LLNL - The True Story -

DOE/NNSA legal fee reimbursements to LLNS keep flowing despite a DOE OHA identified nexus between employee "protected disclosures" and acts of LLNS retaliation Despite a 9-27-17 determination by DOE OHA Judge Palmer that there was a nexus between my "Protected Disclosures" and LLNS retaliation, the DOE/NNSA legal fee reimbursement stream to the contractor LLNS keeps flowing into November 2017 and beyond. In 2016, DOE/NNSA reimbursed Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS) a sister LLC to LANS, $57,374 for legal fees associated with "Rivera v. LLNS" in Northern District of CA Court in a case that was classified as "ongoing". Earlier this month through a FOIA, the DOE/NNSA released another set of legal fee reimbursements to LLNS. They amount to $170,997. This figure does not include reimbursements to cover this legal firm's production of their 49 page January 2018 LLNS response to my Petition for Secretary Review. Furthermore, this figure d...

With four teams in the waiting, NNSA may call a do-over?   https://www.exchangemonitor.com/lanl-award-lans-extension-possible-week

Congress approves winning bid this Thursday. Announcement comes Friday. 

New top post From another thread Anonymous Anonymous said... The story from Forestall is that NNSA did not like any of the presentations, only liked about a third of the written information from each of the three teams and NONE of the proposed lab directors. They are now trying to decide what to do, and an option to extend the current contract is on the table. May 23, 2018 at 6:20 PM This is starting to sound correct from several whispers coming out. NNSA did not like ANY of the proposed Lab directors and did not like ANY of the oral defenses of bids. As a result, one option now open is to extend the LANS contract until NNSA can determine how to get rid of them and get a new M&O.

https://www.jconline.com/story/opinion/columnists/dave-bangert/2018/05/25/bangert-purdue-ready-run-los-alamos/646129002/ Mitch Daniels, Purdue trustees remain quiet about bid for a $22 billion contract to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory, birthplace of the atomic bomb. An answer could come soon Daniels confirmed Purdue’s bid in April. He also confirmed that the university was collaborating with Bechtel, a San Francisco-based contractor, on a 10-year contract that would be worth roughly $22 billion – not including the potential for tens of millions of dollars more in annual bonuses and millions more in possible research money – to run one of the nation’s top research and nuclear weapons facilities.

There is a sighting of corporate jet at the Los Alamos airport. Maybe the announcement is today?

Geologist Terry Wallace and the New Mexico jobs program: https://www.abqjournal.com/1176508/los-alamos-thankful-for-its-ability-to-serve.html

https://www.propublica.org/article/two-leading-bidders-for-lucrative-los-alamos-lab-contract-have-checkered-safety-records

Who is killing all the posts and comments on this blog?? Is Scooby incompetent to do anything about it? Or is he the perp?

*IF* UT wins, UT needs extra $7m for contract transistion. https://www.exchangemonitor.com/ut-needs-extra-7m-take-lanl-wins-contract/

Who is Willard Robert Logan? What is his expertise that is so valuable to a new management team? UT system to pay Willard Robert Logan up to $1.9 million for services related to the bid and potential transition period should UT win the LANL bid.  From Austin Statesman: https://www.statesman.com/news/state--regional---politics/regents-likely-allocate-million-potential-los-alamos-loan/95BkkaJSXR8VlR5MLtDERP/

*IF* UT wins, UT needs extra $7m for contract transition. https://www.exchangemonitor.com/ut-needs-extra-7m-take-lanl-wins-contract/

All the comments on previous posts have disappeared.

UT Regents' Special Session requesting funds for LANL management transition and for a consultant, Willard Robert (Bob) Logan From Houston Chronicle, 15 May 2018: UT System says it needs up to $7 million for Los Alamos management transition: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/education/campus-chronicles/article/UT-System-says-it-needs-up-to-7-million-for-Los-12916798.php Link to UT Regents 18 May special meeting ("posted meeting" link contains agenda: https://www.utsystem.edu/board-of-regents/meetings/board-meeting-2018-05-18

Is that U-Texas with Boeing have won the LANL contract. Seems like lots of local managers at LANL have gone silent since most would have been part of the UC or Bechtel bids.

https://www.ladailypost.com/content/wallace-plutonium-decision-big-vote-confidence-los-alamos-national-laboratory

So the 11th comes and goes and no decision by NNSA on LANL contract award. Get ready for the same thing that happened with the EM contract. Two LANS extensions and then a bonus 6 months or more of protesting the award. LANS for 18 more months folks.

Hahahaha!!!! NNSA decided that the Mox Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) in South Carolina can be “repurposed” into a pit production facility by 2030 at a rate of 50 War Reserve. This is ridiculous! They might eventually make it happen, but there is zero chance that they have it by 2030. I cannot wait to watch DoD and Congress thump NNSA for this idiotic decision as the years and billions of dollars slip away. makes you wonder if their real objective was 1) punish LANL 2) flow money to SC for their Senator and/or 3) they are secretly anti nuke. Of course, this will distract everyone from the MFFF slow death that had been happening.

https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/joint-statement-ellen-m-lord-and-lisa-e-gordon-hagerty-recapitalization-plutonium-pit

TEAM: University of California/Texas A&M The UC System has been part of LANL since its beginning. UC oversees 10 campuses, nearly 240,000 students, five medical centers and three national laboratories, including a partnership at LANL, and at LLNL and LBNL in northern California. The Texas A&M University System, Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s alma mater, has partnered with UC to help run LLNL since 2007. Its other team members there include private companies Bechtel, BWXT, AECOM and Battelle. The university oversees 11 universities in Texas and 152,000 students as well as several state agencies. It also houses a top nuclear engineering department with two “research” nuclear reactors. TEAM: Bechtel/Purdue University Bechtel has co-managed LANL since 2006. It also has management contracts at LLNL, Y-12 in Tennessee, and the nuclear assembly plant, Pantex, in Amarillo, Texas. It also is constructing a massive radiation treatment facility at the Hanford site in Washington state, a pr...

This could be TCP1 in a few years http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/07/retirement/pension-fund-cuts-teamsters/index.html For all those that say it could never happen, you may want to rethink the situation after reading the most recent cuts to pension plans. Just because you paid into it your whole career does not guarantee that it will pay you a full benefit pension all your retirement.

"Key sites proposed for nuclear bomb production are plagued by safety problems" "Billions of dollars are at stake in a forthcoming Trump administration decision, but contender sites Los Alamos and Savannah River have struggled to handle plutonium safely" https://www.publicintegrity.org/2018/05/01/21722/key-sites-proposed-nuclear-bomb-production-are-plagued-safety-problems

Big week coming May 10th  https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/18-05-10-nominations_porter--stewart--anderson--slavonic---verdon May 11th  Expected announcement of the selected option to get to 80 pits per year Lots of rumors that next week will be the week the LANL M&O contract decision is announced

"$100 million lawsuit filed over Hanford pensions" http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article210177914.html

NNSA Leader Lisa Gordon-Hagerty at LLNL this week. I watched her all hands talk on Lab TV, and have to say she came off as impressive and very competent. I believe that she's the first head of NNSA to come out of one of the national labs. She mentioned that she had worked in both the Pu and Tritium facilities at LLNL.

If Sandia was any example, look for 100% turnover at and above DL once NNSA announces who takes over form LANS. The feds look to like complete turnover at contract change.