Once LANS (Bechtel/BWXT) has completed the transformation of LANL into little more than a production facility with "science" as a side line, LANL, too, can become a NNSA darling.
Oh well, this is certianly one way of downsizing LANL, "just let it wither on the vine". It's obvious that we are not going to have any major Science funding, what a sad ending.....Clean-up".
The Evil Genius' 10-Step Plan for Destroying Science at LANL: ================
STEP 1 - LANS needs to first come up with some bogus means they can use to get rid of most of the remaining high cost scientific staff. Outlawing the "practice of science while working at LANL" should fit the bill nicely. This can be implemented by making the Work Free Safety Zones even more prominent and ghastly. (We still need some work on this one, but we'll eventually get there!)
STEP 2 - Hike the TSM FTE rates to well over $500K and then begin implementing strong hints of a new policy of "No charge code == No paycheck". This should help quickly finish off what remains of LANL's research staff who until now have stubbornly refused to leave. Pair this up with much lower FTE rates for all overhead and support accounts so that management and support will remain ultra safe throughout each fiscal year. (FTE rates for support and overhead positions are significantly lower than those for actual project codes but there is still plenty of room to drop them even lower, right CFO Office?)
STEP 3 - Have your PAD of operations go around telling folks that "the future of science at LANL may be in question, but operations is the true source of LANL's greatness". (Unbelievable, but true, this step already occurred at the PADOPS January 15th All-Hands -- Thanks, Mike Mallory!)
STEP 4 - Plan on taking what remains of your research staff and shove them into small cubicles in vast scientific "warehouses" called the Science Complex. (This one is well on it's way -- Thanks, Terry Wallace!)
STEP 5 - To keep useful scientific communications to a minimum, implement policies that shut down all Email communications whenever possible. (Another outstanding success already achieved -- Thanks, LANL CIO Tom Harper!)
STEP 6 - Have your top oversight agency, NNSA, constantly issue information about a bold "transformation" plan that will result in lots of future layoffs and reductions in scientific facilities. (Well on our way with this step -- Thanks, NNSA! Heckavajob, Tom D'Agostino!)
STEP 7 - Begin holding All-Hands where you chastise your workers and tell them you are either part of the problem or part of the new solution. Don't forget to add the critical comment: "Please leave if you don't want to join our team!" (We're still waiting on Mikey to complete this task. It was started by Pete Nanos.)
STEP 8 - To make it all go down smoothly, have upper management issue lots of rhetoric about "valuing science" and keep telling the public that LANL's future looks "very bright". Talk about bold plans regarding Workforce Restructuring at LANL, but keep it somewhat vague. Leave them guessing about what's to really occur. (Mission accomplished, Sen. Udall and Director Mike!)
STEP 9 - While the DOE energy labs (mostly run by non-profits) are actively hiring and are desperate for scientific talent, make sure to freeze salaries for most of your staff at LANL and issue vague hints about further reductions in future benefits and salaries. (LANS new PeforM job rating system can help out greatly with this step.)
STEP 10 - Have unspoken but well recognized policies of using LANL as a corporate "dumping ground" by bringing in lots of managers from the LLC corporate partners. Make sure that many of these managers are unqualified for their positions but pay them very well. Cycles these corporate types through LANL on a rapid basis. (Give a big check mark to Bechtel and BWXT for this one. Thanks, boys!)
When it's all over, the LANS corporate partners will be left with a smaller, easier to manage lab with few of those high cost pesky scientists left around.
This should help make achieving the $80 million per year profit fees and 20% executive bonuses a slam dunk every single year.
WOW, if you are awaiting a career in Science, then, you should have your bags packed, because this isn't the place for you anymore. The writing is on the wall, LANL will get clean up funds while they are availabe then???
Below are some details about the Complex Transformation 10 year plan that just came out via a FOIA. Some of these details are things NNSA neglected to fully elaborate to the workers in their complex. The big news that I see here is that LLNL will apparently be abandoning most of the nuclear weapons business. This has been rumored for some time, but it appears now that it was more than just a rumor.
As announced before, LANL is to greatly expand its mission beyond nuke work. The big question I have is... how? Right now this looks to be largely wishful thinking on NNSA and LANS part.
