Apr 12, 2009

Comment of the week, regular edition

This week's rare mid-week version of COW was prompted by DOE Secretary Chu's drive-by visit to LANL earlier this week, followed by his more leisurely Sandia visit where he took the time to talk to staff. Several interesting comments were generated on that thread which will share COW honors today.

After much grumbling about Chu's having given LANL the cold shoulder, this comment appeared, seemingly from a Washington insider:

I don't think many people here grasp how sour the opinions of LANL are in Washington.

To which a reader responded:

Since you imply that you do know how sour the opinions of LANL are in Washington, perhaps you'd share with us what the opinions are regarding LANS, LLC: their "leadership team", their operational capabilities, and their strategic capabilities.

Mr. Washington Insider replied with

I have found the same sour opinions in DC.

There is no point in sharing details on this blog since the commenters here seem to be self destructive with respect to LANL's future not productive.

Many commenters have asked for productive discussion. So far, nothing just sniping.

The exchange concluded with

Frank has provided the discussion forum; what LANL staff choose to do with it is up to them.

However, if you are in fact a DC "insider" as you imply, then you have no real grasp of how poorly the LANS management "team" is exercising their leadership responsibilities at LANL.

PBIs, baby! That's what it's all about.

You have to work here to realize how hopeless LANL's future is under LANS, LLC.

I suspect that LANL staff (at least those staff who were even aware that Chu had visited) are now a bit more sensitive to LANL's standing within DOE.

One more comment deserves honorable mention for this week. It was a cost savings suggestion aimed at making LANL more cost-competitive when writing up all of those diversification proposals for non-weapons energy related work as Dr. Chu suggested the labs needed to do.

Please use both sides of the toilet paper.


Finally, this comment came in while I was writing this. It is rich in perspective.

"LANL has a very limited number of experts in climate modeling and alternative energy research..." [4/11, 12:04 pm]

Relative to Secretary Chu's remarks, this is the most substantive comment so far to have emerged from this entire discussion.

(Sidebar: 8:12, remember about people who live in glass houses? Typos happen. Live with it. Be nice.)

I was recruited to LANL about the time John Browne became Director, and I was attracted by his statements to the effect that his vision for LANL's future was in environmental sciences (including climate and alternative energy). That vision, of course, turned out to be something of a mirage due to the combination of DOE dithering and the Wen Ho Lee business a couple of years later.

But during my time at LANL, it became quite painfully obvious that Really Good Physicists are not (necessarily) really good climate scientists or any other variety either. LANL had then, and undoubtedly still has, far, far to go if it's going to transform from high-energy and nuclear science to environmental science.

And because the train has left the station, just like I and so many other scientists have left the Lab, it's doubtful that this transformation is feasible in any timely fashion.

Good luck to all.

Until next week,

--Doug

89 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your Mr. Washington Insider is most likely a fake. Trolls will try any trick.

Anonymous said...

9:17,

You sound like a troll.

Anonymous said...

What exactly is a "really good climate scientist"? The "climate scientists" we're relying on can't seem to predict the weather more than two days out, can they? They certainly didn't predict that the hottest year to date would be 1998, did they? What happened to the runaway global warming they predicted? In the last decade, there's been no global warming whatsoever, but they didn't predict that either, now did they?

It's snowing. On April 12.

Any Really Good Physicist could do as well, some undoubtedly would far better.

Anonymous said...

LANL is one of DOE's toxic assets. The facilities are too old to renovate, the staff is either too old and ossified to adapt to a changing mission, or too young [and not exactly top of their class].

The managers are inept, and the contractor is corrupt.

The system that allowed the travesty that is the Bechtel-led LLC to be given the contract to rape and pillage what little is left of LANL still exists and is alive and well in Washington. It just lives under the Democrat's umbrella rather than the Republican one.

The only real question is: how long before LANL is either shut down entirely, or reduced to a staff of about 3,000 with a very limited plutonium mission?

Anonymous said...

"the staff is either too old and ossified to adapt to a changing mission, or too young [and not exactly top of their class]."

I am not sure what you mean by too young, however it is harder to get good new people. Also the good people at LANL are more mobile and tend to leave. It is a simple rate equation. In many cases the bad people are happy when good people leave.

Anonymous said...

The "too young" comment referred to the recent hires (meaning since 2005) who are relatively fresh out of school and who have not done any real work yet.

Academic "scholarly" crap != useful real world experience, particularly when there is an apparent need to come up with winning proposals for alternative energy related project work.

Even if LANL were staffed with people qualified to generate top-notch proposals in this area, LANS, LLC would quash them.

PBIs baby! That's were it's at.

And bringing in WFO is not one of the PBIs.

Anonymous said...

"The "climate scientists" we're relying on can't seem to predict the weather more than two days out, can they?" (10:46 PM)

"Climate scientists" don't predict short term weather. That's the job of a meteorologist.

As far as short term forecasting goes, the 3-day forecasts have dramatically improved over the last few decades, largely due to better computer models, remote sensing satellites, and a deeper understanding of the Earth's atmosphere. You know little of which you speak.

Anonymous said...

LANL is done.

(1) It will be kept on life support to do a minimal amount of plutonium work and stockpile stewardship work on a steeply declining budget.

(2) It will hold fast to the current non-proliferation work utilizing a static non-proliferation budget if TR can manage to hold on to their current scientific workforce.

