February 4, 2015 at 8:35 PM
Great idea! Why doesn't the NM State just put a $56M bail on McMillian? Let's see if Norm Pattiz ponies that kind of money up. I mean why should we get RIFed over McMillan's "negligence" of the LANL Transuranic Program (LTP)? I worked down there, and the only oversight we had from LANS management was "just get that trash of the Hill, as fast as you can"!
From what I hear LANS will be paying. There is also the steep fines from NM however they are still fighting how much and when they will pay these. In any case LANS will be losing lots of money so a RIF may be their only choice.
February 5, 2015 at 6:43 AM
DOE/NNSA will never allow LANS to take that kind of money out of operating funds, which would be the only reason for a RIF. It is against the law to spend congressionally-allocated money on something other than the intended purpose. Plus, NNSA fully intends to see the work it has funded at LANL get done, which cannot happen if there is a large RIF. I'm betting NNSA deducts the funds from current and future award fees, which is the only legal place to get it, other than straight from the parent companies. Either way, I can't see the parent companies remaining associated with LANS. I.e., no LANS, as soon as NMED announces the final decision on the amount of the fines.
Do you guys really think that Martinez has any freakin idea what is going on between NMED and DOE?
Come on, use your PhD's for once. Rome is burning and she is reading to kids, just like Bozo-Bush. It's every man for himself in NM. There is no leadership here.
NMED said straight out that the $200 million is a threat in order to get DOE to pay-up on the first $58 million fine instead of challenging it. This strategy is the only way to get DOE to fork over the funds, and it will work.
Future prediction: LANS will lose it's contract. The deck chairs will swap and Lockheed will take over from Bechtel. The only noticeable change to employees will be that McMillian is swapped out for another guy with a PhD who looks good in a suit and knows how to turn on a microphone.
WIPP will never take another barrel of LANL waste EVER.
Employment at Los Alamos will hold steady for the foreseeable future and then rise dramatically when it finally figures out it's new mission is testing certifying small nuclear energy production stations.
More millionaires will retire to very average looking Los Alamos homes but will continue to gripe about the lack of a good restaurant in town. They will outlive their LLNL peers.
New Mexico will continue to trail Mississippi in national rankings on just about every measure. Puerto Rican's will begin to say "thank god for New Mexico."
Congress will suddenly recognize that NIF is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time and will redirect it's money to solar panel and small nuclear power station research at LANL.