Last Friday, LANL management informed the EM Field Office that they would not meet the
current contractual milestones for processing of RNS and the UNS wastes of June 30 and
September 30, 2017, respectively. Their current working schedule, which was adjusted using
efficiency data from the completed portion of the campaign, now projects respective completions
of December 22, 2017, and April 10, 2018. WCCRF management is actively engaging workers
for feedback on additional efficiency opportunities.
https://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/document/12436/Los%20Alamos%20Week%20Ending%20July%207%2C%202017.pdf
Comments
August 10, 2017 at 10:18 AM
???
Than how did UC run the labs so well for 65 years?
In what alternate reality does it make sense to have a university in charge of EM?
Perhaps in the same one where you have Flour or CH2M providing the post-graduate education to your children.
In what alternate reality does it make sense to have a university in charge of EM?
Perhaps in the same one where you have Flour or CH2M providing the post-graduate education to your children.
In what alternate really does in make sense to have a sleazy and incomptent for profit company run EM?
Before anyone jumps on it, note that isn't IF the next mistake happens, it is WHEN it does. As sure as the sun will rise in the east, there will be no shortage of mistakes at LANL.
Clearly you don't understand chemistry. Nitrates aren't necessarily explosive by themselves. If that's the case, then you better not eat any processed meats or hot dogs or take nitroglycerin for angina.
The "explosion" was supposedly a result of nitrate sludge, plus an organic (aka. kitty litter to absorb free-standing water), plus some sort of catalyst (tungsten in the glovebox glove).
August 10, 2017 at 8:04 PM
Clearly you don't understand chemistry. Nitrates aren't necessarily explosive by themselves. If that's the case, then you better not eat any processed meats or hot dogs or take nitroglycerin for angina.
The "explosion" was supposedly a result of nitrate sludge, plus an organic (aka. kitty litter to absorb free-standing water), plus some sort of catalyst (tungsten in the glovebox glove).
August 11, 2017 at 7:50 AM
7:50 AM should cut 8:04 PM some slack. They were just following the well known UC / LANS playbook script. First deny that anything is wrong. Next blame some other organization for the foulup. In this case, it CLEARLY was the government's fault for what the contractor did.
August 11, 2017 at 5:27 AM
Nanos was the one who started the blame the employees approach and under LANS it went over the top. Managers have said that after LANS came in they increased the amount of training which focused on management loyalty to itself, company loyalty, and covering yourself. They would do endless scenarios of management worker interactions and it was always about how to the protect management and LANS and never about addressing the actual issues that may have caused the situation. They pointed out that you never put anything in writing and be as vague as possible when dealing with workers as a way to cover yourself. If any manager disagreed with this
approach they gut shut down and eventually purged. Another big point was that under no circumstances was input from non-management ever to be considered, the structure was completely top down and the only way to advance was to make sure that any issue
that occurred never went to a level higher than you and your job was to make sure the manager above you did as little work was possible. What this created was a utterly dysfunctional and totally out of touch management structure that could not address any actual problems and could never take any responsibility for itself.
The question is how such a management structure started? Was this training brought in by Bechtel or was it just the new crop of managers who seemed to have a very warped vision of what the corporate world will be like. Just after the transitions we would have these meeting where managers would go on and on about how we are a corporation now and everything has changed, followed by a large number of buzzwords
from management books how selling product, customer base, branding, perception, stake holding, molding expectations and so on. When pressed on what any of this means the reply was always the same "we are a corporation now and everything has changed". The all hand meetings than went away and the higher level management simply had less and less interactions with the workers and now the only time you hear from them is when something goes wrong and they blame the workers.
One thing the next contract should emphases is that managing LANL is about service to the nation not a corporation trying to make money.
August 11, 2017 at 3:29 PM
That's what all the anti-UC folks said last time. Good luck with that.
August 11, 2017 at 8:54 PM
Look the lab will not be shut down. Even if it did all those people you hate so much will get nice jobs elsewhere and live good lives and many the people who you worked at LANL when you worked at LANL are now happily retired and very proud of their service. Your hatred of LANL has nothing to do with UC, LANL or scientists. It has to do with the fact that you will not take responsibility for your own failures. LANL does not owe you a thing, the United States does not owe a thing, and the world does not owe a thing. Your bitterness, envy and blindness are utterly transparent to everyone, I doubt you even believe your own BS at this point but you just cannot let it go. Remember this and chew on it LANL and the legacy will live on long after you are dead and forgotten about. The people you hate so much have lived well and will continue to live well and nothing is going to change that and you know this to be true. The only thing you do have the power to change at this point is yourself but maybe it is too late even for that.
August 12, 2017 at 10:13 AM
That view will hold only until they see what happens to their pensions and 401k's under the new contract. Then again, there aren't many current employees left who remember how good they had it under UC, so maybe the sheep will consent to being fleeced (again).
August 12, 2017 at 8:52 PM
UC will destroy them because UC is evil. Why you ask becuase LANL under UC wronged me so a I am filled with blind rage and LANL and UC. There does that sound convincing?
Must protect my program money, my own behind, and give away money to my cousins no matter what, no ethics, no patriotism.
You think that's a worst case scenario? You are not imaginative enough.