NIF

1. What's new with the high foot NIF campaign? I haven't seen any new press releases. I assume they have tried some things (thinner capsule walls, new holoraum design, etc.) and the yield hasn't increased? Maybe they're preparing for another press conference?

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2. 
   AnonymousJune 6, 2014 at 2:47 PM

cola question

what is the cola for TCP1 pensioners that is planned for July  ? 

Anonymous said...

Question is. Have there been any cola's for TCP1 since 2008 ? There have been each year for UC TCP2.

June 6, 2014 at 12:18 PM 

Anonymous said...

Question is. Have there been any cola's for TCP1 since 2008 ? There have been each year for UC TCP2.

June 6, 2014 at 12:18 PM

There is no such thing as "UC TCP2." TCP1 and TCP2, respectively, are the defined-benefit pension and defined-contribution 401k plans for LANS/LLNS. They have nothing to do with UC, and vice versa. Perhaps you meant the UCRP pension plan, for which there have indeen been COLAs every year since the contract transition.

Future of LLNL

What are the key steps to improve efficiency of operations and morale at LLNL and do they include or exclude a future with LLNS management?

IG investigation of. ADSS

“What are people hearing about the IG investigation of ADSS (security) at LANL ?

Interesting issues at LLNL continue. The attachment identifies LLNL management position on Run To Failure of equipment. If I took this Run To Failure tact toward equipment such as my vehicle then that would be a dangerous and more costly outcome.

joe2cool
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9eIrcyRIQxyUXdrYmZqeEd3STg/edit?usp=sharing

UPF at Y-12 is Officially Dead

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'Red Team' Proposals to Guide Warhead Plant's Overhaul
June 5, 2014
Global Security Newswire

The U.S. government has decided to go with an alternative plan for updating uranium-processing activities at one of its key nuclear weapon facilities.

Frank Klotz, who heads the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Knoxville News Sentinel on Wednesday that the agency intends to use a strategy recently developed by an independent "Red Team" as a starting point for how to rethink efforts to modernize uranium-processing work at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.

The previous strategy to construct a massive Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 fell into disfavor after the projected cost of the project rose from more than $1.1 billion to more than six times that amount by one estimate, and to nearly $19 billion by another estimate. The alternative approach put together by the Red Team proposes splitting up the work that would have been done by the new UPF complex into existing buildings and into a few smaller buildings that would need to be built. The plan envisions spending no more than $6.5 billion.

"I think there's almost nothing in that report that we disagree with," Klotz said in an interview.

The NNSA head said a "working group" is drafting a more specific plan for turning the recommendations of the Red Team into action orders that would "actually put in numbers, schedule, dates, [and] ferret out the contractual issues that have to be dealt with," Klotz said.

"That's on a pretty fast pace. I can't give you a prediction on when we'll have finished that process. But it's one of some urgency," he said.

Among its recommendations, the Red Team plan advises that new uranium-processing techniques be utilized that require a smaller amount of space. Another proposal is to potentially lower the quantity of scrap enriched uranium that is recycled through an expensive chemical process to obtain a comparatively small amount of reusable material.

http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/nuclear-agency-approves-alternative-strategy-uranium-processing-work-y-12/

Abolish the Matrix!

Don't you think it is time to get rid of the matrix at the Lab? My administrative matrix organization provides no value at all. We have no representation and I never see my matrix supervisor. For that matter I never see my Division leader either. As far as I am concerned I am better appreciated by my program than my home organization. My value never gets communicated or is even valued by my matrix organization. Anybody out there have the same experience? Oh, by the way, I am in Computation.