Which Davis?

Jay Davis said:

I noticed an August 2nd entry that needs correction on the record.  I did many things for the Lab in my 31 years there, RTNS-II, CAMS, heading the Woodruff Grievance Panel, and service in Iraq and at DTRA. However, I had nothing to do with the departure of Moses and his coterie fifteen years go.  If that was done by a Davis, it must have been Jim Davis, who had been their supervisor for over a decade and who presumably had the information and leverage to make that possible.  I did work with that group for 17 months on AVLIS in the 82'-84' period and found it a searing and shattering experience, both personally and professionally -- and I am not a delicate flower.  I fortunately have never experienced such personalities or behaviors since.  Unlike many, I was able to rehabilitate myself within the Laboratory, for which I am eternally grateful to John Nuckolls.  As CAMS was the result, I suppose it came out all right in the end.  CAMS is today and may well remain the Lab's most productive and valuable user facility.

There are erie parallels between NIF and AVLIS.  Both demonstrate supberb engineering design and execution, negligible cost control or strategic management of resources, and inadequate physics to accomplish the intended mission.  If it turns out that the fiscal and intellectual resources squandered on the laughable pursuit of LIFE could have provided the diagnostic set required for a mature and informed ignition campaign, the Laboratory and its overseers will have to answer some very hard questions in the difficult months ahead.

Lots of explaining

Secretary Chu's departing note was certainly worthy of the great line from Amadeus, "Too Many Notes."   It was exceptional in the failure to mention national security, NNSA, weapons, arms control, terrorism, intelligence, or nuclear forensics.  one guesses that he failed to visit those offices in four years as he played VC with taxpayer funds.

Chu leaves town with the the can of Solyndra tied to his tail, perhaps unjustly.  The White House minders may own that one.

However, he has failed to take the hit for far larger offense.  After Fukushima, he did not protest the White House action that locked up all the data and projections available from NARAC at LLNL.  In consequence, both the Japanese government and the American public were denied informatkon that would have been operationally useful to the Japanese and publicly reassuring to our citizens.  In no previous major radiological incident, Chernobyl or the Japanese fuel fab criticality accident of the late 90s, has such censorship been seen.  That the bill-paying the Congress did not notice this event is astonishing.  The US nuclear power industry was so upset and offended at this lack of public support that they ramped up their own monitoring and made plots of incomoimg radiation levels over the US available.  Perhaps there will be time to look into this when a successor is nominated -- and to call Chu back to explain.

NNSA Head computer account hacked!

NNSA Head computer account hacked!

From The Smoking Gun:

The Obama administration official who heads the agency responsible for maintaining the country’s nuclear stockpile as well as securing “loose nukes” worldwide is the latest victim of “Guccifer.”

Neile Miller, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently had her Facebook account breached by the notorious hacker, who also apparently illegally accessed one of Miller’s personal e-mail accounts.

In 2010, Obama nominated Miller, 55, for the principal deputy administrator’s post at NNSA (she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August 2010). Following the departure of the agency’s administrator in January, Miller stepped up into the post of acting administrator.

Miller, who has top secret security clearances, runs an agency with a broad portfolio of nuclear-related responsibilities, including managing and securing the nation’s nuclear weapons and keeping weapons of mass destruction “out of the hands of state and non-state actors.” The NNSA has a $12 billion annual budget, 2500 employees, and 35,000 other contract workers.

Based on screen grabs sent to TSG by “Guccifer,” it does not appear that the hacker accessed any confidential or sensitive material from Miller’s accounts. Though the online outlaw did make sure to swipe photos of Miller with Obama at a White House meeting last year and--as seen above--a shot of her posing at the president’s right shoulder in the Oval Office. The hacker added the oval “Guccifer” logo to the photo.

Through an NNSA spokesperson, Miller--who last month announced that she was leaving her government post effective June 14--declined to comment beyond noting that “these were personal accounts and no classified information was accessed.”

