So any bets on who wins a Bechtel-University of Texas LLC vs a University of California-Battelle LLC showdown on the LANL contract?
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 doubt that Bechtel is even going to put in bid and U of Texas will certainly not be partnering with them. But if id did come down to these teams, the winner is
California-Battelle LLC
:)
August 31, 2017 at 9:04 AM
Texas LLC with Bechtel is disqualified for doping before the same starts. Damm that was fast.
NNSA will be delighted with the broad, deep experienced pool with perfect knowledge of the latest US weapons.
NNSA will be delighted with the broad, deep experienced pool with perfect knowledge of the latest US weapons."
The town and state will be perfectly happy with this as long as the keep the LANL for profit so they can get the tax money. Ca-Ching!!!
August 31, 2017 at 8:57 PM
Knowledge and experience of nuclear weapons is an optional job requirement in the NNSA RFP. Take a hard look at who got hired at Sandia. Sandia's new Nuclear Deterrence Associate Lab Director and Chief Engineer for Nuclear Weapons (Girrens) has no experience with nukes. Girrens pales in comparison to Steve Rottler, in fact, there is no comparison.
An analysis of the problems at LANL over the last 10 plus years will show the same leadership involved again and again. What message are you sending the employees when leaders with problems are left in place or moved around but not demoted after repeat problems. Or those that are charged with delivering services that remain in disarray for years.
There are some good leaders at LANL and a large number of bad leaders. For a new contract start to be successful, it will be important to distinguish the difference. Any serious bid for LANL must include an infusion of good leaders from elsewhere. To continue with current people with a new organization and plan will certainly fail.
I could name names, but we all know who they are and why they have not been removed. Any potential bidders should do their homework and be very very careful.
Battelle found out that just because they run several OS labs for DoE that doesn't mean squat to NNSA. Look at how the SNL bid turned out and then it is apparent that NNSA doesn't think much of Battelle. Furthermore, the security contract at Y-12 used to be a Battelle project as a part of ORNL M&O, until that little episode with the nun a few years back. All in all, things look pretty grim for Battelle making headway with NNSA.
September 11, 2017 at 4:55 AM
Battelle not only lost out on the Sandia competition, but they also were ranked so poorly by NNSA that they had no grounds for protest. They may know their way around the science side, but the weapons part of DoE has no use for them.
After looking into your claim a bit, it rings true that NNSA indeed did hand Battelle its fanny on a platter in the SNL compete. Not looking promising for them in future weapons contracts.
Honeywell just won parts of the last 3 NNSA competitions and is a smart company. They would be desperate if they wanted to partner with Battelle for NNSA contract, after NNSA has rated Battelle as a poor past performance contractor in the recent competition. Some of the posts on this blog display an astounding level of ignorance of just how a contract competition works.
September 14, 2017 at 8:09 AM
The DOE does not work on this magic merit system you have in your head. They like to spread the money around. Even if a site is well managed, they will uproot the team and put the M&O out for bid. They like fewer players, not more. All of the things you think of in a commercial competition are minor parts of a government contracting process.