From anonymous
Scooby: Can you post the following from LANL’s blog on 3/19 (http://lanl-the-rest-of-the-story.blogspot.com/) as a top level post?
There is a lot of relevance for us here at LLNL. Now I see that one of the performance measures is how fast they can kick us out of lab space and building. Each consolidation means less equipment and experimental apparatus. (capabilities) This translates as fewer proposals and therefore, less money coming into the Lab, but it is not about us is it? It is all about what the Bechtelians can squeeze out of the Lab and the taxpayer.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
New LANL Contractor Earns $58 Million Fee
By Raam Wong, Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer
Federal officials have determined that the contractor that now runs Los Alamos National Laboratory should be awarded a $58 million fee for its first year on the job.
The total includes a fixed $22 million management fee as well as a $36 million performance fee for meeting most— but not all— of its objectives for fiscal year 2007.
The lab manager, Los Alamos National Security, was eligible for more than $51 million in performance fees if it met all of the objectives in its contract for the fiscal year that spanned from October 2006 through September 2007.
The payouts were described in a 2007 Performance Evaluation Report. The National Nuclear Security Administration's report is the first such evaluation of the contractor since it took over in 2006.
"LANS has made some inroads to improve laboratory operations during FY07, while maintaining outstanding performance in NNSA's core mission areas," states the report, obtained by the Journal on Tuesday following a Freedom of Information Act request.
The U.S. Department of Energy responded to several embarrassing security and fiscal problems at the lab by announcing in 2003 that LANL's management contract would be up for bid.
LANS, a consortium of industrial and academic partners, won the contract and took over lab management in June 2006.
The contract awards LANS for meeting 170 milestones in 13 different areas, ranging from weapons programs to safety and health.
LANS received the highest marks and the biggest fees in the areas of weapons program execution, weapons quality assurance, threat reduction and support of operations across the nuclear weapons complex.
Among the places where LANS fell short was in the accurate reporting of injury rates. The report states that an NNSA audit found misclassification of injury cases, resulting in the under-reporting of certain injury rates. Overall, though, the report found safety and health improvements at the lab and a drop in injuries.
In another area, LANS' own self-assessment stated that it had successfully reduced the lab's facilities by 400,000 square feet. But NNSA officials had "serious questions about the validity" of that claim after they toured one of those facilities, an administration building, that accounted for about half of the closed square footage.
Additionally, the report found that in vacating some of the facilities the lab had abandoned some valuable equipment, such as telephones and a vertical drill press, and items with "potential security issues," such as diskettes and crypto cards.
Personnel was another concern. The report states that LANS brought in an "impressive set of players," who for the most part "aggressively set about integrating the laboratory and setting in motion culture change in security, safety, and business."
But only six months after the change in management, deputy director John Mitchell retired with only one month's notice, while "one of the key personnel individually led to the degradation of an already fragile relationship with state regulators."
LANS had a rocky start with state regulators. Andy Phelps, the former associate director for environmental programs, butted heads with the state Environment Department, while the agency repeatedly fined the lab for violations of a cleanup agreement.
"Building a solid working relationship with the regulators needs continued focused attention," the report states
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The UC and Labs Relations
UC regents open discussion on laboratories
By ROGER SNODGRASS, Monitor Editor
Meeting in San Francisco Wednesday, the University of California Board of Regents heard disagreements about the university’s role in the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
Criticism came this time not only from students, who are often vocal during regents’ meetings, but also from California Lt.-Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat and an ex officio member of the board, who said he was “deeply disturbed” by what he heard.
An audio webcast of an open session of the Committee on Oversight of the Department of Energy laboratories began with a complaint by the board’s faculty representative, Michael Brown.
Also the chair of the Academic Senate and an advisory member of the laboratory oversight committee, Brown said the faculty was concerned about the federal government’s plan currently under discussion to increase pit manufacturing from 50 to 80 nuclear triggers a year at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and that the university was locked into a long-term contract with the DOE from which it could not escape.
Later, in the brief segment of the three-day meeting, the regents heard a report led by Norm Pattiz, the new chairman of the board of the limited liability corporations that own Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Pattiz is the chairman and founder of Westwood One, the largest radio network in the country.
