LLNL - The True Story -

LANL employees are not government employees, but are private-sector employees. Should be entertaining to watch McMillan reconcile this official lab release with his statments that the Lab works in the public interest. "Steve Sandoval, a LANL spokesman, said lab employees are not government employees. “We are employees of Los Alamos National Security LLC and thus considered private-sector employees,” he said." http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/hatch-act-sidelines-would-be-candidate-for-county-commission/article_66741fd0-8129-5b9f-a7ce-21f44db2f219.html   Anonymous said... Of course the LANS and LLNS workers are "private sector." And a whole host of applicable laws and regulations prove it. By the way, there are no "LANL (or LLNL) employees." LANL and LLNL are facilities owned by the government, not employers. The contractors hired to run these facilities are the employers. Lots of private-sector employees work in t...

An interview on ploughshares calls the nuclear personnel in New Mexico incompetent: http://www.ploughshares.org/blog/2014-03-20/desperate-need-spring-cleaning-us

Where is LANL? Notice that LBNL had two, LLNL had one, and even SNL had three winners of this big time award, whereas LANL had exactally zero, zip, zilch, nada. Department of Energy Dr. Brian Anderson, West Virginia University Dr. Theodore Betley, Harvard University Dr. Matthew Brake, Sandia National Laboratories Mr. Adrian Chavez, Sandia National Laboratories Dr. Gary Douberly, University of Georgia Dr. Mattan Erez, University of Texas at Austin Dr. Sean Hartnoll, Stanford University Dr. Daniel Kasen, University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Dr. Meimei Li, Argonne National Laboratory Dr. Miguel Morales, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Dr. Jennifer Reed, University of Wisconsin at Madison Dr. Seth Root, Sandia National Laboratories Dr. Adam Weber, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/12/23/president-obama-honors-outstanding-early-career-scientists   Anonymous said... ...

Devastating NIF graphic: http://twitpic.com/e1beo6

Why do we have DOE 708 "employee protection" posters at LLNS everywhere starting in early March 2014?

http://m.amestrib.com/news/schwartz-named-new-director-ames-lab

LANL health benefits cut for thousands. On April 17th thousands of LANL employees had their health benefits on the BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) PPO cancelled. LANL blamed BCBS, but calls by employees to BCBS yielded a BCBS claim that LANL had defunded the plan. LANL employees with health care expenses were left to shoulder the expense themselves because local care providers had no confidence in LANL. As of this post McMillan had made NO MENTION of it and no information was posted on the LANL website, but all claims were being refused by providers. Confidence in the nuclear weapons complex is disintegrating from inside and out… things fall apart.

Charlie's All Hands Umm. Ahh. Uhm. Did anyone else notice how much time was spent on ethics? It seemed that he took up a third of the meeting to talk about it. It was almost surreal to hear this after the recent public relevations surrounding his deputy. Umm. Ahh. Uhm. April 17, 2014 at 6:02 PM  Anonymous said... I never realized McMillan was so "slick" . I almost "puked" the way he answered a live question on why it's always an external candidate selected for the Human Resources Director. Like I said "slick"! April 17, 2014 at 7:23 PM  Anonymous said... McMillan is not the most inspiring speaker. The ethics part was very very uhm ahh...hmm uncomfortable. Hey we are a corporation now sometimes one of us gets caught, and that is the price of admission, the cost of doing business, the way of the world, how it is, you know the rules just, play to pay but just don't get caught. You cowboys and buttheads have no place to judge since you all ...

We have a couple of great articles, just posted. The first is an interview with climate scientist Tom Wigley, who believes it's time to consider nuclear energy if we are to avoid geoengineering as a response to climate change. The second is about the Electric Grid Cybersecurity Initiative, and the call for a new organization to combat attacks to the grid. Best, Janice http://thebulletin.org/why-nuclear-power-may-be-only-way-avoid-geoengineering7047 A new organization for cybersecurity across the electric grid: http://thebulletin.org/new-organization-cybersecurity-across-electric-grid7046 --Janice Sinclaire Internet Outreach Coordinator

PX and Y-12 Voluntary Separation Program Announcement Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 2:17 PM Subject: FW: Voluntary Separation Program General Manager’s Message: Voluntary Separation Program Today, we were directed by NNSA to conduct a voluntary separation program (VSP) as part of the implementation of Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) staffing plan for the operation of the combined contract for Y-12 and Pantex. Both Y-12 and Pantex have been directed to conduct a VSP. We don’t have all of the details finalized yet, but I wanted to let you know what information we do have at this time. This VSP will be targeted to specific job classifications and roles identified by CNS. Only employees in these specific classifications/roles will be eligible to apply for the VSP. Currently, B&W Y-12 is in the process of putting together a VSP plan that is in alignment with CNS’ staffing desires. We will submit our VSP plan later this week. Once this plan is approved by NNSA, we’ll communicate mo...

http://www.independentnews.com/news/article_ca4c02fe-c0f1-11e3-965d-001a4bcf887a.html

US Department of Energy News Release Lieutenant General Frank G. Klotz, USAF (Ret), Confirmed as Energy Department Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator for NNSA April 8, 2014 - 5:15pm WASHINGTON – Lieutenant General Frank G. Klotz, United States Air Force (Ret), was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday, April 08, 2014, as the Department of Energy’s Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). “Lieutenant General Klotz’s confirmation comes at a critical point for the National Nuclear Security Administration,” said Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. “His breadth of military and national security leadership experience makes him uniquely suited to lead the NNSA, fulfilling its commitments to the management and security of the nation’s nuclear weapons, nuclear nonproliferation, naval reactor programs, and nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness efforts. I thank the Senate for their attention to Lieuten...