It's also interesting to note that Pantex activity will be *decreasing* over the next two years and SNL will be elminating 1/5th of what's left of their shrinking nuclear weapons work force.
U.S. Releases Nuclear Complex Modernization Details - Global Security Newswire Friday, Jan. 23, 2009
The United States has released new details on decade-long plans to alter the budgets, goals, facilities and staffs of key facilities in an effort to modernize and streamline the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, Nuclear Watch New Mexico announced yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 1, 2007).
The watchdog group said it successfully pursued a Freedom of Information Act request that led the National Nuclear Security Administration to post the information online.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is set to expand its mission far beyond work involving the nuclear weapons stockpile, increasing research aimed at addressing threat reduction, homeland security, defense and environmental issues, according to the 10-year site plans released by the semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department.
The Nevada Test Site would focus on evaluating nuclear-weapon reliability without conducting test detonations. The DOE agency expects to build a new hydrodynamic test facility at the site for studying nuclear weapons with high-speed imaging technology. The imaging site would assume the responsibilities of an existing facility at Los Alamos (see GSN, May 20, 2008).
The Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico is expected to eliminate one-fifth of its nuclear weapons personnel while pursuing research on energy and infrastructure issues. The laboratory would continue its nuclear weapons work, though, and is expected to establish a new nuclear-weapon development and maintenance site.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California would phase out much of its nuclear-weapon activities although it would remain the primary site for high-explosives tests relevant to nuclear weapons development.
The Kansas City Plant in Missouri is slated to receive a new, privately funded nuclear-weapon component manufacturing site despite questions about continued legislative support for the project (see GSN, Oct. 20, 2008).
The Savannah River Site in South Carolina is expected to produce more tritium than required to maintain the U.S. nuclear stockpile if President Barack Obama opts to shrink the arsenal further, according to Nuclear Watch New Mexico (see GSN, Nov. 10, 2008).
Nuclear-weapon assembly and dismantling work at the Pantex Plant in Texas is expected decrease through fiscal 2010 and then gradually increase until it peaks in fiscal 2015, resulting in changing staffing and resource needs for the site (Nuclear Watch New Mexico release, Jan. 22).
The geniuses in the upper management - including McMillan, Seestrom, and Anastasio - have been trying to move DARHT to Nevada for more than a decade. Can you say ATLAS anyone?
"The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is set to expand its mission far beyond work involving the nuclear weapons stockpile, increasing research aimed at addressing threat reduction, homeland security, defense and environmental issues, according to the 10-year site plans released by the semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department." (NNSA 10 Yearr Plan)
If drug tests at LANL are so damn accurate, how come they have yet to detect that Mikey and his crew must be smoking crack? LANS and NNSA are incapable of greatly expanding their work for outside agencies. That's become pretty clear by now.
This 10 Year Plan will turn out to be about as truthful and accurate as one of the 10 Year Plans issued by the old Soviet Union.
Under LANS and NNSA leadership, LANL appears to be going only one direction... downward. The only change I see is that it is picking up speed as it falls.
A $1 trillion job creation plan is being passed by Congress in tandem with a plan to destroy good paying jobs which already exist in the National Security area (i.e., at our "crown jewel" national labs)?
That's change you can believe it. Only the federal government could come out with a plan that is this bizarre.
Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed. Sound familiar c-student scientists!
The $1 trillion job creation plan is mostly for construction and road improvement jobs. These are unskilled and semi-skilled jobs that are here today and gone tomorrow, not a job that requires long years of training and leads to a lifetime career.
This is a really expensive band-aid. The really expensive band-aid already issued to LANL is only for management use.
"Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed. Sound familiar c-student scientists!" - 11:36 AM
Don't give Mikey any new ideas, 11:36 AM. I'm sure LANS upper management would just love to go out and purchase an expensive business jet, paid for by lab overhead, of course.
WOW, if you are awaiting a career in Science, then, you should have your bags packed, because this isn't the place for you anymore. The writing is on the wall, LANL will get clean up funds while they are availabe then???
1/24/09 5:09 PM
Then why are you still here? You purport yourself to be intelligent, and present an argument that there is no future in sciende at LANL. Then see thewriting on the wall and leave, or are a part of the problem that could not find employment anywhere else.
