Senators Confirm LANL Contract Will Go Up For Bid, New Mexican, December 19, 2015
Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation confirmed Saturday that the private consortium that operates Los Alamos National Laboratory will not have its contract renewed after it expires on Sept. 30, 2017.
The New Mexican reported in a story published Saturday that the National Nuclear Safety Administration, the arm of the Department of Energy that oversees the lab’s contract, has decided to put the contract worth about $2.2 billion annually up for competitive bidding. The decision follows a series of federal investigations and performance evaluations involving the lab’s safety record before and after a drum from the lab burst and leaked radiation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in February 2014 near Carlsbad, shutting down the nation’s only underground nuclear repository indefinitely.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/senators-confirm-lanl-contract-will-go-up-for-bid/article_349ea81e-b3b7-5b14-8dbd-e64c4bc66f7e.html
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Saturday, December 19, 2015
LANL contract term losses
Covers much of the LANL contract term losses
http://www.abqjournal.com/693548/news/poor-performance-at-lanl-means-contract-up-for-bid-post2017.html
http://www.abqjournal.com/693548/news/poor-performance-at-lanl-means-contract-up-for-bid-post2017.html
Is this the end of for-profit LLCs for DOE?
- Is it time for DOE to remove these LANS and LLNS for-profit LLCs and revert to a University non-profit model?
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Anonymous said...
- Nuclear weapons should not be a for-profit endeavor.
-
Anonymous said...
- Federalize LLNL and LANL.
Who will be the new LANL Director?
Since the lowest score in the evaluation was for leadership, who will be brought in from outside LANL to replace Charlie?
-
Anonymous said...
- Ed Moses?
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Anonymous said...
- How about Charlie Verdon? You guys need another LLNL guy.
-
Anonymous said...
- Verdon, Dunning, Pinkington.
-
Anonymous said...
- Verdon, Dunning, Pinkington.
Just more Livermore losers. We are so tired of hearing "at Livermore, at Livermore,..." at Los Alamos.
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Anonymous said...
- Where is Norm Pattiz in this fiasco at LANS? He is the principal
reason that the LLCs have failed. It's absolutely unbelievable this
loser has endured all the failures of the Labs during the last 9-years.
Where is he? On his $20M yacht, at a Lakers game sitting on in the front
row, in his Beverly Hills mansion sitting at the fire in his silk
pajamas with a gold brick necklace smoking Cuban cigars sipping Cognac.
He doesn't care about the Labs! He's never showed at LANL, he can't fly
his jet into Los Alamos, it too large for the runway.
Hello Charlie!
Results are out and Charlie will go down as the only Director to never earn a contract extension.
Sad, so very sad.
Sad, so very sad.
- COMMENTS:
-
Anonymous said...
As Charlie said the score was very disappointing to LANS. This whole private contractor thing has been a complete disaster. If you have any doubt just remember when LANS rolled out the "lab" purpose, misguided, inane, inappropriate and a waste of time. Well they sure have dropped that like a rock. LANS needs to go and the sooner the better.
-
Anonymous said...
- An end date for Bechtel!
-
Anonymous said...
- Goodbye you corporate turds. Don't let the door hit you on the ass.
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Anonymous said...
Does this mean they will stop cycling through Bechtel cronies that are incompetent stay parked for three years at a huge salary
do nothing, look down on the technical staff, and move on to their next assignments. Don't they also get their lifelong benefits transferred to LANL?
-
Anonymous said...
- The end date being?
-
Anonymous said...
- yes parent company employees get their Bechtel service credit counted as Years of service at LANL. Higher ranking ones (and not just parent co.) are being granted vacation accrual rates at the pre-1992 or so rate as part of hire package (Director has the right to over-ride the vacation policy for whoever he wants). So much for that ethical rant Charlie was on for a few weeks.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Contractor scores starting to come out
- Y-12 and Pantex
got 57% and had a very good year, when compared to LANL, last year. Does
this indicate that LANL is in for another year of sub 10% score from
NNSA?
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2015/12/15/cns-gets-disappointing-performance-score-of-57/
-
COMMENTS:
The talk in the halls at LANL is that LANS got 46% but the site office moved it up to 56% so that LANS could get an extension. Odd that the site office is now under scrutiny from the IG about doing a bad job. Still a disappointing year for LANS again. Not sure how they could justify bringing up the score to 56%, maybe this is way we still have no official word on the score. In any case an extension gives LANS another year to really mess things up more than they already have.
-
- 46%, 56% still an F.
-
- --Y-12 and Pantex got 57% and had a very good year, when compared to LANL, last year.
So you must be unfamiliar with CNS ? "very good year" LOL
- .
