LLNL - The True Story -

While the below happened on LANS watch, it is nothing new for LANL. Go back and review the UC record at LANL and you will discover that rigging and hoisting was a persistent problem then as well.  'Of all the FUBARS that Charlie reviewed he forgot to mention the $10M package that was recently dropped and destroyed when inadequate lifts were used and the package toppled to ground. The PADNW confirmed this yesterday, it was an HVAC system. Stated they used 2 straps instead of the required 4. Fortunately, no one was standing under it. Another $10M down the LANS drain.'

On Wednesday, May 31, two post-doctoral researchers at the TA-48 Radiochemistry facility observed flames from the depleted uranium metal turnings that they were cleaning with nitric acid in a fume hood. The researchers choose not to fight the fire, closed the hood sash, pulled the fire alarm, and contacted 911. The Los Alamos County Fire Department, LANL emergency management, and the LANL hazardous materials team responded. No radioactive contamination, injuries, or damage beyond the containment tray in the fume hood occurred. Facility, program, and emergency response personnel held a fact-finding on Thursday to discuss the response. Of relevance to the broader emergency management program at the laboratory, several individuals indicated that they did not receive a mass notification message to stay clear of TA-48 because the notification is based on office location and some TA-48 users have their offices in other locations. No corrective action was assigned for this point. Facility per...

Is Charlie still planning to go ahead with the Gallup poll of employee opinions? What a waste of money after the Kiwi did his feel good cheer for LANS, and then was arrested a few months later for being a sex offender.

In that episode the final Accident Investigation Board report said supervisors had “fostered a culture where employees do not feel comfortable raising safety issues to management.” Ernest Moniz, secretary of Energy from May 2013 to January 2017, said shortly before leaving that the day the drum exploded at WIPP was by far the worst day of his tenure. Los Alamos, he said in a subsequent interview with CPI, had “inadequate quality control in how they were packaging the wastes. There is no sugarcoating that.” Moniz also said that during his tenure, there was “a clear pattern” in which the nuclear weapons laboratories were annually ranked more poorly by his department on their “operations” than on their other tasks, with Los Alamos “in particular…the lowest.” He said he had “no doubt they have had some management problems.” https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/inhaled-uranium/

Phys.Org 2017-06 Multibillion dollar los-alamos lab

Improper LANL shipment involved Plutonium http://www.exchangemonitor.com/publication/morning-briefing/erroneous-lanl-shipment-involved-plutonium/

The Los Alamos Daily Post has obtained a copy of an email issued this afternoon by the director of NNSA's Office of Governmental Affairs. The email states that DOE/NNSA will issue a public notice Tuesday alerting potential offerors of its intent to conduct a competition for the management and operating (M&O) follow-on contract for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The public notice will be available on various websites for which links will go live by close of business Tuesday. http://www.ladailypost.com/content/nnsa-issue-public-notice-intent-compete-management-and-operating-contract-lanl Another rumor is it stays as a for profit LLC. Bidders are Honeywell with U of Texas, UC with Batelle, Lockheed with ?

Has anyone heard about another recent LANL crit safety violation? Word has been leaking out around the complex that they are covering up in order to avoid a large fine.

Your ads and over-writing of text on top of each other renderthe blog unreadble on an android device.

This was just marvelous news - after what LLNL did to retiree health plans. What are we going to have left to turn to when the last insurer bolts? Not just Wisconsin, carriers across the county are leaving the system. http://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/health-care/2017/06/21/health-insurer-anthem-stop-offering-individual-plans-most-wisconsin/416475001/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/los-alamos-shipped-nuclear-material-by-plane-authorities-say/

From politico.com 6/23/17 You haven’t heard of it since chemistry class, but beryllium is a chemical toxic to lung tissue. The Department of Labor took years to finalize a rule protecting workers from exposure, and didn’t issue the final version until the tail end of Obama’s presidency—January 9, to be exact. It was always at risk of removal by the Republican Congress, which could have repealed it with just a majority vote, but it survived until now. On Friday, the Department of Labor proposed a  new rule  on beryllium exposure; it doesn’t change the original exposure limits   imposed by   Obama   but instead eliminates additional safety requirements for the construction and shipyard industries, such as conducting medical surveillance or providing training for those workers who are near, but not above, the exposure limits. Labor groups slammed the change, saying that it would lead to more lung disease and cancer among workers. Industry groups applauded the ch...

Only a matter of time before LLNL and LANL pension plans are sold off to insurance company http://www.reuters.com/article/us-accenture-pensions-aig-idUSKBN19E19Y?il=0 Consulting and outsourcing services provider Accenture Plc (ACN.N) said on Friday it would transfer $1.6 billion in pension obligations to insurers American International Group Inc (AIG.N) and MassMutual. The transfer includes about $600 million in lump-sum payments to about 7,000 current and former U.S. employees of Accenture and $1 billion in purchases of annuities from insurance companies. U.S. insurers are buying corporate pension plans at a record clip as rising interest rates and all-time high stock-market values give companies the perfect excuse to offload them. Calculating they can make more money from selling companies an annuity to cover the cost of the pension plans and then invest the proceeds in bonds and other securities, insurers are competing to persuade corporate America to sell them their pen...

LANL safety record topic of senate hearing for Perry The probe of Los Alamos by the nonprofit journalism organization caught the attention of top officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the lab, and members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, who say safety should be the top priority given the lab’s role in maintaining and modernizing the U.S nuclear stockpile. During a Senate subcommittee hearing Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., asked Energy Secretary Rick Perry about safety concerns surrounding pit operations at Los Alamos. He asked Perry for assurances that the Department of Energy would commit to increasing safety requirements and accountability as part of the new management contract for the lab, currently being rebid. Udall mentioned the safety issues raised by the Center for Public Integrity series to Perry, asking, “In your opinion, and the opinion of DOE, is Los Alamos making acceptable progress to fix all identified issues with ...

Asked about the persistence of the Los Alamos lab’s problems, former NNSA director Miller smiled and said her colleagues at the nuclear oversight agency sometimes told the following joke: If Washington sent all three of America’s nuclear weapons labs an order to study how to “jump,” they would all respond differently. Lawrence Livermore, she said, would convene a conference and produce a three-inch stack of reports about “jumping.” Officials at Sandia would simply jump. But at Los Alamos, she said, officials would instinctively respond with a “**** you, we’re not jumping. June 21, 2017 at 10:35 AM   COMMENTS   Anonymous  said... Yep. Los Alamos would instinctively know that there is zero value in DOE directed "jumping" studies. June 21, 2017 at 5:55 PM     Anonymous  said... I first heard that joke in 1980 as a postdoc at Los Alamos. It was old then. June 21, 2017 at 6:49 PM     Anonymous  said... Given the response o...