LLNL - The True Story -

"Bill would make Hanford contractors regret whistleblower retaliation" "RICHLAND, WA - The U.S. House approved an annual defense bill on Thursday that could make contractors at Hanford and other Department of Energy sites pay fines for nuclear safety violations. The National Defense Authorization Act states that the energy secretary should impose civil penalties on contractors who retaliate against whistleblowers who raise nuclear safety issues. The provision, inserted into the bill by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., was in response to a 2016 report by the Government Accountability Office that found that DOE seldom holds its nuclear program contractors accountable for unlawful retaliation against whistleblowers..." https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article215617380.html

So what's the story with life sciences and Triad? Under LANS it was CLES with life sciences being more important than earth sciences. Triad has flipped it to CELS by demoting life sciences underneath earth sciences. Is this a sign that Triad plans to phase out life sciences at LANL and move the work to other Battelle run Labs?

And so it begins... this was in my email today, and speaks to the county of Los Alamos looking to recoup the loss of GRT in the event TRIAD goes non-profit: Proposed Sewage Rate Increase going to the Board of Public Utilities Jul 26, 2018 02:38 pm | Los Alamos County The Department of Public Utilities is proposing an increase to sewage rate services. Read the discussion and provide your feedback to the Board of Public Utilities. The public hearing for the proposed sewage rate increase is scheduled for:  Wednesday, August 15th @ 5:30 PM Council Chambers, Municipal Building, 1000 Central Avenue, Los Alamos, NM

Highlights from the week include Mason unveiling his new lab leadership and lots of random guesses on most everything else. A&M does not play much role, if any, in the new structure and Battelle is, from all appearances, fully in charge of the operation. They do not look to be leaning to pay GRT, but are reluctant to underestimate the resolve of the local politicians to find a path to collect it anyway. Other events also happened in the world this past week, but you would not know that from overhearing casual cafe conversations in town.

UCOP "looks forward" to the quarterly BOG meetings, as well as "all the subcommittees" in Triad Anyone that was under the delusion that removal of LANS would be a reduction in parent organization oversight and thus an improvement in lab governance just got a wake up call from UCOP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bzGGKoeDHY&feature=youtu.be&t=8846

Returning Los Alamos to Non-Profit Mindset Key to Big Triad Win, UC Exec Says Excising the profit-seeking mindset from the Los Alamos National Laboratory was key to keeping the University of California on the storied nuclear-weapons lab’s management team, an executive with the massive public university system said Wednesday. After about a dozen years under the for-profit Los Alamos National Security, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in June awarded a possibly decade-long Los Alamos management and operations contract to Triad National Security: a non-profit team including senior partners Battelle Memorial Institute, the University of California (UC), and Texas A&M University. Los Alamos National Security includes senior partners UC and Bechtel, with BWX Technologies and AECOM. All but UC are for-profit companies. NNSA decided to pull the incumbent’s contract more than a decade after its final option period would have expired after a series of management and safety...

Couple of real wild quotes in here "The UC will take a leading role in the management partnership among the three institutions, which will operate as Triad National Security, LLC, or Triad, according to UC President Janet Napolitano." REALLY need to get this news to Battelle, who is pretty clear on who is leading the Triad show.  "The UC is estimated to earn a net fee of $24.6 million for the calendar year 2018 under its existing contracts for management of both the Los Alamos lab and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. According to Kimberly S. Budil, UC vice president for national laboratories, the fee that the UC will earn from the new Triad contract is slightly smaller than that earned from the previous contract and will impact the 2019-20 budget." SO the fee that UC takes from LANL will only be slightly smaller under Triad than under LANS. That will sure come as shocking news to NNSA. http://www.dailycal.org/2018/07/18/uc-wins-management-contract-los-alamos-...

anyone notice that Bechtel just lost its naval nuclear work to fluor?

Is the blog dead? Too bad it was fun and informative.

Anybody figured out the 2018 LLNS TCP-1 COLA? Has it been announced?

Notable that there is zero Texas A&M involvement in the new organization leadership https://www.ladailypost.com/content/triad-names-lanl-associate-directors-effective-nov-1-0

How screwed up is your job? This article had some good points about toxic job environments. How many of his points apply to your position? https://www.quora.com/What-were-some-red-flags-new-hires-shouldnt-ignore-when-starting-a-new-job/answer/Don-Sevcik Evil Echo 

Plutonium stolen from INL nuclear security experts. It was a tiny amount, for sure, but imagine the embarrassment to Battelle, the new LANL leader. Battelle runs INL. https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/northwest/idaho/article214731995.html

Given the multiple "pay more get less" leadership failures with LANS which is composed very similarly to LLNS, shouldn't the NNSA proactively bid out the contract to manage LLNL in favor of the non-profit Triad model ASAP?