He reported that the National Nuclear Security administration was pleased at the “proactive approach of the lab and their communication network” during recent public hearings in New Mexico on the transformation of the nuclear weapons complex. He also passed along compliments from meetings in Washington that “our two lab directors are extremely highly regarded.”
During Pattiz’ report, Garamendi was recognized. Posing a series of 20 or more probing question, Garamendi began by wanting to know who was actually in charge of the partnerships that run the weapons labs.
Pattiz said that the governing boards, one for each lab, were composed of six members, three from the university and one each from the three principal industrial partners.
“In a tie-breaking situation,” he said, the university’s chairmanship, “gives us the ability to prevail.”
So, when there is bad press about lapses of security, Garamendi concluded, “the university will be splattered by the mud, because we are in charge.”
During the ensuing discussion, UC Vice President Robert Foley affirmed that the contract was binding on the university.
“We knew going in that we had given up the right to unilaterally withdraw from the contract,” Foley said.
While the contract might be extended for as many as 20 years or as few as seven, he added, “The university does not have a guaranteed right to withdraw during that time.”
"Garamendi also established from an answer to his questions that certain top managers of the weapons laboratories were employed by the limited liability corporations, but that UC paid their compensation.
Meanwhile, a student group protested a number of university issues during the meeting, including the university’s involvement in making parts for nuclear weapons, according to news reports today.
Pattiz promised to schedule a full discussion on issues related to the laboratories “at the appropriate time.”
By ROGER SNODGRASS, Monitor Editor
Meeting in San Francisco Wednesday, the University of California Board of Regents heard disagreements about the university’s role in the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
Criticism came this time not only from students, who are often vocal during regents’ meetings, but also from California Lt.-Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat and an ex officio member of the board, who said he was “deeply disturbed” by what he heard.
An audio webcast of an open session of the Committee on Oversight of the Department of Energy laboratories began with a complaint by the board’s faculty representative, Michael Brown.
Also the chair of the Academic Senate and an advisory member of the laboratory oversight committee, Brown said the faculty was concerned about the federal government’s plan currently under discussion to increase pit manufacturing from 50 to 80 nuclear triggers a year at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and that the university was locked into a long-term contract with the DOE from which it could not escape.
Later, in the brief segment of the three-day meeting, the regents heard a report led by Norm Pattiz, the new chairman of the board of the limited liability corporations that own Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Pattiz is the chairman and founder of Westwood One, the largest radio network in the country.
He reported that the National Nuclear Security administration was pleased at the “proactive approach of the lab and their communication network” during recent public hearings in New Mexico on the transformation of the nuclear weapons complex. He also passed along compliments from meetings in Washington that “our two lab directors are extremely highly regarded.”
During Pattiz’ report, Garamendi was recognized. Posing a series of 20 or more probing question, Garamendi began by wanting to know who was actually in charge of the partnerships that run the weapons labs.
Pattiz said that the governing boards, one for each lab, were composed of six members, three from the university and one each from the three principal industrial partners.
“In a tie-breaking situation,” he said, the university’s chairmanship, “gives us the ability to prevail.”
So, when there is bad press about lapses of security, Garamendi concluded, “the university will be splattered by the mud, because we are in charge.”
During the ensuing discussion, UC Vice President Robert Foley affirmed that the contract was binding on the university.
“We knew going in that we had given up the right to unilaterally withdraw from the contract,” Foley said.
While the contract might be extended for as many as 20 years or as few as seven, he added, “The university does not have a guaranteed right to withdraw during that time.”
"Garamendi also established from an answer to his questions that certain top managers of the weapons laboratories were employed by the limited liability corporations, but that UC paid their compensation.
Meanwhile, a student group protested a number of university issues during the meeting, including the university’s involvement in making parts for nuclear weapons, according to news reports today.
Pattiz promised to schedule a full discussion on issues related to the laboratories “at the appropriate time.”
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Watchdog Group Wants Pu Out of LLNL in 2009
Lab hearings set for today Watchdog group wants plutonium out of Livermore facility by next year
By Betsy Mason, STAFF WRITER
Article Created: 03/18/2008 02:34:18 AM PDT
With public hearings on the future of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory set for today and Wednesday in Tracy and Livermore, a government watchdog group has released a report calling for plutonium to be removed from the lab by next year.
