Actual post from Dec. 15 from one of the streams. This is a real topic. As far as promoting women and minorities even if their qualifications are not as good as the white male scientists, I am all for it. We need diversity at the lab and if that is what it takes, so be it. Quit your whining. Look around the lab, what do you see? White male geezers. How many African Americans do you see at the lab? Virtually none. LLNL is one of the MOST undiverse places you will see. Face it folks, LLNL is an institution of white male privilege and they don't want to give up their privileged positions. California, a state of majority Hispanics has the "crown jewel" LLNL nestled in the middle of it with very FEW Hispanics at all!
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So how did we go from Nanos " the nation does not need LANL" and "what is done at LANL that cannot be easily done anywhere" to now nukes are so important we may need to do a first strike? It is kind of amazing that in 2004 that so many people where saying we need to close the labs or that they are of no value. This big push came after 9/11 when people thought the only threats where from global terrorism and that China, Russia and North Korea will never be a problem. As such the labs should be retooled, downsized, privatized or and beaten into submission. Now in 2022 it looks like the labs maybe relevant again.
I know the resident troll, will come along and chime in about how the labs are not relevant but this guy is beyond delusional. Back in 2004 no one though that just maybe what we do is relevant.
4/01/2022 5:50 AM
It's only relevant if it is fully funded. Modernization and upgrading is crucial to national security.
The cowboy culture of "we know best because we are just sooo smart" is alive and well in LANL. You guys think you are important, ha ha ha, some things never change. I say shut it down. LANL has been a problem since the Zinner report.
As for all this hiring at LANL I suggest you look at this
https://www.lasg.org/LifeAtTheLabs2/pipeline-main-updates.html
In Feb. 2022, Triad management increased plutonium facility operations at LANL to “24 hours a day, seven days a week”, and they expect “night shift activity to ramp-up in tempo and complexity”.36 The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) performed an “Independent Assessment of the Plutonium Strategy of the NNSA” in 2019 and determined that attempting to increase production at PF-4 by operating second shift and installing additional equipment is “very high risk”. 37
Equipment at LANL does not currently meet safety standards. For example, in a weekly report from February 18, 2022, the DNFSB identified more than 50 gloveboxes that are deficient and ‘there are currently no funded plans associated with upgrading or replacing HS-Pu gloveboxes”.38
Safety accidents are currently an issue for employees at LANL. Workers have been contaminated through breaches in plutonium gloveboxes as recent as Jan. 2022, and another 15 workers experienced a similar incident in 2020.39
4/01/2022 6:07 PM
According to who? The only enemy we need to use nukes would be Russia and guess what they just lost to a country that is 1/8 their size. So there is no need for a nuclear that size we have. At best we need about 400 to counter China so we can easily downsize by factor of 5 to 10, the NNSA budget should cut by a factor of 5 right now.
4/07/2022 6:16 AM
I'm sure your concerns will be factored into the next Nuclear Posture Review along with those of all the other experts.
I am so saddened by what is happing in Ukraine. I and many others simply cannot take the pain, we have do something, send in NATO and US troops and call Putins bluff. If the Ukrainians can whip Putin than our troops will mop up Russian troops like nothing. I am sick of this ww3 crap. If there was any reason to ban nuclear weapons than this is it, if Russia did not have nukes we would have blasted them to oblivion in second. Once we defeat Russia it is time to ban nuclear weapons or at least leave them in the hands of the adults which are the US (provided Trump does not come back).
It would be nice if you were correct. But you might be wrong. What then?