(3) It will do increasing amounts of environmental cleanup work on a growing cleanup budget (i.e., Rocky Flats II).

Beyond these three extremes, nothing much will be left. I have no idea why Dr. Chu seems to think that LANL can somehow be turned around into a dynamic lab doing large amounts of research in alternative energy and climate research. Even Terry's desperate push for MARIE doesn't fit within this new mold.

The best hope for a healthy and growing LANL would be to take the Stimson Center report's advice and create the diversified and well funded vision for a lab managed under ANSA. The chances of that happening are slim to none because the local politicians don't want to hurt their positions of power on various committees. They would rather see LANL stultify into obsolescence than lose any of their power due to a re-alignment of the New Mexico labs. They will get their wish.

Anonymous said...

Dear Dr. Chu,

It's going to be very difficult for LANL to find success writing winning proposals for climate and alternative energy research when: (a) LANL's TSM rates are running close to $500K per year, and (b) the credentials of most of the TSMs don't exactly look like the things you want to see on these types of proposals, plus (c) the for-profit LLC could care less about all of these ideas because it's not in their PBIs.

Other than that, Dr. Chu, I guess it will all work out really well. I hope you enjoyed your visit and appreciated the carefully crafted script which LANS prepared in an attempt to fool you about what's really going on out here at LANL.

Anonymous said...

I am the "Washington Insider" that 9:17 castigates.

I would rather not give specific examples, because they could be used to identify me.

However, in general the Washington hostility comes from the following perceptions that many in DC have about LANL: arrogance, a willingness to cut others out by using St Pete, an unwillingness to listen to customers, an unwillingness to give the customers solutions, an unwillingness to even give the program managers reports that allow them to say that a project is finished (this affects the program manager's performance review and therefore his raise, so this is a big one), security problems that give people headaches (whether or not they are true, they cause DOE/NNSA a hard time).

You can whine about whether these perceptions are based on actual facts or whether they are deserved. It really doesn't matter though, because the perceptions are held by decision makers. And they don't care about getting to the bottom of what you think is true. They care about what advances their program or career, and fighting to clear your name is not one of their priorities.

You are welcome to call me a troll or a liar, it really doesn't affect my life. However, ask anyone who has been to DC (since you clearly have not) whether their experience matches what I say, or contradicts it.

Anonymous said...

As a 20+ year LANL insider, I can vouch for the accuracy of Mr. Washington Insider's perceptions about LANL.

I used to travel back to Germantown & HQ occasionally and would observe first-hand the perceptions to the behaviors being complained about.

Then I'd come back home and observe the behaviors themselves first-hand.

Two important rules of engagement changed in recent years that have essentially sealed LANL's fate. The first, or course, was having NNSA hand the LANL contract over to LANS, LLC. With that, LANL stopped even pretending to care about making DOE program officers happy.

PBIs baby! That's were it's at.

The second, naturally, was losing St. (Plutonium) Pete as LANL's powerful champion.

LANL is screwed. To a large extent LANL screwed itself by providing a never-ending supply of arrogant, incompetent managers who floated like little turds to the top of the system under UC's non-leadership.

NNSA provided the coffin lid & the nails by handing us over to a greedy construction company.

LANL staff helped by doing their very best "duck and cover" impressions as Nanos began the final chapter of UC's dubious stewardship.

You gets what you pays for. Karma. Darwin. Reap what ye sow. Etc.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like DOD Sec. Gates will have the final say regarding LANL, hell even Sec. Of State "Hillary" will have a say, we are doomed. Sen. Domenici was one of a handful in Washington who really supported LANL, now with no there to help we will wither on the vine. Good bye and good luck.

Anonymous said...

I'm just another troll and work part time in DC. I vouch for the accuracy of the description of LANL's image and agree with the prediction of the lab's future. My certainty is probably more accurate than most because I arrived in the 70s, long before Nanos, and all the bad behavior was already well established.
The lies and bad science that created and killed essentially every big program are concealed by a combination of secrecy and embarrassment, but the lack of any remnant tells the story. My personal favorite, however, was Antares, which was hailed as a complete success and shut down the same day.

Anonymous said...

"4/12/09 1:33 PM"

Frank

All of my instincts tell this person is not who they say they are. All they say is that they are a "Washington insider" and are in the know. If someone worked at DOE headquarters than why would they post repeatedly on this blog? It makes no sense.

As a LANL insider for many years I have some experience with DOE and Washington, and I do not hear this rabid anti LANL stuff that this so called insider says. Of course this is a blog and people can make up anything they want. I do know a few people at LANL who like to call themselves "Washington insiders", but they are delusional losers.

"You are welcome to call me a troll or a liar, it really doesn't affect my life. However, ask anyone who has been to DC (since you clearly have not) whether their experience matches what I say, or contradicts it.

4/12/09 1:33 PM"

Well one of us has to be a liar. By they way your "(since you clearly have not)" gives
you away. I think you are a disgusting fake.

Anonymous said...

Doug,

You say, "I suspect that LANL staff (at least those staff who were even aware that Chu had visited) are now a bit more sensitive to LANL's standing within DOE."

Have you already forgotten? Some of these are the same LANL staff who were saying, "I want UC to win the contract so that my benefits are preserved," in the days and weeks before the contract award announcement was made in December, 2005.

LANL staff had their heads up their collective ass back then. You should know that most of them still do.

The best and brightest, not.

Anonymous said...

