The buffoons in NNSA have so screwed up the national labs with their poorly thought out RFPs and approaches to contracting that I guess they're ready to move on to the rest of the complex.
***** As stated in the first RFI, NNSA is interested in options that result in complex-wide improvements in the following areas:
• Reduced cost and improved performance through streamlining of the organization with reduction of management layers, elimination of unnecessary redundancies.. ******
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday that Savannah River Nuclear Solutions LLC has been selected as the management and operating contractor for Savannah River Site.
The contract is valued around $800 million a year and is for a five-year base period with the option to extend it for up to five more years, the DOE said in a statement.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is a limited liability corporation consisting of Fluor Federal Services Inc., Honeywell International Inc., and Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. (a Northrop Grumman company). The team also includes subcontractors Lockheed Martin Services Inc. and Nuclear Fuel Services Inc.
The SRS management and operating contract includes three key mission areas: environmental cleanup, operation of Savannah River National Laboratory, and National Nuclear Security Administration activities.
The new contractor's 90-day transition period will begin Jan. 24, the DOE statement said.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions beat out current operator Washington Savannah River Co. for the contract.
These are the companies in WSRC, which lost.
It is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) by the Washington Savannah River Company (WSRC), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Washington Group International. There are several other partner companies on the Savannah River Site including Bechtel Savannah River, Inc. (BSRI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bechtel, BNG America now Energy Solutions (formerly part of BNFL), BWXT Savannah River Company, a BWXT company, and CH2 Savannah River Company, a CH2M Hill subsidiary.
When do some of these people start making their way to LANL?
What can they do to improve future management contracts? Get retired Lab personnel to post the DC DOE leaderships positions within DOE/NNSA so that they have someone to put lie to the nonsense the ex-military pretenders squatting there propose. Current NNSA leaders lack the ability to do an adequate job.
Rebidding LANL and LLNL fucked up both labs six ways to Sunday. For no reason other than lack of foresite the labs have been seriously damaged for the long-term.
The jackass Tyler PfullofBS mislead NNSA with notion that DC interlopers know enough about how to manage labs that they can contract it. Experience says the contracts are highly flawed. The lab leaders no longer have independece, authority or control of their environment, and therefore cannot be trusted. The contract designates them as micromanaged lackeys. Do you think Anastasio or Miller would have offered such a silly retirement incentive if the NNSA jackboot wasn't hard on their throats?
Want suggestions how to fix the next set of contracts? Burn down Forrestal.... or at least make sure no one from that gene pool of pretenders has anything to do with it.
I checked their web site, and I could not find any way to actually make the suggestions. Also I found no indication whether or not they would entertain comments from individuals.
12:39 AM is right on point, the NNSA bureaucrats have one goal in mind when it comes to the future of the national labs and it has nothing to do with their well-being or science missions. The NNSA fed that oversees my program is clueless, and I wouldn't even grant them a second interview if I was hiring for my group.
All NNSA production work involving nuclear components will be consolidated under a single CO/CO contract effective October 1, 2010. This will include Pantex, Y-12, and those portions of LANL and LLNL directly supporting nuclear components. If you're working at TA-55 you'll be working for a new employer in just 2 years and 8 months. If you still have a job you'll still be working at TA-55, but the facility and the work will be managed by someone like (if not) BWXT.
Just when you think D'Agostino and his merry crew of retired Navy buddies have f*ck up the management of the complex as much as humanly possible, they surprise with something more.
"He earned a Bachelor's degree at Tufts in 1970, majoring in French and political science... He went on to earn a master's degree in international affairs from Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971."
Look at the educational background of some of the P/ADs at LANL. At some point the educational background is just not that important in getting the position.
NNSA is clearly damaged goods. Neither Robinson nor Hecker would ever take the job of leading this P.O.S. Agency.
As former Directors of SNL and LANL during much better days, I imagine both of these men are saddened by NNSA's decision to effectively destroy these once proud national labs.
It is during bad times that you truly have to address leadership, otherwise the downward spiral will continue, as now.
My remark, was primarily addressed to D´Agostino in broadlight, to show, two persons [Robinson, Hecker], with better personal authority, and knowledge in large, regarding the NWC.
(To be "saddened" et al, doesn´t help the NWC in large.)
physical science the study of PE physical education? Know wonder the labs are FD up; I thought NNSA was just a watch dog group associated with safe guards and security, when did they start running the day to day operations of the labs? Hello in any body in congress paying attention?
Many of the TSMs at LANL seem to be either (a) actively looking for some way to sell their homes and move on out, or (b) hoping to get in a few more years before they retire.
The downward spiral is getting steeper and the leadership vacuum is becoming more vacuous. If you had told me five years ago that morale would drop this low at LANL, I wouldn't have believed it. It's as if most of the staff is just shuffling along with no passion for their work. The place is dead.
