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LANL during Klotz visit

LANS sure did screw the pooch on today's bizarre lab closing. A quick at this morning weather forecast said was that was going to be heavy snow from 6:30-8.30AM and than snow free for the rest of the day so a reasonable choice would have been to have LANL start at 10AM. What did LANS do instead you ask? They kept the lab open during the worst part of the storm and than closed the lab at 10AM, this way you had drive in during the worst of it start work and leave just when the weather gets better. Truly effing dumb and bizarre. Supposedly Klotz was at LANL today so perhaps that contributed to the screw up.

Klotz of course well qualified to lead the NNSA with his strong science and engineering background he has an MPhill in international relations and a DPHil in politics. Personally I think Rachel Maddow would be a far better choice to lead the NNSA as show also has a DPHil in politics from Oxford.

Comments

Anonymous said…
LANS used up all available snow day report pay yesterday, so good luck getting another snow day this El Nino winter!
Anonymous said…
LANS needs every penny it get now that the jig is up. Expect very strange things to occur until the contract changes. If there is any copper wiring around it will be gone before long, than the plastic, followed by the asphalt, and finely the cement barriers, nothing of of value will be left...nothing. Everything will all be sold for some form of profit one way other the other. If you are still around when it is all over you will either be a multiple millionaire many many times over or you will be worthless scum of now value to anybody. These are the only two possible outcomes, the die has been cast, we can only watch the this retched play and hope the actors will deliver a good show worthy of the gallows.
Anonymous said…
Gee, anything is LANS fault.Not closing the lab, then closing the lab. While I am certainly glad that LANS is going away, I find it childish and immature to blame them for everything.

The storm started late at around 6:00 am in the morning, so a lot of people, myself included were on their way up. I hit the truck route at the T around 7:20 and while traffic was slow, not yet a disaster. That happened about 30 minutes later, with people
getting stuck with summer tires. The NOAA weather forecast called for a winter storm warning until Tu 5:00 am, with heavy snow fall possible. With the information available, the Lab made the only right decision.

Anonymous said…
With the information available, the Lab made the only right decision.

All this information was available the night before. All you had to do was check the weather channel.
Anonymous said…
What a complete debacle!
Stuff like this never happened when UC ran the Lab.
Man, oh man, can hardly wait until next year when the new contractor takes over.
Anonymous said…
Stuff like this never happened when UC ran the Lab.

That is true. When UC ran the lab we had a meteorologist on site. Nanos got rid of him. It has now cost the lab 10-100 times over.
Anonymous said…
Rain turned to freezing rain in Los Alamos about 4:00 AM. Heavy snow started at 6:00 AM, right when the National Weather Service predicted it, and road conditions deteriorated rapidly. There were several accidents on Opera hill out of Santa Fe, cars were going off the road climbing up into Los Alamos, and driving conditions became treacherous.

The safe thing for LANS managers to do would have been to call a late start at 6:00 AM. They didn't, instead they made an EXTREMELY poor decision to put thousands of lab commuters at risk. After the snow stopped but before the plows and sanding trucks could clear all the roads, LANS called a snow day, again putting thousands of commuters at risk. It would have been far better to hold off releasing the staff for a few hours.

LANS managers seem to be unaware that driving in icy, mountainous terrain is extremely dangerous.
Anonymous said…

LANS managers seem to be unaware that driving in icy, mountainous terrain is extremely dangerous.

February 3, 2016 at 4:14 PM

Not one single PAD lives in Los Alamos and has children in LA schools. If they did, you would never see this happen again.
Anonymous said…
The PADs have nothing to do with calling snow days or late starts/early outs. If they did, it would be really FUBAR.
Anonymous said…
The PADs have nothing to do with calling snow days or late starts/early outs. If they did, it would be really FUBAR.

February 3, 2016 at 6:02 PM

Not sure about the PADs but the the high level management does not live in Los Alamos nor cares about Los Alamos. From what anyone can tell Charlie really lives in Livermore and considers that home. I keep hearing the reason they left the lab open was because Klotz was visiting and they are still trying to negotiate terms another year.

Anonymous said…
Apparently no one here knows who actually makes the decision to close, or delay opening of, the Lab. Sad. Hint: It isn't the Director or the PADs.
Anonymous said…
4:06 PM needs to review the facts.

Nanos was a UC era Director.
Anonymous said…
Nanos was a UC era Director.

February 4, 2016 at 4:39 AM

Correct. And when he caught flak for his shutting the lab down in a temper tantrum he called in the UC President (Bob Dynes) and the head of the UC Board of Regents (Gerald Parsky) to cover his ass in a mandatory all-hands meeting. Disgraceful indeed. The beginning of the end for UC.
Anonymous said…
Actually, the "beginning of the end" for UC was when they were AWOL during the Wen Ho Lee debacle.
Anonymous said…
Dynes and Parsky were two pieces of work cut from the same cloth as Nanos. Glad all three are gone.
Anonymous said…
Dynes and Parsky were two pieces of work cut from the same cloth as Nanos. Glad all three are gone.

February 7, 2016 at 7:43 PM

Unfortunately, Pattiz is still there.
Anonymous said…
If They had just delayed for 2 hrs all would have been well. After 10am it was sunny and clear with high temps. They have made poor decisions regrading weather closures for years now and everyone complains all the time.

As far as Charlie living in LA or Livermore who cares the guys is questionably human at best. Ive had people who run into him tell me he has the mannerisms of a psychopath displaying no emotion, he feels nothing, until cameras come on and then he becomes all GQ.

Finally closures and all are nothing compared to the site of rednecks from VA coming to town for Becktel, looking like they can barley tell time and waling up to PhD's in Smiths from China or somewhere not white and asking them if they work there and if so can they please help with the self check out. Watching the reaction of the PhD to redneck, priceless!
Anonymous said…
February 8, 2016 at 2:19 PM:

"site" = sight
"guys" = guy
"Becktel" = Bechtel
"barley" = barely
"waling" = walking

Who is the "redneck" here? I'm guessing a GED at best for this yahoo (or he's drunk mid-afternoon). Try not to consider him representative of Los Alamos residents. We actually like to help visitors.

Anonymous said…
February 8, 2016 at 7:29 PM

Just haven a bit fun with y'all and ye fell for it;) I have no problems with rednecks or country folk, as being I am one, but the Becktel people they just plain funny, they sure not trustin of the educated type and they dam sure are shocked when LAHS starts techen about Darwin, evolution, pies, and selecting of the most natural. They all thought the Dr. Oppenheimer was the town physician, boy where they sure godamm upset when they found out that not only was he not a real doctor but he was not even Christian! Still the money is good so they keep a coming.
Anonymous said…
So you disrespect every person on this blog and try to deceive in order to "have a bit of fun"? Putz.

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