The Department of Energy already is planning to move all but a small amount of plutonium and other weapons-grade nuclear materials from Livermore to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by 2012 as part of its plan to shrink and revamp the entire nuclear weapons complex.
"We want to reduce the amount of special nuclear materials in the Livermore valley drastically," the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration Director Thomas D'Agostino said. "You don't have a community growing up around Los Alamos."
But the Project on Government Oversightclaims in their report that the timetable safely can be moved up three years, which would save $160million in security costs.
The group also contends that the NNSA gave Livermore Lab a waiver on the most recent update to its security guidelines for protection against terrorist threats, which is particularly dangerous because of the lab's proximity to homes, businesses and schools.
"This is clearly, by far, the most significant homeland security vulnerability posed by the nuclear weapons complex in the United States," said Danielle Bryan, executive director of POGO, in a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
POGO investigator Peter Stockton said the waiver means that the lab is only protected against half of the potential adversaries currently identified by the intelligence community as threats to the nuclear weapons complex.
D'Agostino counters that no such waiver was given but that it doesn't make sense to spend scarce funds on permanent security upgrades for materials that will be gone in four years.
"I'd rather spend the money moving it responsibly," he said, which is something that cannot be done before 2012.
The reason for this, he said, is a combination of ongoing research on plutonium at the lab and the need to make the move as safely as possible.
"This is not stuff you just throw in a truck and drive off," he said. "You have to do it in a methodical, appropriate and safe way."
Two shipments have already been made to move some of Livermore's plutonium to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and Los Alamos.
In the meantime, D'Agostino said, "It is properly protected at the lab. Livermore does a very good job on its security force."
Moving nuclear materials out of some sites is part of the NNSA's larger plan to update, consolidate and streamline nuclear weapons work at eight sites across the country, including both Livermore and Sandia/California laboratories.
The U.S. has been reducing the nuclear weapons stockpile in recent years, and it will soon be just a quarter of its peak size at the end of the Cold War. Part of the motivation for the consolidation of the weapons complex is that a smaller stockpile will require a smaller infrastructure to support it.
There are four potential plans, but under the NNSA's preferred option, Livermore Lab would lose some of its nuclear weapons work along with its plutonium, eventually maintaining 30 percent fewer buildings and employing 20 percent fewer people in that area.
The NNSA also hopes to stop DOE-sponsored explosives testing at Site 300 near Tracy, though testing could still go on for other agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security. Other changes would include shutting down two testing facilities, at Site 300 and at the Plutonium Facility, that simulate environmental conditions the stockpile is likely to experience to ensure the weapons will last.
Despite the changes, the lab will remain a vital part of the DOE's national security mission. "The lab's role is changing to reflect the future," D'Agostino said.
Livermore will continue to operate the National Ignition Facility, a multibillion-dollar laser facility, and it is home to several of the fastest computers in the world, which make it the leading center for supercomputing and nuclear weapons simulation.
It will still have materials scientists, code workers and other scientists and engineers supporting the nuclear weapons work. And it will play an integral part in counterterrorism work and supporting the intelligence community with capabilities such as nuclear detection.
"We're trying to make sure the high-tech work the lab is doing is sustainable," D'Agostino said.
"I want to make sure that endures well into the future."
Public meetings will be held on the NNSA's plans for the weapons complex tonight in Tracy and tomorrow morning and evening in Livermore. There will be informational posters, a slide presentation and a public comment session. Comments can also be submitted online, by mail or by fax anytime during the 90-day comment period which ends April 10.
"I very much want the public's input on this," D'Agostino said. "I'm interested in hearing from the people in the community about how they feel about this."
Betsy Mason covers science and the national laboratories. Reach her at 925-952-5026 or bmason@bayareanewsgroup.com
By Betsy Mason, STAFF WRITER
Article Created: 03/18/2008 02:34:18 AM PDT
With public hearings on the future of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory set for today and Wednesday in Tracy and Livermore, a government watchdog group has released a report calling for plutonium to be removed from the lab by next year.
The Department of Energy already is planning to move all but a small amount of plutonium and other weapons-grade nuclear materials from Livermore to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by 2012 as part of its plan to shrink and revamp the entire nuclear weapons complex.
