LLNL guard force

Anonymoulsy contributed: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weapons Complex Monitor September 27, 2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOE IG Finds no Problems with Livermore Strategy to Maintain Guard Force ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Retention bonuses paid to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory guards to keep them at the site as it downsized its security posture were reasonable, the Department of Energy’s Inspector General said in a report released yesterday. The IG said it investigated claims that the lab experienced “excessive” security costs while it maintained security to protect Category I/II special nuclear material, but it found no problem with $15.2 million in retention bonuses distributed from Fiscal Year 2010 to FY 2012 that helped the site maintain its guard force. The NNSA said Friday that it had completely removed special nuclear material requiring the highest, and most expensive, levels of protection, and that it expects to save $30 million a year by reducing security at the lab. In its report, the IG said that guards earned $50,000 bonuses if they stayed at the lab through Sept. 30, 2012. “According to a Livermore official, the retention bonuses helped to maintain the number of security personnel at the levels required for Security Category I/II protection throughout the deinventory, as well as maintain the morale amongst the impacted security personnel,” the IG said. The NNSA also authorized a 12-month transition phase through Sept. 30, 2013, to help guards move to other jobs after the deinventorying effort was complete. The lab will lay off guards over the next few months as part of a workforce restructuring plan.

Livermore Lab downsizing its security

Anonymously contributed: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Livermore Lab downsizing its security Modesto Bee Staff Reports Tuesday, Sep. 25, 2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LIVERMORE -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is downsizing its security staff now that the last of the highest-level special nuclear material has been removed from the research center. The lab filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act reduction in force notice this month, which reported that 126 employees were being let go as a result of the changes. The layoffs will only affect members of the lab's security work force who are no longer needed or funded because of the center's nuclear status changes. Those include police officers, police sergeants and health-safety technologists. The first voluntary separations will take place this month and the final involuntary separations will occur by March. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.modbee.com/2012/09/25/2389668/lab-downsizing-its-security.html#storylink=cpy

LANL management grows while budgets shrink?

Anonymously contributed: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A picture is worth a thousand words... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- see GRAPH

No Funds for LANL Project in Senate Bill

Anonymously contributed: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABQ Journal update on CMRR funding ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A budget bill approved by the Senate on Saturday and headed to President Barack Obama’s desk contains no money for a multi-billion plutonium project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, prompting cheers from nuclear weapons activists. But the yearlong congressional debate over the future of the Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility isn’t over. http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/09/25/news/no-funds-for-lanl-project-in-senate-bill.html

Pentagon should take over nuclear plant security

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Interesting, this may have legs, lucky for LLNL that Cat I/II SNM is now gone... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pentagon should take over nuclear plant security: lawmaker September 21, 2012 - Roberta Rampton - Reuters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department should take over security for U.S. nuclear weapons sites after a nuclear complex was broken into with ease in July by an 82-year-old nun and two other peace activists, a top lawmaker in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Friday. Mike Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services panel that oversees the Energy Department's nuclear weapons complex, has drafted legislation to put the U.S. military in charge of protecting facilities like the Y-12 complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. "The fact that this vulnerability is so widely known has got to be addressed," Turner said in an interview. The Y-12 facility, built after the September 11, 2001, attacks, had been previously touted as "the Fort Knox of uranium" and was supposed to be one of the most secure facilities in the United States. But in July, the three anti-nuclear activists cut through several fences and vandalized a building which holds the U.S. stockpile of highly enriched uranium used to make nuclear bombs. An internal Energy Department watchdog found guards ignored motion sensors because they were routinely triggered by wildlife, and a security camera that should have shown the break-in had been broken for about six months. The National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Energy Department, is continuing to investigate what went wrong with its oversight of contractors. The facility is run by Babcock & Wilcox Co, and WSI Oak Ridge, owned by G4S, provides security. Their contracts are being reviewed, and a number of personnel have been removed from their jobs. "We have seen just an absolute failure of security at Y-12. We believe from our classified briefing that this is system-wide, that NNSA and (Energy Department) are incapable of providing the level of security necessary for our nuclear weapons facilities," Turner said. Turner, who has spent a decade monitoring issues with the Energy Department's management of the complex, said he does not believe the NNSA can fix the issues that allowed for the incursion. Putting the Pentagon in charge would increase security, allow for better technology and weapons to be used in protecting facilities, and eliminate any interdepartmental issues in sharing classified intelligence about threats, he said. Turner's bill also would charge the Pentagon with securing the transportation of nuclear materials between facilities. "I am more concerned about the transport than I am the facilities, and the facilities have already shown to be highly vulnerable," he said. Turner has so far gathered about six Republican cosponsors for his bill, which he hopes to see become part of the annual defense policy legislation when the Senate and House finalize it after the November 6 election.

Superblock can now save on guard costs.

Anonymously contributed: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Superblock can now save on guard costs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Was this really from today's internal posting? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Friday announced that the last of the Security Category I/II special nuclear material items that required the highest level of security at the Laboratory have been removed. LLNL's primary mission will continue to be to ensure the safety, security and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile, but this mission will now be performed with a small quantity of special nuclear material, resulting in annual cost savings for taxpayers of approximately $40 million. "We're always looking for ways to improve the way we do business," said NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino. "Consolidating this nuclear material will help save critical taxpayer dollars, help improve the safety and security posture at the site, and help align our enterprise for the coming decades. The team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory deserves a lot of credit for doing this efficiently and safely." In 2006, NNSA began to develop a plan to transform the nuclear weapons enterprise and to consolidate special nuclear material as much as possible. NNSA issued an environmental analysis in 2008 that allowed for the removal of Category I/II special nuclear material items from LLNL by the end of FY 2012. The removal and consolidation efforts have eliminated high security special nuclear materials from LLNL's Plutonium Facility, which is located in an area known as the "Superblock."

Ignition Facility Misses Goal

Anonymously contributed: ====================================================================================== Article About NIF Woes in Science Magazine: Ignition Facility Misses Goal, Ponders New Course Science, Vol 337, 21 September 2012 Issue, Published by AAAS ======================================================================= It includes some very well done photos of the facility. ======================================================================= Excerpts: The National Ignition Facility (NIF), a $3.5 billion laser fusion lab in California, looks certain to miss its deadline at the end of this month for achieving ignition... By law, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), part of the U.S. Department of Energy, has until 60 days after the deadline to produce a report explaining what barriers to ignition remain, how they can be overcome, and what implications there are for the stockpile... Managers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the home of NIF, are playing down the significance of the end of the National Ignition Campaign (NIC)... ... Others view the missed deadline differently. “It’s going to be a big deal here,” says a congressional aide who asked to remain anonymous.