LANL Honors Retiring Senator
By Jackie Jadrnak, Albuquerque Journal Northern BureauLOS ALAMOS — When Bob Kuckuck heard people invoking the name of St. Pete as problems arose at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he figured they were talking about "some religious icon the Spaniards introduced here 200 years ago."
It didn't take long after his 2005 arrival as lab director, though, for him to realize that the patron being mentioned with reverence was not really a saint, was Italian, and went to the U.S. Senate to represent New Mexico, well, maybe a little less than 200 years ago.
At least that's the story Kuckuck told Monday when employees and administrators gathered on the Hill to shower Republican Sen. Pete Domenici with plaques, gifts, gratitude and the renaming of the National Security Sciences Building auditorium after him. Domenici is retiring when his term ends in January after serving 36 years in the Senate.
Lab spokesman Steve Sandoval said an estimated 560 people attended Monday's hourlong ceremony in the auditorium being named after Domenici, where attendees needed to have a Q security clearance, with fewer than 50 watching telecasts at two other sites on the LANL campus.In Los Alamos, Domenici has been known as a champion of the lab, keeping its budget strong, its buildings new and numerous, and its mission adaptable to changing circumstances. One after another, speakers Monday praised the senator for recognizing the role that science and technology can play in improving the future.
And while Los Alamos is most widely known for harnessing the destructive power of the atom, some talked about Domenici's role in pushing for its productive uses. "Through the years, there has been one voice in Congress who understood the need for nuclear energy for the generation of electricity," said Harold Agnew, a former lab director who came from California to join the tribute. "I don't know who is going to pick up that leadership in Congress."
For 27 years, there was no move to build new nuclear power plants, but now 18 applications for reactors in this country are awaiting federal review, Domenici said with obvious delight. And while Domenici stressed the need to stop relying on crude oil as an energy source, he also spoke out in favor of drilling for domestic supplies while we still depend on oil, saying it made no sense to send $700 billion a year to other countries to buy that resource. "We're going to use oil, so why not use our own? We're going to be using it for three more decades," he predicted.
On a personal level, Domenici, who has been diagnosed with a progressive brain disease, said he is feeling well.
"Whatever is happening to me is happening very slowly, and that's good," he said.
22 comments:
I worked at LANL during the Domenici years and I live in DC now. I've met retired and working DOE civil servants and I've heard convincing stories of the very improper influence he had on DOE spending. These stories explained
what I had seen at LANL. Nonsense programs, big ones, seemed to be initiated and received continuing funding without the proper peer review. Colleagues from other labs and universities seemed to be telling me that something was seriously amiss at LANL. Am I the only one who believes that Domenici's support benefited us so improperly that it brought about the near collapse that we see today?
You had a point untill you said "Colleagues from other labs and universities seemed to be telling me that something was seriously amiss at LANL. " This killed your credibility.
Why do you say that, 3:55?
Mr. DC,
Walk into the US Parks Dept. and ask them how much they pay for a rake.
Don't be so ignorant.
Glad you're in DC, stay there.
Domenici isn't perfect, what politician is? He did his job. He represented New Mexico. I don't think Udall or Pierce are going to be able to say the same at the end of their careers.
I work(ed) at LANL.
near collapse that we see (today).
Old LANL employee...I don't think so.
POGO ALERT!!!!!
Identify yourself or shutup.
POGO ALERT!!!!!
8/12/08 3:27 PM
Please don't pay any attention to the responses to your comment. These same individuals are ALSO the reason we are near collapse. They have been feeding off the troughs for 60+ years! It’s become generational with a sense of "entitlement." Your comment is accurate!
I sometimes wonder if the younger and newer employees at LANL fully realize what is at stake now that Senator Domenici is leaving Congress.
Many of LANL's current workers have only been here for a few years and don't seem to fully grasp just how vital this man was to the lab's funding.
Deep cuts are probably on the way.
