LLNL - The True Story -

New Mexico senators speak out on nuclear safety board order By Rebecca Moss | rmoss@sfnewmexican.com New Mexico’s U.S. senators are asking Congress to block a Department of Energy order that would limit a federal board’s access to information about nuclear facilities and could hinder its ability to oversee worker health and safety. In a letter sent Wednesday to the leaders of a Senate appropriations subcommittee, Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall also ask their colleagues to block impending staff cuts and a broad reorganization at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. New Mexico is home to three of the 14 nuclear facilities under the board’s jurisdiction: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. “We feel strongly that these two matters facing the [safety board] and its future must be suspended while Congress and the public have time to review and offer constructive feedback” on how to maintain and impr...

https://www.wacotrib.com/news/ap_nation/doe-awards-leidos-battelle-team-research-support-contract-at-national/article_41b6709b-77f4-54c8-9ffb-c95dda839838.html

Acting DNFSB Chairman claims DOE order is at odds with Atomic Energy Act The dispute between the political appointees of the DOE and those of the DNFSB resulted in all members of the DNFSB, both democrat and republican appointees, joining together to question if the DOE order is consistent with the existing law. Nuclear Safety Board Slams Energy Department Plan to Weaken Oversight "The Trump administration defended an order that could be used to withhold information about nuclear facilities from a federal board, but its leader says the action is not consistent with the U.S. Atomic Energy Act." https://www.propublica.org/article/nuclear-safety-board-slams-energy-department-plan-to-weaken-oversight

Nuclear Safety Board Slams Energy Department Plan to Weaken Oversight By Rebecca Moss | rmoss@sfnewmexican.com  A new Department of Energy order that could be used to withhold information from a federal nuclear safety board and prevent the board from overseeing worker safety at nuclear facilities appears to violate longstanding provisions in the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, the board’s members said Tuesday. Members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, both Democrats and Republicans, were united in their criticism of the Energy Department’s order, published in mid-May. It prevents the board from accessing sensitive information, imposes additional legal hurdles on board staff and mandates that Energy Department officials speak “with one voice” when communicating with the board. The New Mexican and ProPublica first reported on the order’s existence in July, but the board recently called for a special hearing, saying its members had no formal input before the document was finaliz...

So much for Mason's claim that all employees will work for Triad and not for one of the industrial partners. https://www.theladders.com/job/chief-operating-officer-capital-projects-fluor-los-alamos-nm_37318621 Fluor Government Group (FGG) is seeking candidates to support the FGG scope of work at the Los Alamos national Laboratory in Los Alamos, NM. The Los Alamos National Laboratory has a capital project portfolio in excess of $4 billion dollars covering multiple line item projects valued in excess of $50 million each. In addition to the line item projects, there is an annual budget covering small capital projects of approximately $200 million. The Triad National Security Capital Projects organization is responsible for delivery of the facilities in a safe, secure, reliable and cost effective manner.  The Director for Capital Projects is seeking a Chief Operating Officer (COO-CP) in support of delivering the capital projects. Responsibilities of the Capital Projects team include:...

Where is the list of the Triad board members that was promised by a Triad spokesperson to a national news outlet? If they make such statements, they should follow through on them or understand that credibility is lost. Coupled with the botched GRT decision, things look to be off to a rocky start for the new contractor.

Now that NM GRT is going to be collected from Triad, the politicians can just keep going on trips with free booze and baseball tickets. This is a terrible waste of money. We’ve kept silent regarding the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities and its sorry story of misspending, deceit and exposure. However, with the recent release of an audit and no clear mission, it’s clear the group is nothing more than a slush fund for politicians. Taxpayers must push to stop this mindless spending. Add to that the hiring of Eric Vasquez as former director Andrea Romero’s replacement and we taxpayers have a stewing recipe for more waste of taxpayer dollars. Readers may remember Vasquez as the former salaried Española Chamber of Commerce executive director who simultaneously had another full-time job operating a failed newsletter, sometimes from the Chamber’s offices. He’s also married to Stephanie Garcia-Richard, who is on her way out as a state representative, as she runs for state land commissioner...