Misadventures at the U.S. Energy Department [U.S. Department of Energy], by Hugh Gusterson in Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists, also previously posted on this blog, LANL: The Rest of the Story, Thursday, Decemer 27, 2007, 1:52 PM, by Pinky and The Brain.
Again, I encourage everyone to read 12:39AM. DOE, not just NNSA, is in a death spiral because they bought the line of BS that the labs would perform better if they were held more accountable for things unrelated to performance. The number of people at Fors and Gtown who have anything to do with the mission of selecting strategic projects and funding them is minuscule. Yet the whole model of M&O contracting should be precisely to serve that function.
SC is embarking on the same road. They were heading the right way with the OneSC project, but they've lost their way. The site managers are so scared of Podonsky, and the new model contracts put so much at risk, that SC will get what it has incenitivized: increasingly outlandish investments in inconsequential compliance activities, with decreasingly good science and scientific staff. Why can't they see where they are headed? Look at LLNL and LANL. They have been decimated by this approach...
"As stated in the first RFI, NNSA is interested in options that result in complex-wide improvements in the following areas:• Reduced cost and improved performance through streamlining of the organization with reduction of management layers, elimination of unnecessary redundancies.."
LANS has accomplished this very thing, precisely. It takes time to turn an overloaded ship around, but it's happening as we blog. Most people can't predict tomorrow, much less what’s going to happen ten years from now. Ten years from now LANS will be the flagship of the DOE fleet, rest assured. Just like we conservatives placed our trust in GW Bush seven years ago, let us now place our trust in LANS. Give it enough time and you'll surely come to recognize LANS was the best thing for national security since the crucifixion of Oppie. Wait and see.
The buffoons in NNSA have so screwed up the national labs with their poorly thought out RFPs and approaches to contracting that I guess they're ready to move on to the rest of the complex.
ReplyDeleteFrom the NNSA document...
ReplyDelete*****
As stated in the first RFI, NNSA is interested in options that result in complex-wide improvements in the following areas:
• Reduced cost and improved performance through streamlining of the organization with reduction of management layers, elimination of unnecessary redundancies..
******
Say, what???
http://chronicle.augusta.com/
ReplyDeletestories/latest/lat_011008_SRSContract.shtml
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday that Savannah River Nuclear Solutions LLC has been selected as the management and operating contractor for Savannah River Site.
The contract is valued around $800 million a year and is for a five-year base period with the option to extend it for up to five more years, the DOE said in a statement.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is a limited liability corporation consisting of Fluor Federal Services Inc., Honeywell International Inc., and Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. (a Northrop Grumman company). The team also includes subcontractors Lockheed Martin Services Inc. and Nuclear Fuel Services Inc.
The SRS management and operating contract includes three key mission areas: environmental cleanup, operation of Savannah River National Laboratory, and National Nuclear Security Administration activities.
The new contractor's 90-day transition period will begin Jan. 24, the DOE statement said.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions beat out current operator Washington Savannah River Co. for the contract.
These are the companies in WSRC, which lost.
It is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) by the Washington Savannah River Company (WSRC), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Washington Group International. There are several other partner companies on the Savannah River Site including Bechtel Savannah River, Inc. (BSRI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bechtel, BNG America now Energy Solutions (formerly part of BNFL), BWXT Savannah River Company, a BWXT company, and CH2 Savannah River Company, a CH2M Hill subsidiary.
When do some of these people start making their way to LANL?
What can they do to improve future management contracts? Get retired Lab personnel to post the DC DOE leaderships positions within DOE/NNSA so that they have someone to put lie to the nonsense the ex-military pretenders squatting there propose. Current NNSA leaders lack the ability to do an adequate job.
ReplyDeleteRebidding LANL and LLNL fucked up both labs six ways to Sunday. For no reason other than lack of foresite the labs have been seriously damaged for the long-term.
The jackass Tyler PfullofBS mislead NNSA with notion that DC interlopers know enough about how to manage labs that they can contract it. Experience says the contracts are highly flawed. The lab leaders no longer have independece, authority or control of their environment, and therefore cannot be trusted. The contract designates them as micromanaged lackeys. Do you think Anastasio or Miller would have offered such a silly retirement incentive if the NNSA jackboot wasn't hard on their throats?
Want suggestions how to fix the next set of contracts? Burn down Forrestal.... or at least make sure no one from that gene pool of pretenders has anything to do with it.
I checked their web site, and I could not find any way to actually make the suggestions. Also I found no indication whether or not they would entertain comments from individuals.
ReplyDelete12:39 AM is right on point, the NNSA bureaucrats have one goal in mind when it comes to the future of the national labs and it has nothing to do with their well-being or science missions. The NNSA fed that oversees my program is clueless, and I wouldn't even grant them a second interview if I was hiring for my group.
ReplyDeleteMy prediction (under Option B.2):
ReplyDeleteAll NNSA production work involving nuclear components will be consolidated under a single CO/CO contract effective October 1, 2010. This will include Pantex, Y-12, and those portions of LANL and LLNL directly supporting nuclear components. If you're working at TA-55 you'll be working for a new employer in just 2 years and 8 months. If you still have a job you'll still be working at TA-55, but the facility and the work will be managed by someone like (if not) BWXT.