"We want to reduce the amount of special nuclear materials in the Livermore valley drastically," the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration Director Thomas D'Agostino said. "You don't have a community growing up around Los Alamos."
But the Project on Government Oversightclaims in their report that the timetable safely can be moved up three years, which would save $160million in security costs.
The group also contends that the NNSA gave Livermore Lab a waiver on the most recent update to its security guidelines for protection against terrorist threats, which is particularly dangerous because of the lab's proximity to homes, businesses and schools.
"This is clearly, by far, the most significant homeland security vulnerability posed by the nuclear weapons complex in the United States," said Danielle Bryan, executive director of POGO, in a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
POGO investigator Peter Stockton said the waiver means that the lab is only protected against half of the potential adversaries currently identified by the intelligence community as threats to the nuclear weapons complex.
D'Agostino counters that no such waiver was given but that it doesn't make sense to spend scarce funds on permanent security upgrades for materials that will be gone in four years.
"I'd rather spend the money moving it responsibly," he said, which is something that cannot be done before 2012.
The reason for this, he said, is a combination of ongoing research on plutonium at the lab and the need to make the move as safely as possible.
"This is not stuff you just throw in a truck and drive off," he said. "You have to do it in a methodical, appropriate and safe way."
Two shipments have already been made to move some of Livermore's plutonium to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and Los Alamos.
In the meantime, D'Agostino said, "It is properly protected at the lab. Livermore does a very good job on its security force."
Moving nuclear materials out of some sites is part of the NNSA's larger plan to update, consolidate and streamline nuclear weapons work at eight sites across the country, including both Livermore and Sandia/California laboratories.
The U.S. has been reducing the nuclear weapons stockpile in recent years, and it will soon be just a quarter of its peak size at the end of the Cold War. Part of the motivation for the consolidation of the weapons complex is that a smaller stockpile will require a smaller infrastructure to support it.
There are four potential plans, but under the NNSA's preferred option, Livermore Lab would lose some of its nuclear weapons work along with its plutonium, eventually maintaining 30 percent fewer buildings and employing 20 percent fewer people in that area.
The NNSA also hopes to stop DOE-sponsored explosives testing at Site 300 near Tracy, though testing could still go on for other agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security. Other changes would include shutting down two testing facilities, at Site 300 and at the Plutonium Facility, that simulate environmental conditions the stockpile is likely to experience to ensure the weapons will last.
Despite the changes, the lab will remain a vital part of the DOE's national security mission. "The lab's role is changing to reflect the future," D'Agostino said.
Livermore will continue to operate the National Ignition Facility, a multibillion-dollar laser facility, and it is home to several of the fastest computers in the world, which make it the leading center for supercomputing and nuclear weapons simulation.
It will still have materials scientists, code workers and other scientists and engineers supporting the nuclear weapons work. And it will play an integral part in counterterrorism work and supporting the intelligence community with capabilities such as nuclear detection.
"We're trying to make sure the high-tech work the lab is doing is sustainable," D'Agostino said.
"I want to make sure that endures well into the future."
Public meetings will be held on the NNSA's plans for the weapons complex tonight in Tracy and tomorrow morning and evening in Livermore. There will be informational posters, a slide presentation and a public comment session. Comments can also be submitted online, by mail or by fax anytime during the 90-day comment period which ends April 10.
"I very much want the public's input on this," D'Agostino said. "I'm interested in hearing from the people in the community about how they feel about this."
Betsy Mason covers science and the national laboratories. Reach her at 925-952-5026 or bmason@bayareanewsgroup.com
Monday, March 17, 2008
TCP-1'r In Good Hands, Maybe !
Lawrence Livermore National Security's Benefits and Investment Committee (BIC) has selected a trustee and investment manager to help administer the LLNS Defined Benefit Pension Plan.
Since it was formed this summer, the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) has established operating and investment policies for the plan and selected BNY Mellon as the trustee and Watson Wyatt as the investment adviser.
The BIC is made up of various members of the Laboratory and LLNS partner companies.The BNY Mellon is a leading asset management and securities services company that has more than $20 trillion in assets under custody or administration and more than $1 trillion under management.
