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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The single improvement NNSA leadership could make to improve the labs is mass suicide. Last time round would have been much better if Bodman, Prtzbylek and DiAgostino committed suicide prior to the process.
Some rumors are going around now that up a dozen different teams are interested in LANL. Seems like a lot to me but this could mean that LANL is staying for profit. After the last round many companies have seen this as just free money with no down side whatsoever. Another rumor, well you just have to look around to confirm this, is that the higher level lab managers are not around anymore as they are now forming teams, being included in teams or looking for new jobs. Argonne and OakRidge just turned down some LANL managers hoping to jump ship. Lots of talk about "optimal positioning" getting "the best negotiating leverage wedge" and "contract offensiveness". I have no idea what half of these terms even mean but they are being thrown out as if everyone is in complete agreement.
I am not sure what to make of this as every year the management takes a beating in the fee evaluations so you you would think NNSA they might want fresh people in, however you have to also consider that the NNSA always wants to take path of least resistance and least work. My prediction is that the old Sandia management will move in, along with a good chunk of the old LANL management. Something has to be done with the Sandia managers that got thrown out as the system is too inbreed not place them somewhere. I caution those who think things are going to suddenly improve under the new contract we may just end up with the same guys again.
Hats may change style but the monkeys who wear them will mostly be the same. Monkeys are crafty creatures.