LLNL - The True Story -

Another IG report on LANL, this one on facilities safety in natural disasters http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/06/f2/OAS-M-13-04.pdf With all the attention that this topic gets, you might think that after awhile it would get resolved. Maybe it slipped through the cracks while attention was focused on other, more urgent issues.

Taking another shot at cutting nukes President Obama wants the number of deployed U.S. strategic nuclear warheads reduced from the 1,550 limit set by the 2010 treaty with Russia to closer to 1,000, depending on an agreement with that country. In a June 19 speech in Berlin, Obama said: “After a comprehensive review, I’ve determined that we can ensure the security of America and our allies, and maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent, while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third. And I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures.” That review of the Nuclear Weapons Employment Strategy was only the third such study since the end of the Cold War. Led by the Defense Department, it included representatives from the departments of State and Energy (which builds the weapons), plus the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Council. It led to a new presidential nuclear...

FY14 NNSA Budget: Scarce Resources Devoted to Nuclear Weapons June 24, 2013 The president’s FY14 budget requests $11.65 billion for the NNSA, about $190 million more than the organization’s funding under the FY13 Continuing Resolution, and $650 million more than its FY12 appropriation. The requested increase comes in a year of tight budgets all around, where most governments programs face stagnant or declining budgets. Notably, for all federal programs, the administration’s request completely ignores the budget cuts mandated by the sequester. Unless Congress finds a different solution, the NNSA will have to cut about $600 million overall below the FY14 request. Account FY12 FY13 FY14 Request Change %Change FY13-14 FY13-14 NNSA Total 11 11.5 11.65 0.19 1.6 Weapons Activities 7.2 7.6 7.9 0.31 4.1 Defense 2.3 2.4 2.1 -0.27 -11.2 Nonproliferation USD, in billions. Note, totals do not add exactly due to rounding. As the table above illustrates, however, if the ove...

Senior Management, Direct or Indirect that is the question. Being intelligent and part of senior management you likely already have a strong opinion however as a result of this comment perhaps a future pause or reflection could shape a future decision that otherwise would not. The laboratory like the tide has shifted strategy over and over regarding the flow of costs toward or away from indirect (G&A and Site Support). Currently it appears to those in the trenches the strategy is to move costs into indirect with the intention of better managing those resources. I would like to bring to your attention an alternate thought from a time when the strategy tide was completely reversed. When programs charge resources (labor and non-labor) directly the cost saving self-interest/motivation is high. For every dollar saved that specific program saves a dollar. When programs charge resources (labor and non-labor) to indirect self-interest is the reverse. Spend every dollar since s...

LLNL Director's update of FY13, FY14 budget decisions 6/24/2013 This update comes at a time of evolutionary change for our Laboratory. We have experienced the departure this month of 399 employees through the Self-Select Voluntary Separation Program (SSVSP) and said farewell to many of our colleagues as they begin new experiences. Much has happened since my last update, and I want to thank you for your patience. I know this message is long in coming -- it was important to wait until I had accurate information to give you. These past weeks, I have been working closely with Laboratory senior managers to pursue all available options to address the many challenges we have faced due to sequestration in FY13, as well as the proposed budget for FY14. Finding solutions that provided the least impact to employees has proved more complicated than anticipated... While it has been difficult to adjust to the void left behind by our colleagues who participated in the SSVSP, its out...

Digital Journal June 20, 2013 ITIF Report: Reimagining the National Laboratories The Department of Energy's (DOE) National Laboratories System was created in the 1940s to develop the atomic bomb. From its national security origins, the Labs have become one of the centerpieces of the United States federal research enterprise, representing nearly $20 billion in annual public research dollars. However, as the pace of innovation has accelerated and the complexity of national challenges has increased, the national laboratory system has not kept stride. Significant reforms are required to better catalyze innovation and promote the 21st century economy. To accomplish this goal, three think tanks, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the Heritage Foundation, and the Center for American Progress (CAP), propose a set of nonpartisan policy proposals for reforming the national laboratories. Turning the Page: Re-imagining the National Labs in the 21st Centur...

NNSA Outlines Price Tag Of '3+2' Vision For Future Of Nuclear Stockpile Weapons Complex Monitor June 19, 2013 Implementing the Obama Administration’s “3+2” vision for the future of the nuclear stockpile could cost more than $65 billion through Fiscal Year 2038, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s recently released Fiscal Year 2014 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan. But while arms control experts have scoffed at the high price tag, the Administration says the approach is designed to save money in the long run. The “3+2” approach was approved late last year by the Nuclear Weapons Council and includes the production by FY 2038 of three interoperable ballistic missile warheads and two air-delivered systems: a nuclear capable cruise missile and the B61 gravity bomb. But only this week have the potential costs of the approach been broached publicly. On top of the NNSA’s estimated $8 billion price tag for the ongoing B61 refurbishment (othe...

Hey SSVPers! Has anyone applied for Unemployment? What happened?