Watson Wyatt is a global consulting firm focused on human capital and financial management and serves the world’s largest pension plans.
The BIC has been developing the plan document and performing actuarial analysis in coordination with the University of California and NNSA/ DOE to determine the amount of assets and liabilities to be transferred from UC to the LLNS plan (more than $1.7 billion).
The plan document will be completed by the end of the year; the transfer from UCRP is scheduled for April 1, 2008.
During January, the BIC will select investment managers so they will be in place when UC transfers assets to the LLNS plan for TCP1 participants.
The transferred assets will be invested in diversified asset classes to reduce volatility of total investment results.
The BIC will select 8-10 investment managers with expertise managing each asset class (e.g. fixed income, domestic large cap growth equities, international value equities, etc.).
The BIC will report the funded status of the LLNS plan periodically.
Since it was formed this summer, the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) has established operating and investment policies for the plan and selected BNY Mellon as the trustee and Watson Wyatt as the investment adviser.
The BIC is made up of various members of the Laboratory and LLNS partner companies.The BNY Mellon is a leading asset management and securities services company that has more than $20 trillion in assets under custody or administration and more than $1 trillion under management.
Watson Wyatt is a global consulting firm focused on human capital and financial management and serves the world’s largest pension plans.
The BIC has been developing the plan document and performing actuarial analysis in coordination with the University of California and NNSA/ DOE to determine the amount of assets and liabilities to be transferred from UC to the LLNS plan (more than $1.7 billion).
The plan document will be completed by the end of the year; the transfer from UCRP is scheduled for April 1, 2008.
During January, the BIC will select investment managers so they will be in place when UC transfers assets to the LLNS plan for TCP1 participants.
The transferred assets will be invested in diversified asset classes to reduce volatility of total investment results.
The BIC will select 8-10 investment managers with expertise managing each asset class (e.g. fixed income, domestic large cap growth equities, international value equities, etc.).
The BIC will report the funded status of the LLNS plan periodically.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
The 100 Day Plan
Taken from an earlier post:"Word on the street is ULM had a off site meeting this weekend to discuss the cutting of another 500 employees and the restructuring of the laboratory. I believe they called it a 100 day plan. You'll probably see entire groups or division collapse into one another along with building consolidation. Also the janitors had a meeting with Russo this week and he told them there would be more cut backs. So all you EBA's get ready to learn how to clean toilets."
I believe the statement was something to the effect of, "we are continually looking for ways to save money and as the buildings go away so will the jobs and with that the people and this doesn't mean only custodians.
Anyone who has more input please post the facts here. If this meeting actually took place the 100 days to termination of 500- 535 more employees coincides with one of ULM's LLNS new-hires that promised or should I say guaranteed they'd have LLNL's man-power dilemma under control by June of 2008. It seems they're a person of their word. I'm assuming Monday is the 100th day and counting. That should put the next 535 employees out the gate between June 25 and June 28th.
So the question is. When is Geroge going to tell the people of LLNL the grand plan, how will people be chosen and how will they be notified. I would hope they'd give these people at least 90 days notice since they need time to find jobs and get their finances in order before departure?
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Complex SPEIS Public Hearing
Morphing The National LabsLLNL- You're Next
Did you get your invitation? Do you think they'll tell the city there's a plan to let 535 more people go shortly, right after DOE's approval; of which I'm sure they'll get without an arguement?
If you haven't been told you may have read your local newspaper and noticed you've been invited to a townhall meeting in Tracy . After the meeting please visit the Complex Transformation website. Please feel free to give any and all comments that you may have by sending them to complextransition@nnsa.doe.gov
Comments can be submitted in writing to: .
Mr. Theodore Wyka at: Complex Transformation SPEIS Document Manager,
Office of Transformation, NA-l0.l, U.S. Department of Energy/NNSA . "
1000 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20585; or
by facsimile to 1-703-931-9222, or bye-mail to:
complextransformation@nnsa.doe.gov
Please mark envelopes and e-mails as "ComplexTransformation SPEIS Comments" More information is available at www.ComplexTransformationSPEIS.com
If you require special assistance at the public hearings, please contact
Mr. Wyka at 1-800-832-0885 (ext. 63519).
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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, ...
