Another radiation leak at LANL

Anonymously contributed: -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.lamonitor.com/content/workers-exposed-radiation

NIF, the Spruce Goose

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------ The debate about whether or not NIF is an engineering wonder or a physics failure is interesting, but unimportant. No matter how elegant the engineering, if the physics can't be done, the end result is failure and the engineering but a sterile accomplishment. There is a stunningly accurate historical precedent for NIF, the Spruce Goose. Conceived as an essential wartime tool, built by an exceptional engineer, wildly over cost, delivered late, and wholly irrelevant to the mission by the time it was completed. Moreover, technology passed it by and it was a complete dead end, despite its true elegance. Interestingly, the characteristics of their leaders are quite similar as well. The Wikipedia summary on the Spruce Goose is recommended as a management case history.

ELLEN O. TAUSCHER NAMED TO LAWRENCE LIVERMORE, LOS ALAMOS BOARDS OF GOVERNORS

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ELLEN O. TAUSCHER NAMED TO LAWRENCE LIVERMORE, LOS ALAMOS BOARDS OF GOVERNORS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 27, 2012 – Norman J. Pattiz, chairman of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) and Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), today announced that the Honorable Ellen O. Tauscher has been named as an independent governor on the LLNS and LANS Boards of Governors. The LLCs manage Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., and Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, NM, respectively, for the U.S. Department of Energy. The appointments take effect September 17. Tauscher also has been appointed as a member of the LANS/LLNS Boards’ Mission Committee. The Mission Committee serves in an advisory role to review current and future national security issues and Laboratory initiatives, capabilities and strategic plans to address these issues. “We are very pleased to welcome Ellen Tauscher to the Boards of Governors of LANS and LLNS,” Pattiz said. “Ms. Tauscher has a distinguished record as a seven-term member of Congress with expertise in national security matters, a former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, and as an investment banker. She is respected by the national and international arms control communities, by members of Congress, and by the business community. She will add greatly to our Boards and the national laboratories.” “I am honored to serve on the LLNS and LANS Boards of Governors and use the expertise gained over 35 years serving in the Congress, the State Department and the private sector to support the national security mission and critical science initiatives at both laboratories,” said Tauscher.

Ed Moses is resigning as of Oct 1st!

Anonymously contributed: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ed Moses will tender his resignation Oct 1. He has been caught funneling contracts to family members.

Officers at Y-12 responded correctly

Anonymously contributed: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Seems like the ProForce officers at Y-12 in fact responded correctly. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Fired Y-12 guard claims he's a scapegoat for embarrassing security breach; says there was no need to rough up peace protesters -- A security police officer said he was fired because he apparently wasn't rough enough with protesters during the July 28 predawn break-in at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge. Fifty-two-year-old Kirk Garland, who has decades of experience at high-security U.S. Department of Energy installations, said he's being used as a scapegoat for an embarrassing breach that was not of his doing...He said he did not pull his gun or take other physical actions immediately because that wasn't necessary. He said he quickly established they were pacifist protesters, in part because of the messages spray-painted on the walls, and they obeyed everything he said. http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2012/08/fired-y-12-guard-claims-hes-a.html

DOD Agreement Sheds Light on NNSA Problems

Anonymously contributed: ================================================================= Stephen Young, Washington representative and senior analyst Union of Concerned Scientists August 20, 2012 ================================================================= http://allthingsnuclear.org/dod-doe-agreement/

NIF's woes

Excerpt from Article in SF Chronicle Anonymously contributed: ================================================================= Livermore Lab Ignition Facility's woes David Perlman Updated 11:02 p.m., Friday, August 17, 2012 ============================================================ Panel sees progress The technical review committee for the National Ignition Facility, headed by physicist Alvin Trivelpiece, retired director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, said the Livermore scientists had indeed made progress since the panel's most recent review in February 2011. "The NIF is operating in a stable, reliable, predictable and controllable manner," the committee said, and has made "extraordinary progress toward challenging goals." But the Livermore scientists won't reach the "milestone" of achieving ignition this fiscal year, the experts said, and added: "The committee is concerned that this milestone ... may not be the best way to manage this program. "A deadline imposed on an experimental discovery science program to achieve a particular result by a particular time at a particular cost is often unrealistic," the report said. And the National Ignition Facility is indeed costly: When the project began in 1995, its estimated cost was $1.1 billion, with completion set for 2002 . The price tag later rose to $2.8 billion and then to $3.5 billion by the time the facility's building was completed in 2009. Since then, Congress has appropriated more than $450 million a year for the effort's experiments, and some estimates predict that the costs could eventually reach more than $8 billion. 'Grand challenge' Ed Moses, longtime director of the Livermore project, has been enthusiastic about the project from the start. "It's a grand challenge, and I'm confident of getting ignition," he said five years ago, "and whether it's 2010 or 2011, I'm sure we'll achieve it." A Livermore lab spokesman said Moses and other facility leaders were unavailable this week to respond to the latest reports. But the spokesman e-mailed The Chronicle an unsigned statement that could be "attributed" to Moses, which said the facility "continues to make extraordinary progress toward its goal. ... The capabilities needed to achieve ignition are in place." It added, "In the last year of precision experiments, NIF has successfully resolved most of the major physics concerns necessary to achieve ignition. The current campaign is working to resolve the remaining few and integrate all the pieces together." David Perlman is The San Francisco Chronicle's science editor. E-mail: dperlman@sfchronicle.com Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Livermore-Lab-Ignition-Facility-s-woes-3797461.php#ixzz23sLkUyYj So...what's gpoing on there guys? Is EM on his way out the door or is LLNS management sweeping stuff under the carpet?