"My personal favorite, however, was Antares, which was hailed as a complete success and shut down the same day.

4/12/09 5:17 PM"

We know you have gone over this over and over again. Ya Antares was a failure but so are all "big projects". Look at NIF, Space Station, Star Wars, Supercolloider, Space Shuttle, Glomar Exploer, B1, Moon landings, and the B2. These projects where meant to big to scare the enemy and thats it.

Anonymous said...

Hi 8:07. I do not live in Washington or work at DOE, although I have traveled there on lab business lots of times. I used the pseudonym "Washington Insider" to identify myself as the person who made the COTW because 9:17 called me that.

I do however have lunch or coffee with my contacts in DC, in contrast to many others at LANL who often go with powerpoints and leave without any real networking and gossip.

You say that "one of us has to be a liar." That is not true. We could hear different things, based on who we know and talk with. Or more likely, the level of detail and friendship with which you talk with DC people.

My point is to identify the problem with specificity so that there can be a solution. If you think that I am wrong and there is no problem, well based on that, nothing needs to be done and everything will end great. I hope that is true, but I would not bet on it.

Anonymous said...

My Washington experience (back during the Admiral Watkins days) was that if LANL and LLNL were waiting around to see someone in DOE and the meeting got scheduled for Friday the LANL people cancelled and caught a flight home and the LLNL people stuck around and got the meeting.

That's one of the reasons Antares failed and NOVA was a success. Not a technical success but a marketing success. Antares was in a big warehouse building with concrete and steel. Nova was in a building with gallery seating, oak, models, glass.

So-yes LANL was arrogant. We could afford to be because we tended to be successful at all we did. Arrogance doesn't work anymore. Ya gotta produce. And right now the production goal is PBIs. You better be on board or you'll get left behind.

I've said for years now if you go into a meeting and someone at the table says "at SRS we did it this way" you better take notes and don't even think about any other options. That is what PBIs are all about.

Anonymous said...

Saw a short TV clip on how excited Google employees were at one of the research labs - reminded me of the enthusiasm we had at LLNL until the Transition Death March into the dumbed down "Commercial death practices" wonderland morphed many into a depressed, skeptical, beaten, distrusting bunch of silent short-timers planning a departure date.

A national laboratory ruined by another Bush/Congress inaccurate strategic vision, it is a HBS case study waiting to be written...

I felt both envious and enthusiastic -- to be at Google.

Anonymous said...

"You sound like a troll."

A mountain troll or a cave troll?
I believe the proper elfin insult is "you smell like a troll"

Sound insults are reserved for harpies, who for those who don't know, sound like wives.

Anonymous said...

4/12/09 9:07 PM

Thank you for clearing that up.

"Hi 8:07. I do not live in Washington or work at DOE, although I have traveled there on lab business lots of times. I used the pseudonym "Washington Insider" to identify myself as the person who made the COTW because 9:17 called me that."

Fair enough, however as I said I know a few people who like to brag about how they are in "the know".

Anonymous said...

8:16 pm: "Ya Antares was a failure but so are all "big projects". Look at NIF, Space Station, Star Wars, Supercolloider, Space Shuttle, Glomar Exploer, B1, Moon landings, and the B2. These projects where meant to big to scare the enemy and thats it."

Huh?? Stream of consciousness posting (classically with all the misspellings) is really old. Get a new gig. Or at least, get sober. "...meant to big to scare the enemy.." - man, you are a joke.

Anonymous said...

failure but so are all "big projects"...

But your list contains mostly successful projects?

Add the Alaska Pipeline, Human Genome, Hoover and Grand Coulee dams, Manhattan Project, Supertankers, D-Day, Great Wall of China, Enigma, TVA, Naval nuclear propulsion, 707, 747, B-52, Panama canal, Suez Canal, Spitfire, F-16, Nimitz class Aircraft carriers, All US Navy submarine Programs, the Polaris and Posidon missile programs, WWII, the Cold War, the Chunnel, The US Highway system, high-rise buildings, US Agriculture, Medical Science, Chris Columbus's ocean adventure, Chartres and St. Peter's cathedrals,the Catholic Church.....

Not all big projects fail.

Anonymous said...

"That's one of the reasons Antares failed and NOVA was a success..."

More than anybody else, NOVA succeeded because of Emmett and Haussman. Drs. Naughty and Nice.

Both were brilliant technically and organizationally, and savvy politically.

Like Lawrence and Teller and few others since.

Emmett was difficult. But with few peers.

Anonymous said...

Be careful with the term "Pit Production" As an "old timer" at LANL, my prespective is: LANL has soured and at times insulted the Washington bunch, it was only for Sen Domenici that we won several budget battles, but only because of him. The entire NNSA was his idea, it was concived with the notion that it would be a seaperate agency with-in DOE to help manage and fund the National Lab's. But as we have discovered it turned out to be a complete failure. Now it's looking like we (LANL) may yet go under the DOD, just because of our involvement in weapons, unlike LLNL, who will stay under the DOE. Sec. of Defense Gates will make this final decision,(yes weapons production should be under the DOD)hence all of the hoop-la regarding the term "pit production" this speaks very loudly from my prespective, Chu may not have a whole lot to say in this matter, he will only manage what is left in the DOE.

Anonymous said...

Remember the last report concerning the "consoladation of the complex"? It very clearly stated that the entire complex would be reduced by 20%, well what is 20% of LANL? Come on "real-smart guys" how many FTE's is that?

