How you rate the managers in the various directorates?
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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December 21, 2013 at 12:20 PM"
Verdon is micromanaging everything, same as he has done in all of his prior positions, trying to control information flow and cover up problems lest those in oversight positions hear about them, and at the same time keeps his own staff in the dark. He is giving the feds the feeling that LLNL has something to hide, and maybe we do; or, maybe it is just a lack of people or communications skills; or some combination of both. But, it could be worse - he is better than some of the others who could have been named as WCI PAD.
http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2012/12/deuterium-eos-issue.html
This contains a number of references as breadcrumbs by which you can follow to seek out as much detail as you need.
And all that for over 6 billion dollars! Though given the way NIF experiments are analyzed, we don't need NIF experiments .
But I am curious if others feel like there was a realistic and viable alternative to having it both ways (stable NIF funding plus a diversified lab portfolio).
It is interesting that the word "margin" is rarely spoke of in NIF discussions for being such a basic engineering performance term. No margin, then no talkie about it?
I would argue that at the time, it was treated as an engineering endeavor, because Ed did a fantastic job executing the engineering.
In FACT, you CAN talk about margins. All the early weapons designs done by pencil and paper? All the unknown-unknowns involved there? Good engineers understand and estimate margins, never ruling out the possibility of failure. No parties and talks about greatness leading up to the first successful test.
The contrast between the NIF scientists of today, and the first weaponeers are so clear. The science if NIF is done in the way that there is no concerted management of technical risk over all of its different elements. The lack of true expertise and a groupthink mentality prevents people from questioning anything.
LLNL is run more like a religious cult than a scientific institution.
Waste of time. No one ever paid attention to them. The top managers we have now rose to the top under that system.
Giving a presentation is not management.
And how well has the UC education system fared in the past few years?
And how well has the UC education system fared in the past few years?
January 1, 2014 at 2:50 PM"
Indeed what about the fires, Nanos, meth for drugs, arrogant scientist, eggheads who think they are so great, winning the cold war, the stupid Phds, the "I am so great" attitude, the disks being behind the copying machine, , more meth scandal,and the mustangs The labs where in total hell under UC. Who the hell would let a bunch of university liberal loonies who believe in evolution, a women's right to choose, and education to run a weapons lab? The labs where a total utter disgrace up until 2007. Thank God for the private sector.
In the private sector many of these managers would not able to find a job at their current rate of pay. Self importance isn't a skill.
In the private sector many of these managers would not able to find a job at their current rate of pay. Self importance isn't a skill.
Monya gave public praise by name to these and other NIF R&D 100 award winners in September 2013, and within days fired one of them for "poor performance". The treachery is thick here at LLNS.