Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Some new/old rumors.
More talk that John Sarrao is the head of the UC lead bid. Webster is head of U Texas, and somebody named Perry is head of the Texas AM team. I presume this is not Rick Perry. Also there is probably a couple of other for profit teams with Lockheed, Bechtel and who knows. Some other rumors is that the UC team is worried, apparently they thought that no one else would bid and did not expect Texas or Texas AM to put something in. Also if history is any guide the Director must be a weapons guy. Wallace of course has been the only exception but he is just a lame duck.
Predictions (1) it will go down like Sandia, some completely unexpected team will win.
(2) Bechtel lead team wins.
(3) The Perry guy is in fact related to Rick Perry and Texas AM takes it.
My bet is on 1, something like Northrop Grumman, or Leidos and the Director will be an ex General. The motto will be "Modernization Through Compliance MTC" or " Compliance alone sets minds in motion.", "New Mexico, yes we are part of the United States".
No Nomination Hearing Scheduled for NNSA Chief-Designate
No Nomination Hearing Scheduled for NNSA Chief-Designate
January 30, 2018
By Exchange Monitor
About two weeks before 2019 budget negotiations are set to compete for lawmakers’ attention on Capitol Hill, the Senate still has not taken a look at the Trump administration’s nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration.
President Donald Trump nominated former Department of Energy and National Security Council staffer Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to the post on Dec. 19. About a month later, Frank Klotz resigned after almost four years as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), leaving agency policy chief Steven Erhart at the helm on an acting basis.
The NNSA administrator, who also serves as undersecretary for nuclear security, is by far the highest-ranking Department of Energy (DOE) nominee the Senate has left to consider in the Trump administration. The agency’s other two undersecretary-level positions were filled in November, around four months after the administration sent their nominations to Capitol Hill.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has already held nomination hearings for other government posts this year, but had yet to schedule one for Gordon-Hagerty at deadline Monday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. No hearing was scheduled as of Monday, a committee spokesperson said.
Klotz was nominated in January 2014 and confirmed in April 2014. There have been four NNSA administrators since Congress created the DOE branch in 2000. Most were confirmed around two months after they were nominated.
https://www.exchangemonitor.com/no-nomination-hearing-scheduled-nnsa-admin-designate/
January 30, 2018
By Exchange Monitor
About two weeks before 2019 budget negotiations are set to compete for lawmakers’ attention on Capitol Hill, the Senate still has not taken a look at the Trump administration’s nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration.
President Donald Trump nominated former Department of Energy and National Security Council staffer Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to the post on Dec. 19. About a month later, Frank Klotz resigned after almost four years as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), leaving agency policy chief Steven Erhart at the helm on an acting basis.
The NNSA administrator, who also serves as undersecretary for nuclear security, is by far the highest-ranking Department of Energy (DOE) nominee the Senate has left to consider in the Trump administration. The agency’s other two undersecretary-level positions were filled in November, around four months after the administration sent their nominations to Capitol Hill.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has already held nomination hearings for other government posts this year, but had yet to schedule one for Gordon-Hagerty at deadline Monday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. No hearing was scheduled as of Monday, a committee spokesperson said.
Klotz was nominated in January 2014 and confirmed in April 2014. There have been four NNSA administrators since Congress created the DOE branch in 2000. Most were confirmed around two months after they were nominated.
https://www.exchangemonitor.com/no-nomination-hearing-scheduled-nnsa-admin-designate/
Monday, January 29, 2018
LANSLLNS Management Salaries and Bonuses
Correcting for COLAs, how much did LANSLLNS management salaries from Supervisors and above go up as a percentage compared to the pre-LANSLLNS period? What is a typical LANSLLNS manager "bonus" referenced to their respective base salaries, 5%, 20%, other?
