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DEAR NEW CONGRESS

DEAR NEW CONGRESS,

as you contemplate punishing LANL management and staff for their perceived performance please remember that there are TWO national labs.

they both do bombs but...

they are over 1000 miles apart. they have different management. even different employees. different cultures. different accomplishments. different weaknesses.

please try to keep this clear, and make sure you pin the tail on the right donkey this time.

your predecessors unwillingness to keep the two straight lead to the destruction of one very fine, high functioning institution and culture, so you could have the appearance of micromanagement control and toughness over the other.

please keep em straight. one is in california. that's a state on the pacific ocean. the other is in a state called new mexico. it's near mexico, but isn't actually mexico.
both are west of the hudson river.

s/A llnl employee tired of being punished for others screwups.

Comments

Anonymous said…
And then, there is Y-12 and Oak Ridge where the mother of all security breaches happened when an 80 year old nun made it inside the high security perimeter and had to go find a security guard to "arrest" her and her entourage of senior citizens.

Some perspective, please.

And just today there was this news story being managed by the ORNL PR damage control team:


* Tennessee lab says eight workers exposed to radiation, no health threat

Reuters - Dec 19, 2014

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - Eight nuclear workers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory were exposed to radiation in August while working on a classified project, a spokesman for the facility said on Monday, adding the exposure was well below minimum thresholds.

The radiation was airborne and none of the workers lost any work time as a result of the exposure, said David Keim, communications director for the U.S. government-affiliated scientific research facility in the eastern Tennessee city of Oak Ridge.
Anonymous said…

Y-12? Oak Ridge? Never heard of them. Los ALamos now that I have heard of. If they do something wrong that the media has something to work with. Sorry LLNL but your fate is in the hands of LANL, it is just the way it is.
Anonymous said…
"...your predecessors unwillingness to keep the two straight lead to the destruction of one very fine, high functioning institution and culture, so you could have the appearance of micromanagement control and toughness over the other..."

Those times have long passed. Both LANL and LLNL are now ran by LANS and LLNS, also appropriately known as LANSLLNS, and BOTH need to go the sooner the better.
Your observations are about a decade too late.
Anonymous said…
Hey llnl employee tired of being punished for others screwups.

Don't forget the last three LANL Directors (Anastasio, Kuckuck, Charlie "GQ") are from Livermore. LANS/LLNS, we are all inbred inglorious bastards (IIBs).
Anonymous said…
LLNL believes strongly that experimental reality should come second behind the glory of computer modeling and back room mental masturbation. You don't need no stinking experiments. Computer modeling is better than reality! And we got NIF to do all the experiments to keep the naysayers quiet. Experiments and don't match? Then something must be wrong with the experiment and the laws of physics of the universe.
Anonymous said…
So Domenici didn't say,

"we need to make changes to LANL, and we'll punish LLNL as well so they don't get an advantage.." ?

I recall Tyler Pryzbylek stating this at a pre-transition meeting with employees circa 2008.
Anonymous said…
should have thrown the shoe at him when you had the chance.
Anonymous said…
Tyler Pryzbylek, the NNSA's famous Mr. "Substantial Equivalent" guy.

You actually believed anything that lying NNSA lawyer said to the soon to be scalped lab employees?
Anonymous said…
The job that Livermore has to do, with respect to operations, health and safety, is FAR EASIER than what LANL has to cope with. LLNL's metric for workplace accidents amount to "stubbed toes" and "keyboard typing mishaps" and "treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome"

It doesn't mean that LLNL is a model citizen because it certainly is not. There is just alot less to go wrong with regards to radioactive releases at a lab that has almost no Pu on site.
Anonymous said…
Like the ORNL workers, I too was exposed to radiation today.... reading these posts. Do I need to report this?

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