Anonymous said...

LANL had almost 12,000 employees at its peak about four years ago. That includes both LANL employees and all the contractors. Today, the figure I hear is around 9,500. LANS is well on its way to downsizing the lab.

When the process is complete, I suspect that the lab will be down to only around 6,500 employees. Many of those who are left at LANL will be working in the area of environmental remediation (i.e., "cleanup"). The percentage of scientists to support workers and managers will be much smaller. This trend is already clear.

Overhead burdens on the remaining TSMs will continue to climb and the amount of outside R&D work that LANL does will continue to shrink as a result of the high overhead rates. NNSA will soon be the only one left willing to pay these high rates.

The result of this process is that it will make LANL much easier for LANS/Bechtel to manage. As others like to say on this blog... it's all about the PBIs and profits, baby!

Anonymous said...

Yes, yes.

But what about my daycare and bottled water?

Anonymous said...

Some discussion of technical issues is attractive. LLNL certainly had some successful administrators. I disagree about Emmett's "technical brilliance." Furthermore, the reason for CO2 lasers being a non-starter result from the reflectivity of the target plasma at a much lower electron density and from the difficulty in extracting a powerful, very-short pulse. The CO2 laser seemed, at first, both cheaper to build and efficient but it was a non-starter long before the rusting relic was put on a pedestal at TA-35. There is a reason that there no big CO2 program exists now.
4/12/09 8:16 seems to believe that scientific merit of a program is irrelevant! If we adopt hat kind of attitude would it benefit LANL?
4/12/09 9:55 describes the different appearances of NOVA and ANTARES. Indeed the NOVA office building was modern, elegant and airy but the laser put out pulse after pulse all day long creating, among other things, new, short wavelength laser systems. Even more important, it was completely run by trained technicians.
ANTARES never really operated and its precurser laser systems only gave out a few pulses and needed nearly every experimental scientist in the program to get off a shot before a scheduled milestone.

Anonymous said...

Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.

Jane Wagner, (and Lily Tomlin)

Anonymous said...

As out of touch with reality as LANL staff have traditionally been, everything should just be roses, up on The Hill.

Anonymous said...

Interesting perspective from the NRDC website (http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nif2/findings.asp). Anyone care to comment?

"NIF's emergence in the early 1990's as the sole candidate for a Laser Microfusion Facility resulted as much from the virtual implosion of the Los Alamos ICF effort as from any demonstration that Livermore's neodymium glass laser technology could deliver the needed increases in "driver" energy. Between 1976 and 1990, Los Alamos wasted on the order of $1 billion on a chaotic program that initially emphasized development of a large "multi-line" (i.e. multiple wavelength) CO2 laser (Antares) but then abruptly changed course, secretly siphoning funds from the Antares project in an ultimately abortive attempt to develop a short-wavelength krypton-fluoride (KrF) "target shooter" (Aurora) that could compete with Livermore's glass laser technology.

The 1989-1990 NAS Review of DOE's ICF Program was saved from an embarrassing endorsement of the flawed Aurora project by the unsolicited intervention of a contentious dissident LANL physicist, Leo Mascheroni, whose analyses of the "showstoppers" in the LANL KrF technology, and insistent objections to the premature termination of the Antares project, cost him first his job, and then his security clearance at the hands of a vindictive management. The NAS pocketed Mascheroni's critique of KrF-Aurora but never lifted a finger to help him regain his clearance and livelihood as an ICF scientist, even though a DOE Los Alamos Area Office report to the DOE Inspector General cleared Mascheroni of any wrongdoing, and concluded that he was the victim of "false derogatory information from LANL management." [12] Ironically, one of the managers involved in LANL's billion-dollar ICF debacle, John Browne, is now Director of LANL."

Anonymous said...

4/12/09 9:07 PMHi 8:07. I do not live in Washington or work at DOE, although I have traveled there on lab business lots of times. I used the pseudonym "Washington Insider" to identify myself as the person who made the COTW because 9:17 called me that.

I do however have lunch or coffee with my contacts in DC, in contrast to many others at LANL who often go with powerpoints and leave without any real networking and gossip.

You say that "one of us has to be a liar." That is not true. We could hear different things, based on who we know and talk with. Or more likely, the level of detail and friendship with which you talk with DC people.

My point is to identify the problem with specificity so that there can be a solution. If you think that I am wrong and there is no problem, well based on that, nothing needs to be done and everything will end great. I hope that is true, but I would not bet on it.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Geez...bet on on it and get your head out of sand. I worked for Dr. Vic Reis when he was the DOE Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs (DP-1). He told me in no uncertain terms "it's the day in and out safety and security issues that is driving Los Alamos into the ground". Nothing has changed at LANL from 1997 and we continue to suffer from the day in and day out safety and security issues. In fact, there was another accident involving 4 employees over come by toxic fumes while they were venting a drum about two weeks ago. The only issue here is that LANS elected to cover it up...again....and... again. Now do you understand the problem?

Anonymous said...

So many words and so little information. My DC informants tell me next years weapons budget is a disaster for LANL but then FY09 is also bad and somehow the programs continue muddling along. Is LANS clueless, inept, dishonest, naive or all of the above?

Anonymous said...

Well MY DC insider told me that a Webster's dictionary describes a wedding as the act of removing weeds from one's garden. Your comments are baseless without any backup, so STFU and GBTW.

