A few LANL rumors at LANL. There is some talk that the future is in fact pits, where the idea is is that by 2025 it will become clear that
Savanah River cannot do pits and the whole thing goes to LANL. This will completely change the culture at the lab and transform it into a full manufacturing facility.
Another rumor is that there is a war between some of the managers which have very different visions of where the lab should be going under Triad. Again some people are saying that our future is more manufacturing and are pushing for new hires in this area.
Lots of hiring of people however the quality leaves something to be desired but LANL needs more and more people.
29 comments:
Yes it will be a pit factory that was always the plan.
It is not a rumour. It is a reality
The manager war is fun, some are fighting to keep the old LANS system going, some are fighting to take advantage of the new TRIAD system to get power, there appears to be some push from above to improve things that have a lots of people nervous. We keep getting these very odd emails from higher ups that have a sound of desperation, sadness and regret. Could be a good sign but who knows.
It is sad to see a world-class science organization turned into a pit factory but that was the goal from the moment privatization was begun. There is so much money in pits and the science money requires work. The joke here is that they haven't produced a pit yet and Savannah River probably has a better chance of actually making one. LANS aggressively chased out the science but never developed the ability to manage anything, so no pits, just ever more managers. How many times can you think of a manager was supposed to do something, anything and they actually did it? I could not take revisiting every decision again and again, and managers finding every reason possible to put off making a decision and doing nothing. TRIAD still has many of that ilk and hasn't begun the management purge they need to do anything. Soon the pits will be gone and they won't have science to fall back on. I guess the Congressional delegation will just have to find a new reason to send the $$$ to LANL.
New Mexico wanted pits and LANS really really wanted pits due to the big money in it. It is anyones guess who can make the pits. The rumor is that there is no way Savannah River can do it and it is just a matter of time before the whole thing goes to LANL. The question is what will UC do when this happens, heck why would Battelle even want to be part of just a factory.
LANL is making pits all the time. Unfortunately the management is bad and they do not know how to pull the program together to be successful. TA55 is struggling because management is unwilling and unable to solve the problems. Resources are strained to the point where much of the budgeted programmatic work is behind schedule. Management is never around and considers getting a larger shuttle bus as success in solving the parking problem. Under Triad, the pit production mission has been contracted out to an entity that does not know what it is doing other than we will be here just long enough to figure out how to send the knowledge to Savannah River. There remains a few people at TA55 who know what needs to be done, but they have been marginalized and put on the sidelines by the used car salesmen that have returned from oblivion. There is no world-class science and the quality of the new hires is suspect. The science establishment pays lip service in wanting to make more pits because the money that comes with it allows for the mediocre science to continue at LANL. However, don’t bother me with your problems, your space and people needs.
The NNSA has this idea of what Savannah River was. Well folks, that SRS of the past is gone and will never return. The government will continue to waste a few billion to playcate Lyndsey and company, the state will sue the government for untold millions, .and in the end will have wasted billions more, an unoccupied building, another program that will end without accomplishing anything.
It will go to SRS. SRS is production. The LAb will become closer to pure science again. IF they could only get rid of that WFO....
"It will go to SRS. SRS is production. The LAb will become closer to pure science again. IF they could only get rid of that WFO...."
Maybe, but I keep hearing that SRS will never be able to do production. As 4.13 AM put it
"that SRS of the past is gone and will never return." What I hear was that need to split it
to make everyone happy for the moment but they know full well that nothing is going to get done at SRS and within 5 years the rest goes to LANL which than gets converted over to a pure pit facility.
"The science establishment pays lip service in wanting to make more pits because the money that comes with it allows for the mediocre science to continue at LANL."
Is there a scientific establishment at LANL? There is lots of technical milestone driven tasks but this is not science. There is some science work at LANL but it is scattered and no one pays attention to it. LDRD has shifted more and more toward programmatic tech type work rather than
science. Also how would one be able to even judge science from top science at LANL. All the usual metrics used in the outside do not seem to apply to LANL and even when they are invoked someone just says "We are LANL" we do not use such metrics, however no counter metric is ever offered. It is not clear what "science" at LANL even means.
3/09/2019 10:01 AM
You keep justifying your opinions by saying you "hear" things. No attribution therefore no credibility. This is an anonymous blog - you don't get away with "I hear...". Put up or shut up. No one cares what you "hear" in your head.
Can someone please give me a serious reason that we actually need high quality people at LAN: or LLNL?
The answer to 6:22pm is deterrence.
We don’t test anymore, so how does the world know that we have the goods? By showing them that we have world class scientists, like those back in 44-45, working at the NNSA laboratories. Let them connect the dots...
"We don’t test anymore, so how does the world know that we have the goods? By showing them that we have world class scientists, like those back in 44-45, working at the NNSA laboratories. Let them connect the dots...
3/12/2019 8:27 PM"
I have never seen a single LLNL or LANL manager ever make that argument. I have heard them say that they can close down the lab and start with 10 people. That we do not need the labs, that the scientists are cowboys, that the town people in Los Alamos know that the scientists are entitled jerks that don't get it. That people at the labs "don't get it", what is done at LLNL or LANL that could not be done elsewhere, and so on.
