LANS future suggestions

After the NNSA news that LANS is out next year, there have been many suggestions here for how to make the situation better for the future. The two most serious ones would appear to be either to federalize the Laboratory or to move it to DoD. There could be a third option, which is to combine LANL and SNL; however, that doesn't seem to be a logical merger.

What are the reasons for or against these two options?

A question for those at LANL

A question for those at LANL. Should the M&O Contract for LANL be split into two different contacts - one for the "national laboratory" work (ie. weapons physics and basic science) and one for direct weapons "production" work (ie, pit and other nuclear component production). This would allow a solely industrial team to bid on the high hazard/risk production work that might benefit from their expertise. Breaking up DOE sites into separate M&O contracts has happened a several huge sites - Oak Ridge for example where Y-12 and ORNL were split apart. 

Have a Los Alamos National Laboratory (not for profit contract) and Los Alamos Production Plant (for profit contract). Operations with different needs and therefore different contracts and different management.

UC Regents to have closed-door meeting

UC Regents to have closed-door meeting on 'future of the LANL contract'

Really very odd that they cite 'security matters' as the excuse for the closed-door meeting. UC, with the strongest open door policy in the US, may find itself having to defend this decision to hold such a meeting not in public.
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jan16/doe-ro.pdf

LANL payments to Wilson

What ever happened to the follow up investigation about the LANL payments to Wilson? The SNL part of the case was settled, but no word yet on the LANL part.

The story of Nancy Madore

Read about her experience with our judicial system. Just like many readers and contributors of this BLOG, she is fighting for justice and accountability!
There is a link to a free copy of the book on the sidebar, Please feel free to comment,

This is what Nancy said about  her book:

This book is my attempt to beat back the corruption I have witnessed in my little corner of the world, by using the ‗power of the pen‘ to hold one judge—and the system he operates within— accountable. I hope my story inspires others to do the same. As Albert Einstein so aptly wrote; ‗The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.‘

SNL contract must be competed before the LANL one

One story making the rounds is that NNSA had determined that the SNL contract must be competed before the LANL one, and the total contract failure at LANL has created problems for both Labs. Some SNL managers are starting to drop hints that the SNL rebid schedule will be revised in order to get LANL under a new operator more quickly.

Maybe Charlie will discuss the rebid calendar in today's all hands meeting.

ORNL counter-intelligence officer charged

http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2016/01/05/ex-ornl-counterintelligence-officer-charged-in-death/

This is no doubt due to the arrogance of scientists at LANL, LLNL and Sandia. Funny how there are no arrogant scientists at ORNL. Can someone explain this to me?