Anonymous said...

7:34 PM - no, there will be no cover-up. employees will need to attend a mandatory safety meeting where we will discuss cyber security and shoes that grip.

Anonymous said...

6:57 pm: "Leo Mascheroni, whose analyses of the "showstoppers" in the LANL KrF technology, and insistent objections to the premature termination of the Antares project, cost him first his job, and then his security clearance at the hands of a vindictive management."

You know not of what you speak, and you embarrass yourself. Macheroni's cavalier attitude towards security rules, and willful disregard of warnings to that effect, got him canned and cost him his clearance. He got off easy. Under today's standards, he'd have been in much hotter water.

Anonymous said...

4/13/09, 7:46pm

Yes.

Anonymous said...

Next years budget I understand from my DC contacts won't be pretty here at LANL, and there will be cuts at other sites (eg., NTS). If the numbers were good they would leak (embargo or no embargo). Notice also how the announcement dates get moved out to the very end . . .

Anonymous said...

"In fact, there was another accident involving 4 employees over come by toxic fumes while they were venting a drum about two weeks ago. The only issue here is that LANS elected to cover it up...again" (7:34 PM)

LANL's internal front web page has a Lesson's Learned section. Last week there was a listing about some workers at ORNL who almost stuck their hands into a live 14kV electrical box that was supposedly turned off.

Sound familiar? Something like this was one of the key items Nanos liked to recount as a reason for shutting down LANL for several months.

DOE has a hissy-fit when anything seems to happen at LANL, yet they overlook serious safety and security problems that occur at other labs. Should ORNL have been shut down for this recent 14kV accident? It almost killed a man. Where was the lock-out, tag-out procedure that supposedly make this type of thing impossible?

There are no massive safety or security problems at LANL. We compare nicely with stats for most of the other labs. The problem are the large number LANL-haters within DOE like 7:34 PM. These twisted people like to dump their poisonious vile on LANL and attack from the dark. LANL has created many of the DOE LANL-haters through its own arrogance. In some cases, you've got former LANL staff who feel they were somehow mis-treated and then move on to a job within DOE. Once there, they exact their sweet revenge.

The best solution to this mess? I think the weapon labs should be pulled away from DOE and given to DOD. There is just way too much bad blood between LANL and DOE. Nothing can repair this damage. A divorce is in order.

Anonymous said...

4/12/09 10:17 PM

That was real funny. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

"Next years budget I understand from my DC contacts won't be pretty here at LANL"

Funny my DC contacts say it will not be so bad. Perhaps you are making things up to scare people or to make yourself seem relevent.

Anonymous said...

"I worked for Dr. Vic Reis when he was the DOE Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs (DP-1). He told me in no uncertain terms "it's the day in and out safety and security issues that is driving Los Alamos into the ground". Nothing has changed at LANL from 1997 and we continue to suffer from the day in and day out safety and security issues."

Any group(s) of people that does(do) real work and has(have) to deal with "security" will have safety and security issues.

The DOE mind-set can't accept that and deal with it in other than a self-serving Monday morning quarterback way. NNSA might have been able to deal with that reality in a positive way had it been able to develop into an entity perhaps like what Pete Domenici proposed. But that was not possible because DOE would not let a "semi-autonomous" branch develop outside the ossified box that is DOE. NNSA would have had to be a bureaucracy that was influenced by neither DOE nor DOD.

The only way the general public has of knowing that any real work is being done safely at LANL is that the windows in private homes in White Rock are occasionally rattled by the shock wave of a test explosion and no ambulance travels to the local hospital. Tax dollars are not completely being wasted by the DOE bureaucracy.

Anonymous said...

Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 8:27am PDT | Modified: Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 8:35am
Bechtel Corp.’s revenue rises to $31.4 billion in 2008San Francisco Business Times - by Steven E.F. Brown
Engineering business Bechtel Corp. reported $31.4 billion in revenue for 2008.

In 2007, the San Francisco company had $27 billion in revenue. In 2006, revenue was $20.5 billion.

A description of the many projects around the world that the business is involved in would be a long list, indeed.

The company leads teams now managing both Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, where research is done in nuclear weapons, energy, medicine and many other areas.

In Hanford, Wash., on the banks of the Columbia River, Bechtel is building a vitrification plant designed to process and burn radioactive waste, which is then mixed with glass to make it inert for long-term storage. It is also working on plants to destroy chemical weapons like mustard gas stored in both Colorado and Kentucky.

Overseas, Bechtel is working on renovations of three lines — Jubilee, Northern and Picadilly — of London’s Underground subway system under a 30-year contract. It finished a project to improve train service between London and Glasgow in 2008.

Bechtel is building highways in Romania and the mountains of Albania, and an airport in Qatar.

But last year the company also had to settle legal claims related to Boston’s “Big Dig” project, where portions of a tunnel collapsed. The company, know for being private with the press, didn’t give details of that settlement. The family of a woman killed in the 2006 collapse settled for $28 million with several contractors involved in the work, one of which was Bechtel.

Other projects include clean coal power plants in Illinois and Indiana, work on copper mines in the mountains of Chile, and an aluminum smelter in Oman. It is building a nuclear power reactor in Tennessee where the Tennessee Valley Authority (NYSE: TVE) stopped construction 20 years ago when electricity demand fell.

In Texas, Bechtel is expanding a 106-year-old oil refinery at Port Arthur, on the Gulf Coast through a joint venture with Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE: JEC).

