what you sow.
I don't mind so much the increased cost, so long as they are offsetting it by deprioritizing other programs (no clear evidence of this yet). LEP needs to be done. NNSA's "science" portfolio is of much lesser importance.
Post a Comment