Cuts to nuclear weapons: http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/19/politics/obama-nuclear-cuts/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/jun/17/livermore-slashes-10-per-cent-of-workforce

As Lawmakers Prepare to Work on Spending Bill, Mixed Outlook for DOE Todd Jacobson Weapons Complex Monitor June 14, 2013 The funding picture for the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration will likely become a lot more clear over the next two weeks as the House and Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittees mark up their versions of the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. The House is set to go first, marking up its version of the bill on June 18, while the Senate is scheduled to write its bill the following week, on June 25. The results for DOE and NNSA programs are likely to be very different, DOE Budget Director Christopher Johns said this week, especially as the House E&W Appropriations Subcommittee wrangles with a tight allocation that could mean stiff cuts for some DOE and NNSA programs. “What we anticipate there is that it will be dramatically bad for the Department of Energy in that House mark, just beca...

Former Top DOE Intelligence Official to Serve as ‘Interim’ Administrator Weapons Complex Monitor June 14, 2013 Todd Jacobson Bruce Held, the former director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, is expected to be tapped to serve as the “interim” administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration when acting NNSA chief Neile Miller leaves the agency at the end of the month, NW&M Monitor has learned. Held would bridge the gap between Miller’s departure and the nomination and confirmation of a permanent NNSA administrator, which Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz said this week is not likely to occur until the end of the summer. Held is not a candidate to become the permanent NNSA administrator, which is believed to be narrowed down to former Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore Director Mike Anastasio, current Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs Madelyn Creedon, and former Air Force Global Strike Command c...

The Independent June 13, 2013 Lab Employees Opt for Early Retirement A total of 399 employees are leaving the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. They opted to participate in the Lab's voluntary separation program. Their last full day at work was June 12. Up to 600 employees would have been allowed to take part. With the exit of 399 employees, the Lab's work force dropped from 6200 to 5800. No specific jobs were targeted for elimination. All career employees were eligible to apply for the voluntary reduction program. Those who applied had until last Monday to rescind the decision. Lab spokesperson Lynda Seaver said whether or not further reductions will be determined once the fiscal numbers for 2014 are known. The draft budget reduces funding for the Lab by $100 million, about an eight percent reduction. Seaver said the debate is still going on as to specific cuts. However, NIF is one of the programs that will face reduced funding. Once the Lab receives its final...

Does anyone have any information on the Davis-Bacon Act problem LLNS is facing? I heard a rumor it could be big, bigger than the retiree lawsuit.

Jay Davis said: I noticed an August 2nd entry that needs correction on the record.  I did many things for the Lab in my 31 years there, RTNS-II, CAMS, heading the Woodruff Grievance Panel, and service in Iraq and at DTRA. However, I had nothing to do with the departure of Moses and his coterie fifteen years go.  If that was done by a Davis, it must have been Jim Davis, who had been their supervisor for over a decade and who presumably had the information and leverage to make that possible.  I did work with that group for 17 months on AVLIS in the 82'-84' period and found it a searing and shattering experience, both personally and professionally -- and I am not a delicate flower.  I fortunately have never experienced such personalities or behaviors since.  Unlike many, I was able to rehabilitate myself within the Laboratory, for which I am eternally grateful to John Nuckolls.  As CAMS was the result, I suppose it came out all right in the end....

Secretary Chu's departing note was certainly worthy of the great line from Amadeus, "Too Many Notes."   It was exceptional in the failure to mention national security, NNSA, weapons, arms control, terrorism, intelligence, or nuclear forensics.  one guesses that he failed to visit those offices in four years as he played VC with taxpayer funds. Chu leaves town with the the can of Solyndra tied to his tail, perhaps unjustly.  The White House minders may own that one. However, he has failed to take the hit for far larger offense.  After Fukushima, he did not protest the White House action that locked up all the data and projections available from NARAC at LLNL.  In consequence, both the Japanese government and the American public were denied informatkon that would have been operationally useful to the Japanese and publicly reassuring to our citizens.  In no previous major radiological incident, Chernobyl or the Japanese fuel fab criticality acci...

NNSA Head computer account hacked! From The Smoking Gun: The Obama administration official who heads the agency responsible for maintaining the country’s nuclear stockpile as well as securing “loose nukes” worldwide is the latest victim of “Guccifer.” Neile Miller, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently had her Facebook account breached by the notorious hacker, who also apparently illegally accessed one of Miller’s personal e-mail accounts. In 2010, Obama nominated Miller, 55, for the principal deputy administrator’s post at NNSA (she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August 2010). Following the departure of the agency’s administrator in January, Miller stepped up into the post of acting administrator. Miller, who has top secret security clearances, runs an agency with a broad portfolio of nuclear-related responsibilities, including managing and securing the nation’s nuclear weapons and keeping weapons of mass destruction “...