I think you are part of the deadwood. Just do everyone a favor, leave, and go cry somewhere else.
Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed. Sound familiar c-student scientists!
1/26/09 11:36 AM
Yes, the mile high club. After 9/11 they get kind of testy when you try to join or retain membership. Personally, I see nothing wrong with sex in an airplane bathroom, at least you are not doing it in the main cabin.
(FYI, the Taiwan airport has a motel you can rent rooms by the hour)
10:28 Mikey, is that you? So sorry the straight talk express just left the station. Tell LANS to keep trying to derail that long train of honesty and integrity on tough issues.
Let's stick to the important subject at hand. Does the 10 Year Site Plan have padding built in to cover the cost of sports cars for the Director and all his PADs? What about extra funding for a LANS corporate jet? Does it reserve funding so that Tom D'Agostino can get a nice VP job with a NNSA contractor?
1/29/09 11:16 AM "Why create a 10 year site plan when LANL won't even be around 10 years from today? A 2 year site plan sounds more like it".
Not really 11:16 AM. It will take 10 years for Bechtel to drain the Lab budget for construction projects that are planned. In the meantime, NNSA will continue to reward them with higher fees and another two one-year contract extensions. The end result: A manufacturing facility that can be another darling of NNSA!
Pantex, Y-12, and NTS are the darlings of NNSA.
ReplyDeleteLANL and LLNL will be left with little more than cleanup chores.
Given the waste at LANL and obscenely high overhead, LANL does not deserve much more.
ReplyDeleteOnce LANS (Bechtel/BWXT) has completed the transformation of LANL into little more than a production facility with "science" as a side line, LANL, too, can become a NNSA darling.
ReplyDeleteOh well, this is certianly one way of downsizing LANL, "just let it wither on the vine". It's obvious that we are not going to have any major Science funding, what a sad ending.....Clean-up".
ReplyDeleteThe Evil Genius' 10-Step Plan for Destroying Science at LANL:
ReplyDelete================
STEP 1 - LANS needs to first come up with some bogus means they can use to get rid of most of the remaining high cost scientific staff. Outlawing the "practice of science while working at LANL" should fit the bill nicely. This can be implemented by making the Work Free Safety Zones even more prominent and ghastly. (We still need some work on this one, but we'll eventually get there!)
STEP 2 - Hike the TSM FTE rates to well over $500K and then begin implementing strong hints of a new policy of "No charge code == No paycheck". This should help quickly finish off what remains of LANL's research staff who until now have stubbornly refused to leave. Pair this up with much lower FTE rates for all overhead and support accounts so that management and support will remain ultra safe throughout each fiscal year. (FTE rates for support and overhead positions are significantly lower than those for actual project codes but there is still plenty of room to drop them even lower, right CFO Office?)
STEP 3 - Have your PAD of operations go around telling folks that "the future of science at LANL may be in question, but operations is the true source of LANL's greatness". (Unbelievable, but true, this step already occurred at the PADOPS January 15th All-Hands -- Thanks, Mike Mallory!)
STEP 4 - Plan on taking what remains of your research staff and shove them into small cubicles in vast scientific "warehouses" called the Science Complex. (This one is well on it's way -- Thanks, Terry Wallace!)
STEP 5 - To keep useful scientific communications to a minimum, implement policies that shut down all Email communications whenever possible. (Another outstanding success already achieved -- Thanks, LANL CIO Tom Harper!)
STEP 6 - Have your top oversight agency, NNSA, constantly issue information about a bold "transformation" plan that will result in lots of future layoffs and reductions in scientific facilities. (Well on our way with this step -- Thanks, NNSA! Heckavajob, Tom D'Agostino!)
STEP 7 - Begin holding All-Hands where you chastise your workers and tell them you are either part of the problem or part of the new solution. Don't forget to add the critical comment: "Please leave if you don't want to join our team!" (We're still waiting on Mikey to complete this task. It was started by Pete Nanos.)
STEP 8 - To make it all go down smoothly, have upper management issue lots of rhetoric about "valuing science" and keep telling the public that LANL's future looks "very bright". Talk about bold plans regarding Workforce Restructuring at LANL, but keep it somewhat vague. Leave them guessing about what's to really occur. (Mission accomplished, Sen. Udall and Director Mike!)