In the past it has built pipelines in places like Thailand and the Sahara, and is now working on one to connect oil fields in Alberta to U.S. refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma — that project should be finished in 2012.

Bechtel is upgrading AT&T’s (NYSE: T) wireless network in the United States, and it won a similar project from Cox Communications last year.

Riley Bechtel is chairman and CEO of the company, which has 44,000 workers. Bill Dudley is president and chief operating officer and Peter Dawson is chief financial officer.

Bechtel started in 1898 and has done work on all seven continents.

Anonymous said...

www.KOB.com
Posted at: 04/13/2009 6:19 PM

Updated at: 04/14/2009 7:41 AM

By: Eyewitness News 4

Future of NM labs uncertain under Obama

New Mexico's congressional delegation goes on red alert as the Obama administration sends mixed signals about the future of New Mexico's two national laboratories.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu toured Sandia Laboratory last Friday. The secretary, a nuclear physicist himself, predicted steady work for Sandia and Los Alamos for years to come.

“In order to both ensure that we have a safe, secure and reliable nuclear stockpile without testing, it is even more important the scientific talent and scientific infrastructure of these nuclear security labs is maintained," Secretary Chu said.

That is good news to freshman Congressman Ben Ray Lujan.

“Well, I think there's always a concern to make sure that you're getting the level of support and funding that you need to for programs that are key to your state and also key to the country." Lujan said.

But just days before Chu's visit, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told a Boston conference that the lab budgets could shrink while the Obama administration spends more on control of nuclear weapons.

Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to slash funding for Los Alamos, and that was with three veteran representatives from New Mexico on the job. Now, the lineup is three freshmen in a place where seniority is everything.

The U.S. Senate did end up restoring lab funding with Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman leading the charge.

Anonymous said...

would you people shut up about your dc contacts? unless your dc contact is a high-ranking member of congress on an appropriations committee, you need to get back to work!

Anonymous said...

Does one really need to be an "insider" to predict that the budget is going to shrink in the next few years? Come on even the people in Washington (unless they are Congress-people) don't really know, they only can predict what will be included and what will be cut. So all of you so-called "insiders" if you are so smart, why are you all still here?

Anonymous said...

The company, know for being private with the press, didn’t give details of that settlement.This is either lazy reporting, or deliberate soft-balling of the story. A simple search for "Bechtel big dig" returns the following Bechtel press release with details of the settlement, including:

http://www.bechtel.com/2008-01-23.html

Under the terms of the agreement, Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation (BINFRA) will contribute $352 million toward the settlement...
Regarding the Bechtel work in Washington, let's hope they do a better job than they did designing the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant near Portland, OR.

But, judging by the industry professionals they send to Los Alamos for two year stints at screwing things up, I wouldn't count on it.

Anonymous said...

4/14/09 12:58 PM

well if eyewitness news reported it, it MUST be true.

Anonymous said...

So with all of that work, why the fuck can't Bechtel invest a little money back into LANL? You know, like Battelle does at its labs (ORNL, PNNL)?

Anonymous said...

"would you people shut up about your dc contacts? unless your dc contact is a high-ranking member of congress on an appropriations committee, you need to get back to work!"

Yes, I agree, because not one cent of funding is ever directed by DOE/NNSA officials.

Anonymous said...

" So all of you so-called "insiders" if you are so smart, why are you all still here?"

I know of few people that love to brah that they are "insiders". They are also some of the lowest quality people at LANL. There may be a correlation. The only way they can feel good about themselves is to brag about how they are "insiders". This is just anecdotal evidence, can some more of the "insiders" say something about this?

Anonymous said...

"So with all of that work, why the fuck can't Bechtel invest a little money back into LANL? You know, like Battelle does at its labs (ORNL, PNNL)?" (8:26 PM)

Because Battelle is a non-profit research organization that actually gives a sh*t about the places that they help manage. Bechtel is only here to rape and pillage what they can to line the pockets of Riley Bechtel and his government "insiders".

It's all about the PBIs and the profits, baby!

Oh, and sweet little sports cars paid for by LANS LLC. And the golden parachutes. And the executive level pension insurance, etc.

Anonymous said...

"But just days before Chu's visit, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told a Boston conference that the lab budgets could shrink while the Obama administration spends more on control of nuclear weapons." (News)

There should be be no surprise at this information. Some of the news sources have been reporting that most of the extra money for non-proliferation will likely be going to the State Department and it's clear that this new liberal minded Congress doesn't want to spend money on the NNSA nuclear weapons complex.

Unfortunately, at this point in time, whatever Dr. Chu has to say about the future of the NNSA labs is probably irrelevant.

Anonymous said...

it's clear that this new liberal minded Congress doesn't want to spend money on the NNSA nuclear weapons complex.


So you think the recent conservative minded congress was different?

Anonymous said...

"...it's clear that this new liberal minded Congress doesn't want to spend money on the NNSA nuclear weapons complex.::

"A Permanent Democratic Majority?"Thomas Edsall
http://www1.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/04/15/a_permanent_democratic_majority_48926.html

"A growing number of political scientists, analysts and strategists are making the case for a realignment of political power in the U.S. to a new Democratic majority based on two trends: 1) the increasing numbers of black and Hispanic voters, and 2) a decisive shift away from the Republican Party by the suburban and well-educated constituencies that once formed the backbone of the GOP."If this prediction is correct it could be hard times for the NWC.