"elimination of unnecessary redundancies"?
ReplyDeleteFound one.
Just when you think D'Agostino and his merry crew of retired Navy buddies have f*ck up the management of the complex as much as humanly possible, they surprise with something more.
ReplyDelete"...have f*ck up the management of the complex as much as humanly possible, they surprise with something more."
ReplyDeleteIf you're still surprised at every turn, you need to wake up.
They spend 99.9% of their time trying to find ways to ensure the longevity.... of NNSA and their position, in particular.
We should all be aware and awaiting the next request or idea that will take us on a merry goose chase rather than being surprised or shocked.
- Tom D'Agostino (Resume) -
ReplyDeleteEducation:
Naval War College, Newport, RI, MS National Security Studies, 1997(Distinguished Graduate)
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, MS Business Finance, 1992
United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, BS Physical Science, 1980
This is the educational background of a guy who heads up the NNSA!
United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, BS Physical Science, 1980
ReplyDeleteWhat is "physical science"? I know what
a bs is physics or math is but not physical science.
And this guy was the Sec of Energy, so what?
ReplyDelete"He earned a Bachelor's degree at Tufts in 1970, majoring in French and political science... He went on to earn a master's degree in international affairs from Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971."
Look at the educational background of some of the P/ADs at LANL. At some point the educational background is just not that important in getting the position.
A better choice than Thomas P. D´Agostino to run DOE/NNSA are:
ReplyDelete1) Dr. C. Paul Robinson.
2) Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker.
NNSA is clearly damaged goods. Neither Robinson nor Hecker would ever take the job of leading this P.O.S. Agency.
ReplyDeleteAs former Directors of SNL and LANL during much better days, I imagine both of these men are saddened by NNSA's decision to effectively destroy these once proud national labs.
1/26/08 7:01 PM
ReplyDeleteIt is during bad times that you truly have to address leadership, otherwise the downward spiral will continue, as now.
My remark, was primarily addressed to D´Agostino in broadlight, to show, two persons [Robinson, Hecker], with better personal authority, and knowledge in large, regarding the NWC.
(To be "saddened" et al, doesn´t help the NWC in large.)
physical science the study of PE physical education? Know wonder the labs are FD up; I thought NNSA was just a watch dog group associated with safe guards and security, when did they start running the day to day operations of the labs? Hello in any body in congress paying attention?
ReplyDeleteMany of the TSMs at LANL seem to be either (a) actively looking for some way to sell their homes and move on out, or (b) hoping to get in a few more years before they retire.
ReplyDeleteThe downward spiral is getting steeper and the leadership vacuum is becoming more vacuous. If you had told me five years ago that morale would drop this low at LANL, I wouldn't have believed it. It's as if most of the staff is just shuffling along with no passion for their work. The place is dead.
Another insightful critique of DOE/NNSA is:
ReplyDeleteMisadventures at the U.S. Energy Department [U.S. Department of Energy], by Hugh Gusterson in Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists, also previously posted on this blog, LANL: The Rest of the Story, Thursday, Decemer 27, 2007, 1:52 PM, by Pinky and The Brain.
(www.thebulletin.org/columns/hugh-gusterson/20071226.html)
A better choice than Thomas P. D´Agostino to run DOE/NNSA are:
ReplyDelete3. And Carl Haussman
even though he's dead.
4. And Whisky
golden retriever
Again, I encourage everyone to read 12:39AM. DOE, not just NNSA, is in a death spiral because they bought the line of BS that the labs would perform better if they were held more accountable for things unrelated to performance. The number of people at Fors and Gtown who have anything to do with the mission of selecting strategic projects and funding them is minuscule. Yet the whole model of M&O contracting should be precisely to serve that function.
ReplyDeleteSC is embarking on the same road. They were heading the right way with the OneSC project, but they've lost their way. The site managers are so scared of Podonsky, and the new model contracts put so much at risk, that SC will get what it has incenitivized: increasingly outlandish investments in inconsequential compliance activities, with decreasingly good science and scientific staff. Why can't they see where they are headed? Look at LLNL and LANL. They have been decimated by this approach...
"As stated in the first RFI, NNSA is interested in options that result in complex-wide improvements in the following areas:• Reduced cost and improved performance through streamlining of the organization with reduction of management layers, elimination of unnecessary redundancies.."
ReplyDeleteLANS has accomplished this very thing, precisely. It takes time to turn an overloaded ship around, but it's happening as we blog. Most people can't predict tomorrow, much less what’s going to happen ten years from now. Ten years from now LANS will be the flagship of the DOE fleet, rest assured. Just like we conservatives placed our trust in GW Bush seven years ago, let us now place our trust in LANS. Give it enough time and you'll surely come to recognize LANS was the best thing for national security since the crucifixion of Oppie. Wait and see.