STEP 9 - While the DOE energy labs (mostly run by non-profits) are actively hiring and are desperate for scientific talent, make sure to freeze salaries for most of your staff at LANL and issue vague hints about further reductions in future benefits and salaries. (LANS new PeforM job rating system can help out greatly with this step.)
STEP 10 - Have unspoken but well recognized policies of using LANL as a corporate "dumping ground" by bringing in lots of managers from the LLC corporate partners. Make sure that many of these managers are unqualified for their positions but pay them very well. Cycles these corporate types through LANL on a rapid basis. (Give a big check mark to Bechtel and BWXT for this one. Thanks, boys!)
When it's all over, the LANS corporate partners will be left with a smaller, easier to manage lab with few of those high cost pesky scientists left around.
This should help make achieving the $80 million per year profit fees and 20% executive bonuses a slam dunk every single year.
Hooo-raaaah!!!!
Ten year site plan? I think LANS will complete the destruction of LANL in only 5 years... and get a bonus from NNSA for such fine work.
ReplyDeleteWOW, if you are awaiting a career in Science, then, you should have your bags packed, because this isn't the place for you anymore. The writing is on the wall, LANL will get clean up funds while they are availabe then???
ReplyDeleteSix sigma blackbelts all around. Excellent work.
ReplyDeleteScience left LANL and LLNL a long time ago, sadly.
ReplyDeleteBelow are some details about the Complex Transformation 10 year plan that just came out via a FOIA. Some of these details are things NNSA neglected to fully elaborate to the workers in their complex. The big news that I see here is that LLNL will apparently be abandoning most of the nuclear weapons business. This has been rumored for some time, but it appears now that it was more than just a rumor.
ReplyDeleteAs announced before, LANL is to greatly expand its mission beyond nuke work. The big question I have is... how? Right now this looks to be largely wishful thinking on NNSA and LANS part.
It's also interesting to note that Pantex activity will be *decreasing* over the next two years and SNL will be elminating 1/5th of what's left of their shrinking nuclear weapons work force.
www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/
gsn/nw_20090123_5700.php
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
U.S. Releases Nuclear Complex Modernization Details - Global Security Newswire
Friday, Jan. 23, 2009
The United States has released new details on decade-long plans to alter the budgets, goals, facilities and staffs of key facilities in an effort to modernize and streamline the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, Nuclear Watch New Mexico announced yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 1, 2007).
The watchdog group said it successfully pursued a Freedom of Information Act request that led the National Nuclear Security Administration to post the information online.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is set to expand its mission far beyond work involving the nuclear weapons stockpile, increasing research aimed at addressing threat reduction, homeland security, defense and environmental issues, according to the 10-year site plans released by the semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department.
The Nevada Test Site would focus on evaluating nuclear-weapon reliability without conducting test detonations. The DOE agency expects to build a new hydrodynamic test facility at the site for studying nuclear weapons with high-speed imaging technology. The imaging site would assume the responsibilities of an existing facility at Los Alamos (see GSN, May 20, 2008).
The Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico is expected to eliminate one-fifth of its nuclear weapons personnel while pursuing research on energy and infrastructure issues. The laboratory would continue its nuclear weapons work, though, and is expected to establish a new nuclear-weapon development and maintenance site.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California would phase out much of its nuclear-weapon activities although it would remain the primary site for high-explosives tests relevant to nuclear weapons development.
The Kansas City Plant in Missouri is slated to receive a new, privately funded nuclear-weapon component manufacturing site despite questions about continued legislative support for the project (see GSN, Oct. 20, 2008).
The Savannah River Site in South Carolina is expected to produce more tritium than required to maintain the U.S. nuclear stockpile if President Barack Obama opts to shrink the arsenal further, according to Nuclear Watch New Mexico (see GSN, Nov. 10, 2008).
Nuclear-weapon assembly and dismantling work at the Pantex Plant in Texas is expected decrease through fiscal 2010 and then gradually increase until it peaks in fiscal 2015, resulting in changing staffing and resource needs for the site (Nuclear Watch New Mexico release, Jan. 22).
Can we really make it until March with the CR?
