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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I bet China, Iran and North Korea put their most qualified and talented people in charge of their nuke labs, since they don't have to play all of Obama's box checking games. Now that Trump is in office, maybe the USA can start doing the same???? Is that too much to ask?
One thing is clear is that Sandia is going to start doing more science and take programs from LANL. There is talk that Sandia will
now a science and engineering lab while LANL will become a engineering lab since science has led to so many problems. I also seek hearing LANL managers going on about how we need to be Sandia and look to Sandia for for the future. The problem with this is that I doubt Sandia will just hand over engineering tasks to LANL and also a portion of their money comes from private industry which can choose where there money goes. The more likely outcome is that Sandia will just continue to grow and LANL will continue to shrink.
January 21, 2017 at 10:46 PM
I have never seen any leadership from Burns, not Michael Burns. He only rides on the skirt tails of his wife Carol who is extremely competent and intelligent, she got him hired at LANL on the LANL dynamic-duo policy.
"Victory belongs to the most persevering."
Its a tall order, which is why any competent, ambition person has already voted with their feet.
It's obvious that Girrens will need to bring all his friends (e.g. Bernardin, Benner, Montoya, Owens, etc.) from LANL"
I sure hope Girrens is friends with Jeff Yarbrough and Wendy Baca! They ned to go and it is way past due.
P.S. I agree, Steve Girrens is way over is head in this position.
This guy was a joke in a never-ending series of "acting" positions he had at LANL.
January 22, 2017 at 2:35 PM
NNSA doesn't think this, and doesn't control who the contractor brings in as senior management. The contractor controls it's own fate, as it should be,
January 22, 2017 at 5:14 PM
Well, then you don't understand the way the SNL contract was bid.
The RFP had a criteria that compared the key people on each bid and scored them. It was a large part of the overall score for each bidder.
Given that RFP criteria, I am confused how somebody who has not been in the weapon program for over a decade, and even then only marginally, scores as the best to run the weapons program at the largest lab?
Sounds like sour grapes from a Hillary voter. Probably you are also confused how a non-lifetime politician could possibly govern a country better than a seasoned capital hill crony and carpetbagger.
This guy was a joke in a never-ending series of "acting" positions he had at LANL.
January 22, 2017 at 3:15 PM
I agree. I seem to recall him being tossed out of job a few years ago by a new DoD guy (who joined LANL) who saw through his incompetence. Carol (his wife) through a huge temper tantrum all the way to the Director to get him reinstated.
January 23, 2017 at 5:23 AM
"Good"? Isn't that the score that LANL Operations received in the LANL Annual evaluation that eventually led the lab to loose the contract?
it is jaw dropping that all ten of the new key personnel are white and only two are women. Of the thirteen key personnel currently at Sandia who will be booted for the boys club, six are women, two are underrepresented minorities, and one of the women is a twofer.
And all of that should be secondary to the fact that they have no relevant NW experience. Guess they'll need some "alternative facts" from twitler's 2:31AM postings to certify the stockpile.
Some of these people are old. Sandia is the new LANL senior center!
Adult diapers and defribulators in the break room! Yeah!
January 25, 2017 at 6:07 PM
No, get a clue. SNL picks the best who will come from all the NWC contractors. That's what "cherry-picking" means, dumbo.
In the house of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
The fleecing of America: National Laboratory Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)
January 25, 2017 at 12:26 PM"
Ouch!! If this is true, LANL is really in trouble. Who are your remaining managers? Addicts and molesters?
January 25, 2017 at 11:34 AM
LLNL did a good job of exporting their failed managers as well, Anastasio, Mara, McMillan, Knapp. All failures in their own right. But, let's face it, it's the LLC model that has failed us, this guys (including Younger, Girrens, Seestrom, Burns) are smart enough to benefit financially from DOE/NNSAs continued ignorance and stupidity!
These NTESS guys are not even in the same league as Mike, Brett, and Charlie.
Sandia is going to have some big problems.
January 26, 2017 at 5:28 PM
Yeah and no one had the courage to tell him he had it on backwards and in the wrong color.
Their main problem is that it is staffed with private sector rejects and and C+ UNM and NMSU students that couldn't get a job out of state.
Their main problem is that it is staffed with private sector rejects and and C+ UNM and NMSU students that couldn't get a job out of state.
January 27, 2017 at 4:53 AM
The same reason that LANL has declined. For example, the W and Q-division Weapon System Division Leaders are both C- students, both with BS degrees from NMSU. That's it.
It is really shameful that we have to be rated on our merits and performance. The failures as a Team Leader and as a Deputy Group Leader haunt us for the rest of our careers and we end up as a habitual troll on a blog complaining in petty ways about people who held us accountable and deluding ourselves that nobody knows who we are.
The issue is not about educational pedigree per se above "fancy" vs "non-fancy" schools. The issue is about being unable to hire quality workforce. Most of today's science Ph.D. graduates no longer regard the NNSA labs an acceptable career path.
January 28, 2017 at 4:37 PM
That has in fact always been true. The vast majority have always preferred non-national security university positions that allowed research, teaching, and tenure-granted perks such as sabbaticals, overseas visiting professorships, outside consulting, and cadres of graduate students to do the actual work. Nice cushy job, no pressure beyond publishing once a year or so.
January 25, 2017 at 12:26 PM"
Ouch!! If this is true, LANL is really in trouble. Who are your remaining managers? Addicts and molesters?
January 26, 2017 at 12:02 PM
Probably some of each, and maybe a few that count in both categories.
Amen to that. The real University brain trust that the labs were founded on was blown up 10 years ago. Its Bechtel arrogance and stupidity that has turned these once great institutions into a joke. Thanks Riley and DiFi....Good job!! I hope you choke the billions you stole from the taxpayers. A serious investigation is needed. LOCK EM UP!
A new rumor is that UC does not plan on putting in a bid or being part of any bid for LANL. Has anyone else heard anything about this?
Please, spare us the drama, the Trump-isms, and the anti-Obama sentiment (which is TRULY amazing given the events of the last 10 days - not that anyone here is actually conversant in facts), and give us some real facts.
and give us some real facts."
The irony in this is over the top.
January 30, 2017 at 10:13 PM
What, you want this blog to be a "safe space"? Or do you just want "trigger warnings," Snowflake?
Snowflake really needs to take remedial English classes. She could use an introductory class in thinking too.
January 25, 2017 at 3:30 AM
The summer students at Sandia will have more experience than Girrens. Really? Girrens, OMG, Sandia is in trouble.