ABQ Journal editorial on Triad taking over LANL The big news is that inadequate federal performance reviews and bad press over safety lapses at LANL didn’t cost the University of California a piece of the contract. UC has been part of the lab’s management since the Manhattan Project, first alone at the top and then as part of a private consortium with Bechtel and two other companies since 2006. In any case, UC went with new partners and won again. Now it’s time to see if LANL can stop generating bad news It’s always seemed odd to those of us with only an outside view of the lab – where so many brilliant scientists and engineers come to work – that many of its public failures come from not following simple, factory-like instructions. The WIPP accident famously resulted from using a wheat-based kitty litter to absorb liquid in a waste drum with nitrates – a mix that anyone with a basic knowledge of should have known would lead to a reaction. Indeed, “People with deep expertise of the che...

So, OK, the discussion and drivel about Triad since early June has been fun, if not as unenlightening as ever for this blog. But since this is the “LLNL - The True Story” blog ... what does it all mean to LLNL? Clearly at this point the best that can be offered is informed speculation. My speculation is that DOE/NNSA knows...has known for years...that the for-profit LLC M&O approach was an utter failure, and intends that Triad be successful enough in running LANL (the bar is low) to repeat the same transition for LLNL in the next few years. Battelle, UC and some third party...possibly TAMU but probably not...will end up with the LLNL M&O contract by 2021 if not sooner. As a non-profit, with Bechtel finally excised from the whole situation. By 2030, people will say “remember that thing where LANS/LLNS ran the weapons labs from about 2007 to about 2019 or so, and sucked untold $Ms from the federal government while adding significant negative value to the whole thing? Crazy, huh? ...

Sure better hope that Battelle is ready to deal with the LANL issues that just never seem to stop making news  http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_31999989/cu-professor-felony-misappropriating-money

The LA county greed knows no bounds  https://www.ladailypost.com/content/los-alamos-county-officials-announce-washington-trip-address-triad-taxability-issue The quotes in this show why the state tax status matters and the US taxpayers should not be footing the bill for such items.

In advance of the July 18 UC Regents meeting a UCOP recommend budget for spending LANS/LLNS award fee has been proposed at  http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july18/n1.pdf  The net fee income earned by UC under the LLNL and LANL contracts in calendar year 2018 is currently projected to be $24.6 million (LLNS – $12.6 million; LANS – $12 million). Fee from Triad is not yet included. Summary of UCOP Recommended Allocation: A. Compensation for LLC Employees in UC-Designated Key Personnel Positions = $2.2 M B. UCOP Oversight = $5.2 M C. Post-Contract Contingency Fund = $3.5 M D. LLC Fee Contingency Fund = $0 E. UC Directed National Laboratory Research = $12.4 M F. Livermore Lab Foundation = $0.3 M G. UCSF-LLNL Therapeutic Medicine Collaboration Center = $1 M 

Triad is a nonprofit, public service-focused organization https://www.triadns.org

Mason will replace Terry Wallace of incumbent lab-manager Los Alamos National Security, which will turn over the keys to Triad after 12 years on the job. Wallace himself has been lab director for less than a year; in January, he replaced Charles McMillan, who retired after six tumultuous years that were marred by safety and management lapses that ultimately led the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to put the lab management contract back on the street nearly a decade earlier than planned. https://www.exchangemonitor.com/former-oak-ridger-mason-will-new-los-alamos-director-come-november/

Battelle and Triad Team Partners Awarded New Contract to Manage and Operate Los Alamos National Laboratory Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration selects Triad National Security for $25 billion contract July 09, 2018 03:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Battelle and its partners on the Triad team can officially begin the transition to operating Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the nation’s premier scientific and nuclear research facilities. The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) announced June 8 that it awarded the contract to Triad National Security, LLC.  https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180709005819/en/Battelle-Triad-Team-Partners-Awarded-New-Contract Battelle press release based story from Business Wire does mention Texas A&M and UC later on in the article.

Battelle is taking over Battelle is taking over management of its seventh and largest national laboratory for the federal government, as well as nuclear energy and security research at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.  https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2018/07/09/battelle-gets-the-keys-to-los-alamos-national.html   This should settle any debate about who is in charge of LANL

LANL new org chart July 9 2018 https://triadns.org/leadership-team

Interesting article about how LANL was able to contradict the JASONs and science itself on plutonium aging: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.3969

Triad names leadership team and no one from A&M is on the list Looks as if Battelle will be calling most of the shots with the top two positions and UC has the next three lower level people. In all of this, the biggest question is why was A&M even asked to be on the team if they can not provide any added value?

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180709005577/en/Triad-National-Security-LLC-Begins-Management-Transition

To: LANL-ALL From: Terry C. Wallace, Jr. July 9, 2018 Subject: Update on LANL Management & Operating (M&O) Contract Transition The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) issued a “notice to proceed” for Triad National Security LLC, the new M&O contractor for the Laboratory. This notice marks the formal beginning of the contract transition period, which will take no less than 120 days to complete. I am committed to working with the new team and NNSA to ensure a successful transition. The LANS transition team—led by Rick Kacich, Tori George, and David Pesiri—is in place and diligently working to ensure this transition is as seamless as possible. LANS LLC, Triad National Security LLC, and NNSA have a shared commitment to keep the Laboratory workforce up-to-date through regular all-employee communications and website updates. Information regarding the Los Alamos transition will be updated on a regular basis and can be found at   http://int.lanl.gov/emp...