Weapons Complex Monitor June 12, 2013 Kyl Suggests Pentagon Could Be Best Place For NNSA Autonomy Former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, who retired from the Senate earlier this year, suggested yesterday that the National Nuclear Security Administration needs more autonomy to better do its job, and he argued that freedom could come by shifting NNSA under the Pentagon. Before he left the Senate, Kyl helped author legislation that created a 12-member NNSA governance panel that will make recommendations about the future of the agency, and after a speech at the Capitol Hill Club yesterday, Kyl said he believed it would be better if the NNSA could regain the autonomy that lawmakers initially intended for the agency when it was created more than a decade ago, but he said he doubted that could happen. “If you could get the leadership of DOE or the Administration straightened out as to the original intent, which was to have a truly independent entity, theoretically it could still work in...

LANL subject to another IG report INSPECTION REPORT: DOE/IG-0889 June 7, 2013 Concerns with Consulting Contract Administration at Various Department Sites The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) requested that we conduct a review to determine whether a consulting agreement awarded to Heather Wilson and Company, LLC (HWC), by Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos) was appropriately administered and managed. Specifically, we were asked to determine whether: (1) work products (deliverables) were produced in return for monthly payments to HWC of $10,000; (2) invoices included itemized charges, as required by the agreement; (3) there was overlap between the services provided and work products produced by HWC on consulting agreements awarded by Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Nevada National Security Site; and (4) an NNSA Contracting Officer was subjected to "pressure" when Los Alamos National Security, ...

We have a couple of great new posts: Kennette Benedict reviews the pro-nuclear power documentary "Pandora's Promise," pointing out the problem of "solutionism" presented in the film; Donald Wuebbles explains the science of why an agreement to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) might really help slow climate change. I hope you find them of interest. Best, Janice Pandora's False Promise:  http://thebulletin. org/web-edition/columnists/ kennette-benedict/pandoras- false-promise Saving the Ozone Layer and the Climate:  http://www. thebulletin.org/web-edition/ features/saving-the-ozone- layer-and-the-climate -- Janice Sinclaire Internet Outreach Coordinator

With the "success" of the SSVSP has anybody heard the status of furloughs or changes to the AWS program?      Anonymous responded:. Furloughs are coming, AWS is not going to happen and 7% contribution are on.

Jeff Colvin’s excellent perspectives on “Layoffs Then and Now” at LLNL can be found in our monthly memo for May at http://www.upte.org/spse/ 201305MM.pdf . Also, we invite you to the latest in our noontime talk series: Ending an Era By Growing Your Take Home Pay A Panel Discussion Including:        Bill Smith, SPSE-UPTE Secretary Jeff Colvin, SPSE-UPTE Legislative Director Kevin Aguilar, SPSE-UPTE Chief Bargainer Steve Balke, UPTE Executive Board Representative Jim Wolford, SPSE-UPTE Chief Steward Thursday, June 13, 2013 Building 543, Auditorium Room 1001 Noon to 1:00 p.m. Please feel free to contact us. Thank you, Riki Gay, President (outgoing) SPSE-UPTE Local 11 spse@spse.org

Tax dollars gone to waste for the "chili cookoff" http://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/100730.html Rumor has it this project didn't amount to anything after 3 years.

Knoxville News Sentinel June 1, 2013 Lab directors coming to ORNL Monday's a big day at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with the planned visits by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Deputy Secretary Dan Poneman and national lab directors from around the country. Here is the list of national lab directors who are expected to attend the meeting: • Tom Lograsso, interim director of Ames National Laboratory • Eric Isaacs, director of Argonne National Laboratory • Doon Gibbs, director of Brookhaven National Laboratory • Young-Kee Kim, deputy director, Fermi National Acclerator Laboratory • John Grossenbacher, director of Idaho National Laboratory • Robert McKeown, deputy director of Jefferson Laboratory • Charlie McMillan, director of Los Alamos National Laboratory • Paul Alivisatos, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory • Parney Albright, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory • Anthony Cugini, director of National Energy Technology Laboratory • Dan Arivzu, direct...

from Allison Morris: This is an interactive flowchart that I helped create aimed to address the topic of grade retention and when it might be necessary to consider having a student repeat a grade. http://www. educationnews.org/parenting/ holding-them-back/

National Ignition Facility faces an uncertain future As its budget declines, Lawrence Livermore’s $3.5 billion laser fusion facility is refocusing on experiments in support of nuclear weapons science. David Kramer Citation: Phys. Today 66(6), 20 (2013); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.2006 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.2006 View Table of Contents: http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/PHTOAD/v66/i6 Published by the American Institute of Physics. You need to have a subscription to the journal to access this. But you can read about some of the "planetary science" experiments that are under threat of getting the axe. A brief snipet: In addition to its ignition efforts, NIF contributes to the scientific underpinnings, largely through equation-of-state experiments, of nuclear weapons. Be prepared to see topics about SNM EoS shots on NIF brought up again. You have to ask yourself how you support these experiments when you can't even do "simple" materials ...

Another look at overblown NNSA budgets In case anyone had any remaining doubts about how far cost estimates for major projects have missed the mark, this story sums it up. http://www.nukesofhazardblog.com/story/2013/5/31/224926/743

Could California be far behind? Illinois has all but said that it will default on the state's pension plans. Which states are next? http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/01/us-usa-illinois-pensions-idUSBRE95002E20130601