Thursday, January 25, 2018
New head of NNSA has BS
New head of NNSA has BS degree from UNM.....how far things have fallen, how far from the times when highly qualified scientists could be found in charge of the enterprise.
https://nnsa.energy.gov/aboutus/ourleadership/acting-administrator
https://nnsa.energy.gov/aboutus/ourleadership/acting-administrator
LANL Legacy cleanup to start soon
New LANL legacy clean up contract to start soon
http://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/n3b-joint-venture-to-begin-transition-for-los-alamos-legacy-cleanup-contract
NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Jan. 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) announced today that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a notice to proceed into transition for the Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup Contract to Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, LLC (N3B), a joint venture led by SN3, part of HII’s Technical Solutions division, with partner BWXT Technical Services Group, Inc. The 90-day contract transition period begins today and will lead into a base period of five years and option periods of three years and two years, respectively, with a total period of performance of up to 10 years and three months. The total value of the contract is $1.39 billion if all options are exercised.
http://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/n3b-joint-venture-to-begin-transition-for-los-alamos-legacy-cleanup-contract
NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Jan. 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) announced today that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a notice to proceed into transition for the Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup Contract to Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, LLC (N3B), a joint venture led by SN3, part of HII’s Technical Solutions division, with partner BWXT Technical Services Group, Inc. The 90-day contract transition period begins today and will lead into a base period of five years and option periods of three years and two years, respectively, with a total period of performance of up to 10 years and three months. The total value of the contract is $1.39 billion if all options are exercised.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
UT System critic
http://www.theeagle.com/news/texas/kevin-eltife-joined-the-ut-system-as-an-outspoken-critic/article_0f02a2c5-e7de-5e98-bc3c-7131bb709459.html
Kevin Eltife joined the UT System as an outspoken critic. Now he might reshape it
When former state senator Kevin Eltife was appointed last year to the University of Texas System Board of Regents, he arrived with an attitude shared by many of his old colleagues: skepticism.
Lawmakers had said they were fed up with spending in UT System offices, concentrating their ire on a $215 million land purchase in Houston and a ballooning administrative headcount. Like them, Eltife came in casting a critical eye on system growth and on the ambitious but expensive proposals championed by its leadership.
When the system decided to vie for a contract to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory – an opportunity supporters said was lucrative and prestigious, but was said to cost over $4 million to bid for – Eltife echoed Longoria, another regent, when she said the project was “outside our mission." Even bidding, opponents suggested, would divert resources away from students – especially against the backdrop of declining state funding for higher education and mounting concern about rising tuition costs.
Eltife told the Tribune this month, weeks after the bid was submitted, that his “ultimate concern with pursuing” the contract was that “it was a system-down initiative.”
“Our flagship, UT-Austin, wasn’t really excited about pursuing it,” he said. “Do we want initiatives that are started at the system level and pushed down to institutions, or do we want our institutions to bring us the initiatives they want us to help them with?”
It’s an “area to look at” in the task force’s review, he said. “It’s really a philosophy of what direction you want to go.”
Kevin Eltife joined the UT System as an outspoken critic. Now he might reshape it
When former state senator Kevin Eltife was appointed last year to the University of Texas System Board of Regents, he arrived with an attitude shared by many of his old colleagues: skepticism.
Lawmakers had said they were fed up with spending in UT System offices, concentrating their ire on a $215 million land purchase in Houston and a ballooning administrative headcount. Like them, Eltife came in casting a critical eye on system growth and on the ambitious but expensive proposals championed by its leadership.
When the system decided to vie for a contract to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory – an opportunity supporters said was lucrative and prestigious, but was said to cost over $4 million to bid for – Eltife echoed Longoria, another regent, when she said the project was “outside our mission." Even bidding, opponents suggested, would divert resources away from students – especially against the backdrop of declining state funding for higher education and mounting concern about rising tuition costs.
Eltife told the Tribune this month, weeks after the bid was submitted, that his “ultimate concern with pursuing” the contract was that “it was a system-down initiative.”
“Our flagship, UT-Austin, wasn’t really excited about pursuing it,” he said. “Do we want initiatives that are started at the system level and pushed down to institutions, or do we want our institutions to bring us the initiatives they want us to help them with?”
It’s an “area to look at” in the task force’s review, he said. “It’s really a philosophy of what direction you want to go.”
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The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will have a huge negative effect on the ...
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Physics Today has an article about what went wrong with the LANL/LLNL contract. http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstod...
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Global Security Newswire U.S. Nuclear Weapons Agency to Delay Work on Interoperable Warhead By Global Security Newswire Staff February 18, ...