New strategy: don't hype NIF, hype OMAR! http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/next-generation/has-fusion-finally-solved-its-hype-problem-16675762?click=pm_news

Talk about morale deflater. Someone should be fired over this kind of mistake. Inexcusable.  From: , "Michael G."  Date: Monday, April 7, 2014 at 3:38 PM To: tid mailing list Subject: Salary Cards for TID Dear Colleagues in TID, Last week, I learned that we made an inadvertent error when preparing the salary increase cards for TID supervisors to distribute to each of you. Because of this mistake, the information you received from your supervisor may have been incorrect. In some cases, the reported increase was too high; in other cases, it was too low. The salary data in your LAPIS record is correct. I did not learn about the error until the new salary information became available to employees in LAPIS, and I wanted each of you to hear directly from me about the problem. As I’m sure you can imagine, everyone involved in the salary review process feels awful that the mistake slipped through every stage of review. Ultimately, I am responsible for ensuring that we get the process...

Lovely Umayam has a terrific essay that asks us to remember and honor the women in America's nuclear history.  Best regards, Janice Women's Work:  http://thebulletin.org/ womens-work7035 --  Janice Sinclaire Internet Outreach Coordinator

The official DOE Inspector General report finally came out last week regarding the ethics scandal involving former Los Alamos National Laboratory deputy director Beth Sellers, who resigned March 7. The Los Alamos Monitor reported last month that Sellers was the subject of a draft IG report that revealed Sellers and husband William failed to notify lab officials of a potential conflict of interest. William Sellers eventually was awarded a sole-source contract and according to the report, he billed the lab for work that was never performed. In the final report, there is a response from acting NNSA administrator Bruce Held regarding the investigation. Held listed the corrective actions the lab had made in regard to the situation. Then he said, “findings identified in this report were considered in developing the lab’s FY13 Performance Evaluation Report and we are evaluating whether any additional management action may be necessary given the results of the Inspsectors’ review. “We take ser...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9eIrcyRIQxyMlBFbkN2WklZZDM0SDBWT0Z4ajdYRWFwWFJr/edit?usp=sharing

Much of the press that has carried this story for the past few days has focused on the challenge of matching up specific weapon serial numbers and the corresponding design drawings. Considering the age of much of the stockpile, and the rate at which it was produced in the Cold War, it is not surprising that the drawings are not all collected in a modern format.  If you bother to look up the report and read it, it comes out that the IG also found that LANL was adding to the historical challenge by how it handled drawings.  "We also found that the risk of unauthorized changes to classified nuclear weapons drawings existed because LANL had not limited access to the drawings as required and had circumvented a control over changes to post-release drawings. Department of Energy Order 452.8, Control of Nuclear Weapons Data, prohibits granting need-to-know access to nuclear weapons drawings to entire organizations or functional groups. However, we noted that LANL had given system acce...

It is now April 2014 and the TA-55 'it's-not-just-fence' project is close, really close, really really close, to being complete. This project at LANL has taken missing deadlines to a new level, even by NNSA standards. http://www.lamonitor.com/content/‘it’s-not-just-fence By The Staff Saturday, March 29, 2014 at 8:00 pm (Updated: March 29, 8:00 pm) It’s really close. That was the assessment of Los Alamos National Laboratory director Charlie McMillan when he talked about the Nuclear Materials Safeguards and Security Upgrade Project at Technical Area 55.

We found that LANL inappropriately awarded a sole source consultant agreement to an individual who was the spouse of a senior LANL manager. We also discovered that the consultant did not disclose his spousal relationship with the senior LANL manager at the time of award. In addition, the senior manager did not notify LANL ethics officials or her superior of a potential conflict of interest involving her spouse's consulting agreement until 5 months after the consultant agreement was awarded. http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/04/f14/IG-0903_0.pdf

U.S. Department of Energy Media Release A Statement from U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on New Leadership at Two National Laboratories March 27, 2014 "This week, two of the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories welcomed new directors -- Peter Littlewood to Argonne National Laboratory and Bill Goldstein to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "As a professor of physics at the University of Chicago and the Associate Laboratory Director, Peter will continue the great work that Eric Isaacs fostered in his tenure as Director. Argonne is known for its transformational work in batteries and energy storage, high-performance computing and synchrotron science. I also thank Eric for his great service over the past five years. "Bill has a strong commitment to, and understanding of, the critical role Lawrence Livermore plays in national security, not only through the stockpile stewardship program, but through advancing energy and environmental research, homeland secu...