I believe your argument but besides you and a few others no one makes this argument anymore. Like I said before Nukes are like magic or iphones that exist, they have always existed, they always will exist, they are part of nature and humans have no real part in their existence.
We don’t test anymore, so how does the world know that we have the goods? By showing them that we have world class scientists, like those back in 44-45, working at the NNSA laboratories. Let them connect the dots...
3/12/2019 8:27 PM
LOL, like anyone ever heard of the labs or cares.
LOL, like anyone ever heard of the labs or cares.
3/13/2019 5:05 PM
The Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Pakistanis, the Indians, the Iranians, have all heard of Los Alamos. And they care. Our allies the French and the British and NATO, also have heard and care. Your view of the world and its dangers is very parochial and uninformed.
The cowboy scientists cannot even manage trees on LANL property, unbelievable, they went to work in wind storm and trees fell all over the place, how can you trust a place like this? Crazy just crazy.
The LANL scientists are supposed to be managing trees on LANL property??? The trees fell because they went to work?? WHAT???
You are truly, uh, misinformed. (So as not to trigger Scooby). Get help, uh, more knowledge.
The Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Pakistanis, the Indians, the Iranians, have all heard of Los Alamos. And they care. Our allies the French and the British and NATO, also have heard and care. Your view of the world and its dangers is very parochial and uninformed.
3/13/2019 5:35 PM
Maybe they care more about what Nanos said about the labs. If the US does not care why would these countries care? I doubt these other countries put their programs in the hands of sleazy for profit companies.
Cowboy Scientists Managing Trees - that's the name of my new rock band.
Thank you 3/14/2019 5:19 PM !
Yeah, it ain’t the scientists that are the problem at LANL. It’s the O&M folks.
You are truly, uh, misinformed. (So as not to trigger Scooby). Get help, uh, more knowledge.
3/14/2019 5:19 PM
I trust Scooby to be rational. Lets go through the logic.
(1) LANL is a scientific lab with scientists
(2) LANL has a reputation for cowboy out of control scientists who think they know best which leads to people getting hurt.This
is can seen by the past series of scandals and is backed up by statements from former directors and heads of DOE.
(3) LANL had a big storm that blew down 50-100 trees on lab property, and when the trees they fell could have hurt people.
It was simply a matter for luck that no one got hurt.
(4) It should have been recognized long ago that there are too many dead or dying trees next to buildings. But somehow the culture did not recognize this, care or thought it knew better.
(5) Only a cowboy culture would not care about the environment it is in or the consequences in getting people hurt.
(6) The cowboy culture comes directly from the cowboys and the cowboys are the scientists...therefore scientists
at LANL are to blame for another or several near misses on Wed. QED
Ok that is the line of logic show me how I am wrong? I simply used past history to justify each step.
Disks went missing, mustangs got stolen, students got blinded, crem was misplaced...now giant trees are left standing just to fall
down. Sounds like cowboys to me.
Ok that is the line of logic show me how I am wrong? I simply used past history to justify each step.
3/15/2019 7:22 PM
Lesson #1 of Logic. False premise + flawless logical analysis = false conclusion.
And 3/15/2019 9:05 PM is so hackneyed and stale that it doesn't even warrant a serious reply. Get another useless old trope to repeat.
Lesson #1 of Logic. False premise + flawless logical analysis = false conclusion.
I agree, but if what you are saying is true than that means there was never a cowboy culture at LANL which means
Nanos was wrong.
However as we have seen from states from various DOE officials is that Nanos statement are still taken seriously.
Incidentally the "False premise" seems to be the most common problem with the todays logic. A large number of policies, laws, approaches and academic arguments have failed yet no one understand why, however no one ever considers that the premise could be wrong.
"Nanos was wrong." DingDingDing!! You win! Of course he was wrong as everyone who worked for him knew and many dared to say. One of the reasons he's gone. He was also a psychopath, IMO. I spent some time is Don Cobb's office when he was DD, and watched his eyes roll. He tried to restrain the craziness of Nanos and mostly succeeded. For the claim that "Nanos statement are still taken seriously (sic)," there is no evidence to support that claim in the past ten years. If you have such evidence produce it, or shut up about it.
So, any concern that John Bender, ex-LANL, has resigned as Vice President of MSTS at the Nevada National Security Site to return to LANL and be detailed to NA-10 as the project SME on establishing pit production at SRS? He told this to many before he left, and the MSTS Prez bragged about how NA-10 had personally asked for Benner. He continued to say that this would give them a special friend in HQ ......
Nanos was wrong when he pointed at the scientists. LANL has a cowboy culture but it isn't in science. It is in the M&O.
LANL has a cowboy culture but it isn't in science. It is in the M&O.
That is true but for many reasons this simply cannot be addressed. So when M&O fails, you have to blame someone so you blame scientists. Go after M&O and you will get huge amount of lawsuits, bad press, and local government coming down on you and so on. Nothing is going to change.
So, any concern that John Bender, ex-LANL, has resigned as Vice President of MSTS at the Nevada National Security Site to return to LANL and be detailed to NA-10 as the project SME on establishing pit production at SRS? He told this to many before he left, and the MSTS Prez bragged about how NA-10 had personally asked for Benner. He continued to say that this would give them a special friend in HQ ......
3/19/2019 5:26 AM
Can you translate this to English please.
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