More likely a LLNL to LANL transplant that moved on to DC when he/she could not fit in. Hence the resentment toward Domenici's influence.
8/12/08 7:34 PM
Mechels, is that you? I sense crazed bitterness and denial. Let it go bro, it is getting to get creepy and sad. Your comment about Road Runner in the New Mexico Independent was way beyond pathetic.
Response to the Anonymous comment from 8/12/08 10:34 PM
No. It is not Mechels.
LLNL wins, LANL looses...again.Nahna- nahna-nah-naaaa. Now that the playing field is level watch LLNL mop the deck with LANL.
The playing field is still not level. LLNL is still in California.
The playing field is still not level. LLNL is still in California.
•Pete Domenici
•LANL
•Retirement
or to put it another way
•Pete Domenici
•LLNL
•Retirement
And the winner is...
get the point?
Agnew (or was it Kuckuck?) got off a pretty good joke at the ceremony. A telling one, too.
At some gathering lab related, Domenici was introduced as the "third senator from California". Without missing a beat, Domenici replied, "Who are the other two?"
With out Dominici LANL will downsize to about 5000 FTE's in the next few years, funding will dwindle, he kept this place going.
"With out Dominici LANL will downsize to about 5000 FTE's in the next few years, funding will dwindle, he kept this place going." - 8/14/08 10:07 AM
That sounds about right from my take of LANL's current situation.
The saddest part about any future downsize event is that those who get laid off will most likely be destined for bankruptcy when they can't unload their Northern New Mexico homes and they face the bleak employment prospects of a long lasting US recession.
To be RIF'ed by LANL in the next year or two will be synonymous with total financial ruin. Yuck!
Without Domenici maybe LANS will need to offer another SSP. I imagine more people would be willing to accept it rather than stay and put up with all the management and business problems that continue to occur. Offering a voluntary RIP may prevent a financial ruin.
"Offering a voluntary RIP may prevent a financial ruin."
Nice Freudian slip.
"To be RIF'ed by LANL in the next year or two will be synonymous with total financial ruin."
Likely true for some.
DOE/NNSA used to understand that scientists and engineers with nuclear weapons knowledge had to be protected against financial ruin. DOE even funds Russia to keep their nuclear scientists gainfully employed and that's why the weapons labs offered outstanding pension programs.
The privateers now running DOE can't seem to grasp the difference between running a nuclear weapons lab and digging a tunnel. It's the same to them and Bechtel can easily do both. Unfortunately, they can't see that LANL is destined for a collapse just like Bechtel's big-dig in Boston.
Some of us have been preparing for this day for years. If the market hadn't stagnated I would have already bailed. Whatever NNSA and LANS do is of no consequence to us. Unfortunately if my generation leaves so does most of the weapons knowledge and so does LANL's main purpose. LANL's costs are so inflated the only area they can compete is in classified work. Our post-docs tell me they don't see a future at LANL so it appears even if costs were brought under control we're going to lose the next generation of scientists anyway. Since my colleagues are in good shape we're hanging around trying to keep things afloat until the younger folks can get off the ship.
This thread, for a while, was about Domenici's influence. He gave us many years of stress-free funding; but at what cost? I saw R&D programs going from R to D when the research did not support the, always much larger, increase in funding. The CO2 laser was the archtype but all the laser programs , including isotope separation, shared the defect that the research showed that it made little sense to go further. But the program always went further until every dime was spent.
Everything that came from the quadrupole ion source was a debacle at conception and that included the NPB (neutral particle beam) the tritium generating idiocy
and the transmutation of nuclear waste embarrassment. I rephrase the question of 3:20PM 8/12/08 : Did any big program make sense?
We can apply a straightforward test of legitimacy. After the funding dried up, did the program go anywhere but to an ignominious death?
Out of fairness, it should be pointed out that here was no sign that Domenici was anything but deceived by
LANL con men who, in almost every case moved on to higher administrative positions.
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