What is going on at LLNL?

Does anyone know what the "special event" was at LLNL this week that shut down the central cafeteria for the week and had a stream of local police, highway patrol, and sheriff cars coming in and out of the Lab the last two days?

The LANL cultural problem is starting to seep to other agencies!

Meanwhile, "Hundreds of badges, credentials, cell phones and guns belonging to the Department of Homeland Security employees have been lost or stolen in recent years -- raising serious security concerns about the potential damage these missing items could do in the wrong hands. 

Inventory reports, obtained by the news site Complete Colorado show that over 1,300 badges, 165 firearms and 589 cell phones were lost or stolen over the span of 31 months between 2012 and 2015."

Looks like they need to send this guy to clean up LANL

Looks like they need to send this guy to clean up LANL! Well at least he should be put into NNSA. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/

For more than two years, the Navy’s intelligence chief has been stuck with a major handicap: He’s not allowed to know any secrets.

Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch has been barred from reading, seeing or hearing classified information since November 2013, when the Navy learned from the Justice Department that his name had surfaced in a giant corruption investigation involving a foreign defense contractor and scores of Navy personnel.

Worried that Branch was on the verge of being indicted, Navy leaders suspended his access to classified materials. They did the same to one of his deputies, Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, the Navy’s director of intelligence operations.

More than 800 days later, neither Branch nor Loveless has been charged. But neither has been cleared, either. Their access to classified information remains blocked.

Sandia in the news!

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/judicial/267249-congress-should-probe-energys-national-laboratory

Rise in plutonium production points to more work at Pantex

AMARILLO GLOBE-NEWS
January 25, 2016 

AMARILLO — A nuclear safety agency has reported the federal Department of Energy recently approved plans to ramp up production of plutonium “pits,” the core that that triggers nuclear weapons, at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which could lead to more warhead refurbishment work at the Pantex Plant northeast of Amarillo.

The plans include a big increase in plutonium capacity at an existing facility at Los Alamos and new laboratory space for pit production, part of plans to get pit production up and rolling.

lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2016-01-25/rise-plutonium-production-points-more-work-pantex

Accident at UChicago Argonne, LLC

UChicago Argonne, LLC - the M&O contractor for ANL - is being investigated by DOE over an accident that nearly amputated machinist's arm/hand. 

http://energy.gov/ea/downloads/enforcement-notice-intent-investigate-uchicago-argonne-llc

Anonymous posting and commenting

So someone went through most of the existing threads today and posted "So what?," Who cares," "It is unimportant." ""Everybody does it," and similar nihilistic c**p. This blog seems to periodically attract such losers, who either are trying to elicit flame-throwing responses, or are seriously disturbed individuals who need help and are accessing the only mechanism they see for getting it. Either way, pathetic. I never thought I'd say it, but maybe it is time for this blog to abandon anonymous posting and require real-name registration. Then we'll see who the true believers are. And exactly who supports the goals here and who is just indulging in digital flatulence.

 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

Prediction: Abandon anonymous postings, and the blog will soon become devoid of content related to misdeeds and management failings at the labs. Fear of retaliation is a powerful silencer.