Skip to main content

LANL security fixes

This breaking story puts a whole new light on last year's press coverage about the cost overrun, performance failure, and schedule delay issues of the TA-55 perimeter security system. This time last year, Neile Miller reversed the local NNSA decision and awarded LANS a contract extension. She was reportedly inclined to do this, despite the safety and security lapses that had happened during the year, after the operator committed to fix the TA-55 perimeter security system. Now that it has come out that this issue has not yet been resolved by the committed deadline, this might impact contract extension decisions. http://www.abqjournal.com/291044/news/lanl-security-fixes-behind-schedule.html

Comments

Anonymous said…
The day LANL is capable of fixing anything will be a day to celebrate!
Anonymous said…
This whole thing has been a big joke,and sadly it just seems to continue. LANL cant fix the screw-ups, they just create more? Oh well just another day at LANL.....
Anonymous said…
Since all this is about a major security system, I can tell you from experience that you will never know what really happened or who was really at fault. They will use "national security" to hide most of the facts, and the blame. Plus, there is no news agency in NM who has the resources or the stones to pursue this to the real answers. Or the desire, given that LANL employs thousands of lower middle class people from the Espanola valley, and therefore is a sacred cow.
Anonymous said…
Where did all this "planning" money really go. I mean, the money for CMRR, for the TA-55 security system, for the radioactive waste system.... and on and on.

LANL seems to be really good at burning up most of a infrastructure project's funding during the "planning" stages. The bureaucracy is outstanding! A true Center of Excellence at the task of wasting funds through managerial dead-weight.
Anonymous said…
I find it interesting that all the posters claim LANL is the culprit.
What really is the problem is the engineering company who runs this, namely Bechtel.

All the screw ups in the nesw lately were the product of poor engineering:

CMRR
security fence
UPF

the list goes on.

Please stop claiming that this is a LANL problem. Let's remove Bechtel and see how things go.
Anonymous said…
"Please stop claiming that this is a LANL problem. Let's remove Bechtel and see how things go.

November 4, 2013 at 5:20 AM"

False, LANL is the problem. Always has been and always will be. Because of the endless problems at LANL Bechtel had to be brought in. LANL has a cultural problem, just ask any anthropologist. Cultural problems are very hard to clear up so Bechtel needs time. Perhaps if they are paid more they could clean things up. Look before Bechtel consider all the problems at LANL, Wen Ho Lee, the big fire, the stolen mustangs, the culture of theft, beating up Tommy hook, the stand down, the lost disks, the secrets for meth, the second fire. All this was caused by the LANL culture which was created by the arrogant scientist. No wonder some of this culture has leaked into the Bechtel era.
Anonymous said…
November 4, 2013 at 6:49 AM
you are having a problem with LANL, so much so that you bring up stories which have been proven overe and over again to be false:
stolen mustang? where did you get that one?
the lost disks? what lost disks?
Then the fires, good grief now we are even responsible for fires, maybe throw obamacare in as well and how about traffic jams?

You are just an absolutely clueless, ignorant troll. Have a good day, and keep hating LANL.
You are probably from Bechtel to believe that they are the saviors. Everywhere else people see Bechtel as that corporate giant sucking on the government trough and f...ing up as I listed in my examples.
Anonymous said…
November 4, 2013 at 6:49 AM
Really?
Bechtel cannot even build a tunnel without killing a passenger.
Or how about the UPF which is just 13 feet short of a full quid?
Anonymous said…
Bechtel is the engineering equivalent of a corrupt financial company like Goldman Sachs....

"A great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

(Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stones, 2009)
Anonymous said…
November 4, 2013 at 4:30 PM is absolutely correct except that Bechtel is in fact corrupt. Just not guilty of any of the stated offenses, many of which happened well before the transition, and all of which either did not in fact occur or were not the fault of LANL management.

Popular posts from this blog

Plutonium Shots on NIF.

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...

Trump is to gut the labs.

The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will  have a huge negative effect on the lab. Crazy, juts crazy. He also wants to cut NEA and PBS, this may not seem like  a big deal but they get very little money and do great things.

LLNL un-diversity

Actual post from Dec. 15 from one of the streams. This is a real topic. As far as promoting women and minorities even if their qualifications are not as good as the white male scientists, I am all for it. We need diversity at the lab and if that is what it takes, so be it.  Quit your whining. Look around the lab, what do you see? White male geezers. How many African Americans do you see at the lab? Virtually none. LLNL is one of the MOST undiverse places you will see. Face it folks, LLNL is an institution of white male privilege and they don't want to give up their privileged positions. California, a state of majority Hispanics has the "crown jewel" LLNL nestled in the middle of it with very FEW Hispanics at all!