The University of California and the University of Texas have effectively confirmed publicly they are leading separate bids. Multiple sources have said Bechtel National is also pursuing the contract with partner Purdue University.
Incumbent Los Alamos National Security is losing its management contract following a series of nuclear safety lapses dating to 2014 at the storied New Mexico weapons lab. The University of California, which for decades was the sole lab manager, leads the consortium along with senior industry partner Bechtel National and industry teammates BWX Technologies and AECOM.
BWX Technologies has said it wants to stay at Los Alamos, but has not identified which bid it joined. A source has said AECOM did not bid on the deal. Texas A&M University has also said it wants a role at Los Alamos, but has not said which team it joined.
https://www.exchangemonitor.com/nnsa-talked-lanl-bidders-last-week/
10 comments:
Sunday begins the 60 day countdown running the rascals out of town. Also, Tiangong return home. Let's see, what else is happening on Sunday?
Not a darn thing will happen Sunday (see...). 6 month extension to LANS likely followed by a second 3 month extension just like the EM contract. DOE sucks at this. As far as who wins, my money is on the outsider, Texas. Best of both worlds for the DOE purists (non-profit and not UC or Bechtel) and politically good at the federal level (Texas vs California, Rick Perry, etc.). New Mexico politicians will be pissed but they have no stroke since Domenici passes.
Good riddance to both...
Multiple people in the NNSA have commented privately that they cannot wait until the current group of poor managers have been shown the door. Sadly, those of us on the ground think that will not happen, and the new managers will be the same as the old managers. What will be left is the rank and file (aka cowboys and buttheads) who have worked hard, invested years and have dealt with the management stupidity day in and day out. What will be our task? Spend our time teaching the next group of overpaid morons who are only here long enough to get their ticket punched and make a few bucks! And of course that will be done absent the necessary resources, stupid rules, checkers to check the checkers checking the checkers, and no value in a product that is overrun in cost and schedule.
April 4, 2018 at 4:34 AM
You know, if you work at LANL, which I doubt, you should get over it. The "cowboys and buttheads" reference is now over 10 years old. The world has changed, but not apparently the one you live in. Wake up and live your life.
I'm not 4:34 AM. I agree with the post. Extremely poor management at LANL continues unabated from the Arrogant Butthead Cowboy days. That has not changed. Not one iota.
I'm not 4:34 AM. I agree with the post. Extremely poor management at LANL continues unabated from the Arrogant Butthead Cowboy days. That has not changed. Not one iota.
April 5, 2018 at 1:24 PM
Management will not change even under a new M&O contractor. The middle management has NEVER changed and the executive management has no clue what is going on until it hits them in the face. They do not lead.
Scenarios:
UC wins, nothing changes except PADCAP and ADPM leadership (bechtel leaves, about 150 people total out of 10,000). All others stay the same.
Texas wins, the director, associate director, and maybe a FEW PADs change but most or all of the top (Division leaders, ADs) and middle leadership (Group leads, team leads) stays the same because they will need people who already know how the place operates.
Bechtel wins, wildcard. Bechtel could change half of the management out overnight in theory because they think they know the lab but generally Bechtel management gets along with more managers than you would expect so I doubt they would change that much if they were in full control (key position changes to embed control).
Bottom line, nothing will change... The lab will keep spiraling down until its mission is broken up and most of the operations / weapons work is moved to other sites (SRS, NTS, Y-12) making it a science only lab. The glory days are gone.
8:40 AM, what makes you think there will be any science left? That has already gone out the door for the most part. The few things left are heavily subsidized or they would have left already. Rest assured they are going soon. It would be good if it were just a science lab, then we wouldn't have to worry so much about unqualified people pushed by bad managers playing with very dangerous stuff.
April 8, 2018 at 5:02 PM, I believe weapons design and science are still alive at LANL although somewhat degraded. I think if LANL focused on science, some strength would return. There are way too many distractions caused by weapons testing and production at LANL and frankly this is the part of the Lab that the local community and New Mexico wouldn't mind losing except for it is 60-70% of the LANL budget but they wouldn't know that until it was too late...
April 8, 2018 at 8:38 PM
"There are way too many distractions caused by weapons testing and production at LANL and frankly this is the part of the Lab that the local community and New Mexico wouldn't mind losing..."
That is the only part of LANL that the country needs and the only part that taxpayers will pay for. Universities can do everything else.
The country needs weapons design too and I do not think that should be performed at universities. I do understand that some is already done by universities but not nuke.
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