Mar 27, 2009

Pushing Frontiers

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

SEE! I told you that I deserved that bonus. In fact, it should have been larger!

MIKEY!

Frank Young said...

0:41 to 0:48 looks like DARHT.

Anonymous said...

It's unmistakeable. LANS has the plan for making LANL grand!!!

Triple Mikey's bonus. He's obviously worth it.

Anonymous said...

Why only triple?

MIKEY!

Anonymous said...

The video forgot to mention that (a) DARHT is down, yet again, due to problems with the 2nd beam, (b) Roadrunner won't be needed for much longer because NNSA has decided to kill off the ASC program, (c) Congress is unlikely to allow for any more contruction funding to go to CMRR, and (d) every bright scientist who can is attempting to somehow flee this lab due to the crushingly low morale.

Other than that, everything at LANL is going just swell.

Anonymous said...

This video is linked from mnn, Mother Nature Network, by Karl Burkart. From LANL: From bombs to biofuels. (Original source: http://www.youtube.com/user/LosAlamosNationalLab)

(http://www.mnn.com/technology/research-innovations/blogs/lanl-from-bombs-to-biofuels)

PS. Who is the narrator, and the video editor(s)? (Great work.)

PPS. Don´t forget Heritage´s trailer of 33 minutes, Protecting America In The New Missile Age.

(http://www.heritage.org/33-minutes/index.htm)

Anonymous said...

I deserved my bonus too!

TERRY!

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a great place to work.
Can I come back?

PETE NANOS

Anonymous said...

It's been so long since DARHT fired an explosive shot that I forgot LANL actually did that.

Frank Young said...

The video seems to imply DARHT was used twice in the second half of '08.

Anonymous said...

Contrary to the statement in the movie clip, DARHT was not utilized at all in 2008. In fact, most of the people spent most of the year filling out management self-assessment paperwork, cleaning broken accelerator cells and sending shots to LLNL. The lead designer for the W-76 LEP left the Laboratory and the NNSA - having been pushed out by his own management.

Anonymous said...

The coming nuclear renaissance

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/03/29/the_coming_nuclear_renaissance/

According to a new Gallup poll, 59 percent of Americans favor nuclear energy - a new high - and 27 percent say they strongly favor it. The attitude is bipartisan, with majorities of both Republicans and Democrats supporting nuclear power.

Other surveys have found even higher levels of support. According to a 2008 Zogby poll, 67 percent of Americans favor the construction of new nuclear facilities, and are much more likely to back a nuclear-powered electric plant over one fueled by natural gas, coal, or oil.

While Obama has said little about nuclear power since becoming president, his energy secretary has been unequivocal. "The nuclear industry has to be part of our energy mix," physicist Steven Chu said during his confirmation hearings. "It's 20 percent of our [total] electricity production today, but it's 70 percent of the carbon-free electricity we produce."


Dr. Chu has been unequivocal? How – by cancelling Yucca Mountain so we can dedicate more study to an issue that’s been studied for the past 2-3 decades. Talk about playing politics with science.

The coming nuclear renaissance in the current administration is as dead as the RRW.

Anonymous said...

Gauging the Prospects for Nuclear Power in the Obama Era

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/03/27/gauging-the-prospects-for-nuclear-power-in-the-obama-era.html

When asked about their views on nuclear power, President Obama and his advisers say they support it. "I believe in nuclear power as a central part of our energy mix," Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently told Congress.

The phrase, both inclusive and relatively vague, has its advantages. But now on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, there are growing doubts over just how much the Obama administration really means it.

The first telling sign came in the stimulus debate, when a push to include tens of billions of dollars in insurance for new nuclear reactors failed. Then, the Obama administration came out this month against storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Now, a third front, with far-reaching consequences, is about to open up. The Senate Energy Committee will begin debating an ambitious bill next week that could, among other things, decide whether nuclear power will be treated as a renewable energy source. Democrats are pushing for it to include a national "Renewable Electricity Standard" that would require utilities to generate a significant percentage of their electricity from renewable sources, including wind, solar, and geothermal. Under the current proposal, nuclear energy would not qualify.


Politics & duplicity go hand in hand.

Anonymous said...

3/29/09 3:18 AM wrote, "The lead designer for the W-76 LEP left the Laboratory and the NNSA - having been pushed out by his own management."

Yeah, seeing that a lot these days. High profile, smart scientists are a threat to the mediocre DLs, ADs, and PADs. When the little people catch them on their wrongdoings or point out how incompetent they are, out the scientists go...ain't that right Mary?

Anonymous said...

Apparently, all you need to manage the bright scientists at LANL is a mail-order degree from a place like Walton University. The D-grade students now rule this lab and even some of the C-grade scientists are leaving.

Report after report has pointed out the loss of good scientists at the US weapon labs, but the rot only deepens with NNSA at the helm.

Anonymous said...

I would strongly suggest that Mikey take the initiative to submit that LANL video to next year's Academy Awards.

It will be a shoe-in to win under the "Best Bullsh*ting Documentary" category.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, Doug. I violated your "blog first, drink later" suggestion. Couldn't help myself.

Doug Roberts said...

I realize that it is sometimes impossible to one without doing the other, 9:52.

Anonymous said...

If you play that video *backwards* and listen very carefully, you can hear Mikey saying: "Kill off LANL science, bigger bonus, Bechtel rules!".

Anonymous said...

If you play that video *backwards* and listen very carefully, you can hear Mikey saying: "Kill off LANL science, bigger bonus, Bechtel rules!". (11:57 AM)

Heck, 11:57 AM, if you play that video upside down, you'll see hidden images of Mikey down on his knee pads giving a hummer to Riley Bechtel!

Anonymous said...

Mike will have to stand in line to give hummers to Riley.