- DOE/NNSA grades on the curve.
- So you must be unfamiliar with CNS ? "very good year" LOL
It was said that CNS was very disappointed with the score. By the way this was another
Bechtel run mess. Seems like Bechtel just f*ks up everything they do. Why the hell are they in charge of LLNL and LANL? I guess they must really pay off...I mean lobby congress. What a utter complete pathetic disgrace this has become.
In any case LANS is now a dead man walking, this should make LLNLS a bit nervous as history has shown what is done to LANL is done to LLNL.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Latest fallout from LANL
http://www.lamonitor.com/content/audit-points-weaknesses-lanl-oversight
By Associated Press
Friday, December 11, 2015 at 9:17 am (Updated: December 11, 9:18 am)
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Investigators are raising flags about weaknesses in the way federal officials keep track of deficiencies, concerns from employees and contractors and other problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The findings of the U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general were outlined in an audit released Thursday.
Investigators say the National Nuclear Security Administration's office that oversees operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory failed to put in place an effective management program that includes the tracking of actions taken to fix problems at the lab.
As a result, the auditors wrote, the risk increases that the field office "may not be identifying and resolving environment, safety and health issues in an effective and timely manner."
Critics say the findings are serious since the administration's field office serves as the primary check on the lab's safety and operational integrity.
"Several (Los Alamos lab) facilities operate with continuing safety violations of one kind or another that never seem get corrected if it is inconvenient — or expensive — to do so. These findings help explain why," said Greg Mello, director of the Los Alamos Study Group, an anti-nuclear watchdog group.
The lab has been docked in recent years for numerous operational and safety problems, including violations of its state permit for mishandling waste that ultimately caused a radiation release and shut down the federal government's only underground nuclear waste repository.
Administration officials on Thursday said they agree with the recommendations outlined in the audit, and plan to make improvements and to enforce existing requirements and corrective action procedures.
Field office spokeswoman Toni Chiri said the office also is a part of the NNSA's overall efforts to enhance governance and oversight activities across the complex.
According to the audit, the field office failed to log issues that had been identified in assessments into its corrective action tracking system. And nearly three-fifths of those issues that were entered included incomplete, inaccurate or invalid closure data.
Auditors also pointed to inconsistencies in documenting cases.
As for the corrective action process, one goal is to prevent problems from recurring. While the field office had implemented such a system, auditors found that it wasn't consistently used.
The findings also pointed to incomplete files when it came to documenting employee concerns but noted that record keeping seemed to improve in 2013 and 2014.
In one case, weaknesses related to fire safety in the field office building were documented but the record was closed before corrective action was completed. Auditors said that could have compromised worker safety.
By Associated Press
Friday, December 11, 2015 at 9:17 am (Updated: December 11, 9:18 am)
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Investigators are raising flags about weaknesses in the way federal officials keep track of deficiencies, concerns from employees and contractors and other problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The findings of the U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general were outlined in an audit released Thursday.
Investigators say the National Nuclear Security Administration's office that oversees operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory failed to put in place an effective management program that includes the tracking of actions taken to fix problems at the lab.
As a result, the auditors wrote, the risk increases that the field office "may not be identifying and resolving environment, safety and health issues in an effective and timely manner."
Critics say the findings are serious since the administration's field office serves as the primary check on the lab's safety and operational integrity.
"Several (Los Alamos lab) facilities operate with continuing safety violations of one kind or another that never seem get corrected if it is inconvenient — or expensive — to do so. These findings help explain why," said Greg Mello, director of the Los Alamos Study Group, an anti-nuclear watchdog group.
The lab has been docked in recent years for numerous operational and safety problems, including violations of its state permit for mishandling waste that ultimately caused a radiation release and shut down the federal government's only underground nuclear waste repository.
Administration officials on Thursday said they agree with the recommendations outlined in the audit, and plan to make improvements and to enforce existing requirements and corrective action procedures.
Field office spokeswoman Toni Chiri said the office also is a part of the NNSA's overall efforts to enhance governance and oversight activities across the complex.
According to the audit, the field office failed to log issues that had been identified in assessments into its corrective action tracking system. And nearly three-fifths of those issues that were entered included incomplete, inaccurate or invalid closure data.
Auditors also pointed to inconsistencies in documenting cases.
As for the corrective action process, one goal is to prevent problems from recurring. While the field office had implemented such a system, auditors found that it wasn't consistently used.
The findings also pointed to incomplete files when it came to documenting employee concerns but noted that record keeping seemed to improve in 2013 and 2014.
In one case, weaknesses related to fire safety in the field office building were documented but the record was closed before corrective action was completed. Auditors said that could have compromised worker safety.
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