ReplyDeleteWhen does NNSA 1 Billion cut go into effect?
What % of that cut will directly affect LANL? Anyone know?
The geniuses in the upper management - including McMillan, Seestrom, and Anastasio - have been trying to move DARHT to Nevada for more than a decade. Can you say ATLAS anyone?
ReplyDelete"The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is set to expand its mission far beyond work involving the nuclear weapons stockpile, increasing research aimed at addressing threat reduction, homeland security, defense and environmental issues, according to the 10-year site plans released by the semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department." (NNSA 10 Yearr Plan)
ReplyDeleteIf drug tests at LANL are so damn accurate, how come they have yet to detect that Mikey and his crew must be smoking crack? LANS and NNSA are incapable of greatly expanding their work for outside agencies. That's become pretty clear by now.
This 10 Year Plan will turn out to be about as truthful and accurate as one of the 10 Year Plans issued by the old Soviet Union.
Under LANS and NNSA leadership, LANL appears to be going only one direction... downward. The only change I see is that it is picking up speed as it falls.
Let me see if I've got this right:
ReplyDeleteA $1 trillion job creation plan is being passed by Congress in tandem with a plan to destroy good paying jobs which already exist in the National Security area (i.e., at our "crown jewel" national labs)?
That's change you can believe it. Only the federal government could come out with a plan that is this bizarre.
It will be interesting to hear what Mikey has to say about all this at the All-Hands scheduled for 1pm on Monday.
ReplyDelete"JUST PLANE DESPICABLE"
ReplyDeleteBeleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed. Sound familiar c-student scientists!
The $1 trillion job creation plan is mostly for construction and road improvement jobs. These are unskilled and semi-skilled jobs that are here today and gone tomorrow, not a job that requires long years of training and leads to a lifetime career.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really expensive band-aid. The really expensive band-aid already issued to LANL is only for management use.
"Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed. Sound familiar c-student scientists!" - 11:36 AM
ReplyDeleteDon't give Mikey any new ideas, 11:36 AM. I'm sure LANS upper management would just love to go out and purchase an expensive business jet, paid for by lab overhead, of course.
8:35 pm: "I'm sure LANS upper management would just love to go out and purchase an expensive business jet, paid for by lab overhead, of course."
ReplyDeleteNah, paid for by Bechtel, and back-charged to the US Government, as usual.
WOW, if you are awaiting a career in Science, then, you should have your bags packed, because this isn't the place for you anymore. The writing is on the wall, LANL will get clean up funds while they are availabe then???
ReplyDelete1/24/09 5:09 PM
Then why are you still here? You purport yourself to be intelligent, and present an argument that there is no future in sciende at LANL. Then see thewriting on the wall and leave, or are a part of the problem that could not find employment anywhere else.
I think you are part of the deadwood. Just do everyone a favor, leave, and go cry somewhere else.
Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed. Sound familiar c-student scientists!
ReplyDelete1/26/09 11:36 AM
Yes, the mile high club. After 9/11 they get kind of testy when you try to join or retain membership. Personally, I see nothing wrong with sex in an airplane bathroom, at least you are not doing it in the main cabin.
(FYI, the Taiwan airport has a motel you can rent rooms by the hour)
10:28 Mikey, is that you? So sorry the straight talk express just left the station. Tell LANS to keep trying to derail that long train of honesty and integrity on tough issues.
ReplyDeleteLet's stick to the important subject at hand. Does the 10 Year Site Plan have padding built in to cover the cost of sports cars for the Director and all his PADs? What about extra funding for a LANS corporate jet? Does it reserve funding so that Tom D'Agostino can get a nice VP job with a NNSA contractor?
ReplyDeleteWhy create a 10 year site plan when LANL won't even be around 10 years from today? A 2 year site plan sounds more like it.
ReplyDelete1/29/09 11:16 AM
ReplyDelete"Why create a 10 year site plan when LANL won't even be around 10 years from today? A 2 year site plan sounds more like it".
Not really 11:16 AM. It will take 10 years for Bechtel to drain the Lab budget for construction projects that are planned. In the meantime, NNSA will continue to reward them with higher fees and another two one-year contract extensions. The end result: A manufacturing facility that can be another darling of NNSA!