Anonymous said...

So you think the recent conservative minded congress was different?

4/15/09 7:32 AM

Conservative Republican Senator Domenici did a pretty damn good job seeing to it that LANL always remained well funded. The Bush administration also pushed for RRW, which would have kept the lab's mission going strong into the next few decades.

Yes, there are a few conservative Republicans who like to take cheap pot-shots at LANL (Congressman Barton comes to mind), but they are of little account.

Anonymous said...

"A Permanent Democratic Majority?" Thomas Edsall

That's funny. A few years ago there were books predicting a permanent Republican majority. Yes, the number of Hispanics is rapidly increasing, but it is not a given that Hispanics always vote Democratic. If they sense a chance for greater prosperity under Republicans, they will gladly vote for the GOP. If the economy has not improve within 3 years, you will probably see this happen in the next election, especially if the GOP can put up more Hispanic candidates.

Anonymous said...

"Yes, the number of Hispanics is rapidly increasing, but it is not a given that Hispanics always vote Democratic." Source: Pew Research Center

"Hispanics voted for Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden over Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin by a margin of more than two-to-one in the 2008 presidential election, 67% versus 31%, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of exit polls from Edison Media Research as published by CNN.1

Nationwide, the Latino vote was significantly more Democratic this year than in 2004, when President Bush captured an estimated 40% of the Hispanic vote, a modern high for a Republican presidential candidate."

Anonymous said...

Munger: Y-12 may become central to nuclear weapons debate
By Frank Munger
Wednesday, April 15, 2009



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Y-12 may become a key battleground as the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is debated in coming months and beyond. In particular, the government's decision on whether to proceed with the Uranium Processing Facility - a new production center at Oak Ridge - is likely to be a negotiable item as the Obama administration's view of the world and strategy for nuclear defense begin to play out.

There doesn't seem to be any question that the nation's weapons stockpile will continue to be drawn down. How quickly and to what extent are still up for grabs.

Beyond that, there will be serious discussions about what kind of research and production complex is needed to support a smaller arsenal of nuclear weapons, even if it's just a transition to the dream of a weapons-free world.

A network of watchdog and advocacy groups, headed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, came out with a study last week promoting steep drops in the arsenal - down to about 500 warheads by 2015 - and consolidating the must-do weapons work to three sites by 2025.

Y-12, under that scenario, is out of the picture.

Among other things, the study recommends that UPF, with a price tag expected to be about $2 billion, be canceled, and that the existing Oak Ridge mission work - as well as the plant's inventory of weapons-grade uranium - be relocated to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

The decision on what facilities are needed to maintain the weapons stockpile is more complicated that just the size of the arsenal, although that's clearly a factor.

Following the release of the study last week by NRDC and other groups, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration defended the government's existing plan for "transforming" the weapons complex, which was developed under the Bush administration.

The current plan, according to NNSA's Damien LaVera, makes the complex safer, smaller, more secure and less expensive, and he said the NNSA is confident that plan will work no matter what decisions are made on the stockpile. He also suggested it was important to keep the existing facilities, including Y-12, which was identified by the Bush plan as the nation's uranium center of excellence.

"Each of NNSA's sites have unique missions that are needed to maintain the safety, security and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile," LaVera said. "Undermining them would be detrimental to national security and extremely costly to the taxpayer."

Y-12 officials have promoted the need for UPF as a replacement for the aged 9212 complex, a 60-year-old collection of shops where workers process highly enriched uranium in various forms.

The biggest selling point for UPF, in the eyes of some, is the degraded condition of 9212, which doesn't meet current safety standards and which would require an enormous investment to make satisfactory.

A.J. Eggenberger, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, has said the board is concerned that continued operations at 9212 would "involve significant safety risk to workers and the public."

At a recent hearing before the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., whose congressional district includes Y-12, asked NNSA Administrator Tom D'Agostino if he could envision a scenario in which the capabilities of UPF would not be needed.

D'Agostino replied, "The capability is going to be needed whether we have a stockpile of zero weapons or a stockpile of thousands of weapons."

Anonymous said...

News Flash!!!! This just in....

LANL PurchaseIT Rollout Designed to Eliminate Laptop Usage

Wacky World News, April 15th, 2009

Los Alamos National Lab announced their new PurchaseIT program this week to employees. It will be used to strictly control all future purchases of computer related items at the lab. The PurchaseIT program has been mandated by LANS CIO, Tom Harper (formerly a manager with Bechtel) in order to be compliant with Procedure P1011 ("Killing Off Science at LANL").

According to the new purchasing policy, all IT orders will only be accepted by Designated Procurement Representatives (DPRs). LANS is in the process of hiring hundreds of new support people using additional overhead taxes to fund these newly created positions.

Under these new rules, all purchase orders will be rigidly constraint to support current lab Information Architecture (IA) standards. This means that *ALL* incoming systems will have their hard drives erased and have wireless, Bluetooth, cameras, and microphones physically removed from systems so that they are permanently disabled.

It’s expected that physically removing Wi-Fi from LANL laptops will make them completely useless for lab travel and, therefore, force LANL staff to go out and purchase their own laptops. This should result in a major cost savings to the lab's equipment budget says CIO Harper. In addition to this, LANS hopes that these strict, new laptop policies will result in even greater savings by driving many of the best scientists out of the lab.