While it is unclear how Miller was hacked, she was likely an attractive target for “Guccifer” due to her governmental position. The hacker has recently broken into the personal e-mail account of the Obama administration official who heads the National Intelligence Council and the appointee who runs the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Several months into an online strafing campaign, “Guccifer” appears unconcerned about the law enforcement effort to capture him/her/them. “My end is far,” the hacker noted in an e-mail “Remember this is another chapter of the game.”

Pentagon Could Be Best Place For NNSA Autonomy

Weapons Complex Monitor
June 12, 2013
Kyl Suggests Pentagon Could Be Best Place For NNSA Autonomy

Former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, who retired from the Senate earlier this year, suggested yesterday that the National Nuclear Security Administration needs more autonomy to better do its job, and he argued that freedom could come by shifting NNSA under the Pentagon. Before he left the Senate, Kyl helped author legislation that created a 12-member NNSA governance panel that will make recommendations about the future of the agency, and after a speech at the Capitol Hill Club yesterday, Kyl said he believed it would be better if the NNSA could regain the autonomy that lawmakers initially intended for the agency when it was created more than a decade ago, but he said he doubted that could happen. “If you could get the leadership of DOE or the Administration straightened out as to the original intent, which was to have a truly independent entity, theoretically it could still work in DOE, but absent that I think it would be better probably as a part of DoD,” Kyl told NW&M Monitor.

During a question-and-answer session after his speech, Kyl also emphasized that the panel would have to wrestle with the appropriate place in Congress for oversight of the agency as well. “Over the last dozen or so years the problems with this setup as well as the problems within both the House and Senate appropriations committees have just decimated the program,” Kyl said. “When one chairman of the appropriations committee, who has some conflicts of interest because they’ve got some water projects to fund, can make the difference here, something is clearly wrong,” Kyl said.

LANL subject to another IG report

LANL subject to another IG report


INSPECTION REPORT: DOE/IG-0889

June 7, 2013

Concerns with Consulting Contract Administration at Various Department Sites

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) requested that we conduct a review to determine whether a consulting agreement awarded to Heather Wilson and Company, LLC (HWC), by Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos) was appropriately administered and managed. Specifically, we were asked to determine whether: (1) work products (deliverables) were produced in return for monthly payments to HWC of $10,000; (2) invoices included itemized charges, as required by the agreement; (3) there was overlap between the services provided and work products produced by HWC on consulting agreements awarded by Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Nevada National Security Site; and (4) an NNSA Contracting Officer was subjected to "pressure" when Los Alamos National Security, LLC, the Management and Operating contractor for Los Alamos, requested authorization to enter into an agreement with HWC.

Our inspection identified serious concerns with the administration and management of agreements with HWC for advice and consultation provided to senior managers at four Department contractor-operated sites. Specifically, our testing revealed that the four facility contractors paid approximately $450,000 to HWC even though they did not receive evidence that work performed under the agreements had been completed. These payments were fully reimbursed by the Government.

The issues identified in this report occurred because contractor officials responsible for crafting and administering the consulting agreements either did not incorporate, or failed to enforce, the requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation into the agreements with HWC. Management generally agreed with our findings and recommendations and indicated it was in the process of implementing or completing corrective actions. Management indicated that the Department has already recovered $442,877 from its contractors of the approximately $464,203 paid to HWC, and is reviewing the allowability of the additional amounts.

Saving the ozone layer

We have a couple of great new posts: Kennette Benedict reviews the pro-nuclear power documentary "Pandora's Promise," pointing out the problem of "solutionism" presented in the film; Donald Wuebbles explains the science of why an agreement to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) might really help slow climate change. I hope you find them of interest.

Best,

Janice

Pandora's False Promise: http://thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/kennette-benedict/pandoras-false-promise

Saving the Ozone Layer and the Climate: http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/features/saving-the-ozone-layer-and-the-climate

--

Janice Sinclaire

Internet Outreach Coordinator

Status on furloughs?

With the "success" of the SSVSP has anybody heard the status of furloughs or changes to the AWS program?

  

  Anonymous responded:.

Furloughs are coming, AWS is not going to happen and 7% contribution are on.