From the looks of the initial pass at the organization charts that Triad has put out, there will still be a lot of residual overhead from the LANS structure. With just over 8,000 employees there are more than 55 divisions and another 25 division level offices. These are placed under 11 directorates and 20 directorate level offices. Looks as if the typical division may wind up with just over 100 employees. If correct, that is still a large overhead burden.

NNSA staying under DOE is a good idea, according to former DOE officials. Changing nuclear oversight threatens security, tech edge BY SPENCER ABRAHAM, ERNEST MONIZ, CLAY SELL AND ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/402993-changing-nuclear-oversight-threatens-security-tech-edge Now that the 2019 John McCain National Defense Authorization Act has become law, there is a lesson to be learned from a furtive effort to fundamentally change the way the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile is sustained to ensure a reliable deterrent.  We learned at the eleventh hour that language had been inserted into the Senate-passed bill that would have weakened the management of vital Department of Energy (DOE) national security programs that assure the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent, reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation, and provide global nuclear propulsion for the U.S. Navy. Although the language ultimately was r...

New Los Alamos lab manager Triad will pay GRT, official says By Andy Stiny | astiny@sfnewmexican.com Aug 22, 2018 A representative of Triad National Security LLC, which takes over management of Los Alamos National Laboratory in November, said Wednesday the consortium will pay gross receipts taxes, easing concerns of local officials about losing millions of dollars in revenue. Scott Sudduth, assistant vice chancellor with the Office of Federal Relations for the Texas A&M University system, told an audience of about 50 community members during a meeting in Los Alamos that the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department responded to a recent inquiry from Triad by saying that “it is their view that the gross receipts tax does apply to Triad.” Los Alamos County officials had said previously that if Triad were deemed to have nonprofit status, the county estimated it could lose $21 million annually and the state $23 million in gross receipts tax revenues, according to published reports. No...

Did anyone else speak with Scott Sudduth from A&M when he was at LANL? Look him up and he is the Washington lobbyist for the university. He has been the person spending the most time talking about the A&M role in LANL. So, for all of you that were wondering what part of running LANL was going to be done by A&M, he has cleared that up. A&M is taking care of Washington lobbying for LANL, and from all indications not much else.

Looks like Texas A&M will take a post on Triad board, and no other role in LANL The move reflects Banks’ ascent to Triad’s governing board, an A&M spokesperson wrote in an email Monday. Banks was formerly vice chancellor for engineering and remains dean of the system’s College of Engineering. Texas A&M University is the only senior Triad partner without a representative among the senior laboratory staff the consortium has identified on its website. Meanwhile, the number and identities of the remaining Triad board members have not be revealed publicly. Triad plans to disclose the members’ names and affiliations “after our initial Board meeting which is planned for the end of the month,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email Tuesday. The Triad spokesperson did not immediately know the day for which this meeting is scheduled. Triad’s senior partners are: Battelle Memorial Institute, longtime Los Alamos manager the University of California, and Texas A&M University. The ...

DNFSB Major Reform: 80% More Resident Inspectors Washington, DC — Acting Chairman Bruce Hamilton announced today a major transformation of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s staff. The reform is in response to a number of studies and critiques on the Board’s effectiveness during the past several years. Among the changes: an 80% increase in the number of Resident Inspectors located at defense nuclear facilities operated by the Department of Energy; two new field offices in Albuquerque and Las Vegas which will provide full-time coverage of Sandia National Laboratories, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Nevada National Security Site, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Idaho National Laboratory; a 46% reduction in headquarters personnel; a facilities-focused reorganization of the headquarters staff; and, the establishment of a new Executive Director of Operations,or EDO, who will lead the entire agency.  https://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/document/15591/DN...

At the all hand's meeting, Mason was pretty clear that the new organization will be run in the Battelle way. He seemed to express disdain for the old structure in some of his comments.

LLNL is at it again with hydrogen: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/science/metallic-hydrogen-lasers.html They “re-analyze” Sandia data so it agrees with the NIF data, an interesting move that the Sandia people don’t agree with, according to the NYT article.