Customers who wish to not have these features disabled can apply for an exception by filing out LANS Form 666B in triplicate and then prostrating themselves in front of the CIO while begging for mercy. It is expected that almost all requests for exception will be haughtily denied by the CIO after making the customer wait for approximately 12 months.

The PurchaseIT system will require that all of these newly crippled computer systems be purchased only from a small selection or products offered by a select group of vendors who have strong connections with LANL's "Friends and Family" plan. Prices for these crippled computers will reflect the labor required to make them utterly useless. Laptops will start out at a price of approximately $6,000 for the least crippled versions and go up to $8,000 for systems that have been both utterly crippled and then beaten up with a hammer for an extra measure of crippling.

In tandem with this new program, LANS is also contemplating a new policy that mandates only software currently offered by the lab’s Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) system will be allowed on lab computers. ESD is expected to soon reduced the number of software programs that are available down to one choice: Microsoft Office.

CIO Tom Harper says,"This is just the first phase of our new Purchase IT program. During our next phase, we hope to move even further along in the process of destroying all the remaining science at LANL by requiring removal of all keyboards and LCDs from laptop procurements and mandating that all desktop computers be allowed to only run DOS 3.3."

When LANL Director Mike Anastasio was asked by our reporter about the new PurchaseIT program he had this to say: “Don’t SLIP – Wear shoes that GRIP!”. He claimed that LANL staff would fully understand what he meant by this cryptic phrase.

In a separate news story, Bechtel, the prime "for-profit" manager of LANL, reported massive profits of $31.4 billion dollars for this last year.

Anonymous said...

Hey, you work for a company, you get to use that company's computer hardware and software choices, no options. What's so strange about that? Get real, that's the environment every employee in the country lives with. Welcome to the world.

Anonymous said...

"Sound insults are reserved for harpies, who for those who don't know, sound like wives."

hey mysoginist poster, sounds to me like you are divorced and understandably so, because no sane woman would ever want to be within ten miles of you and your sad pathetic shite.

Anonymous said...

Apparently LANL people have not only too much free time on their hands, their insanely high salaries allow them to purchase massive amounts of alcohol as well.

Anonymous said...

"When LANL Director Mike Anastasio was asked by our reporter about the new PurchaseIT program he had this to say: “Don’t SLIP – Wear shoes that GRIP!”. He claimed that LANL staff would fully understand what he meant by this cryptic phrase."

yeah-- it is as if you hired a psychiatrist for $100,000,000 per hour for your depression, and the doc's Rx was to tell you to "cheer up, it's not so bad...just look at all this motivational signage!"

did mike also ask dr. chu to "walk his space" and tell him that "carpooling is cool?" i got my candy bar today from WSST personnel proselitizing in the TA03 stairwell... there was a sticker on the candy that read, "thank you for using the handrail!"

all i could think of was, isn't it a safety hazard to touch that handrail,considering how many people sneeze into their hands and then touch it?

how much overhead $$$ goes to pay for people to hand out candy bars and thank people for using handrails? they should be saying, "welcome to LANL--i mean kindergarten--time to line up for your nap."

Anonymous said...

I just couldn't believe my ears when I was told that ALL laptops coming into the Lab would have their wireless physically yanked out of them. Yet, this is exactly the rule they just implemented.

Here's a trick question for the geniuses in the management that came up with this brilliant innovation: Since we HAVE to use lab laptops on travel, to VPN back to the lab, how is this connection going to be established without .. aahhh.. the hardware to establish the connection?!

It's not just that one numbskull thought of this idea, it's that the entire lab is going alone with this absurdity, without so much as a wimper of protest. The place is in a very sorry state, I know, I know.

Anonymous said...

'Hey, you work for a company, you get to use that company's computer hardware and software choices, no options. What's so strange about that? Get real, that's the environment every employee in the country lives with. Welcome to the world.

4/15/09 9:36 PM"

Ha, ha, ha, ha, no company works like this. They would go out of business.

Anonymous said...

4/16/09 1:07 AM

How many people are moving to gmail?

Anonymous said...

What really bugs me about Chu is that he made no mention of our chronic need for child day care services here at the Lab. No, we don't need any more adult day care programs. We have the wellness center to keep us busy throughout our idle "work" days. What about those of us who still have kids at home though? Who's going to watch them if I decide I want to join my colleagues twiddling their days away riding their stationary bikes towards retirement? If things don't improve soon, I'm taking my best-and-brightest butt over to Google.

Anonymous said...

"It's not just that one numbskull thought of this idea, it's that the entire lab is going alone with this absurdity, without so much as a wimper of protest. The place is in a very sorry state, I know, I know." - 1:07 AM

And the sheeple all said... baa, baa.

Anonymous said...

"Since we HAVE to use lab laptops on travel, to VPN back to the lab, how is this connection going to be established without .. aahhh.. the hardware to establish the connection?!" (1:07 AM)

(1) You could buy your own laptop, but LANS won't let you run VPN on it so you could only do your weekly T&E and not much else as far as the LANL networks go.

(2) You can play the game of "Back to the 90's" and use the modem. However, LANL shut down the modem call-in lines, so this will only let you surf the internal lab web.

(3) Only work at those places where you can find a wired ethernet port.

(4) You could go out and buy an external USB Wi-Fi device with your own money and then not tell the lab that you are connecting this personnel electronic device to your lab issued laptop. You will probably have to buy it with your own money because LANL does not support the purchase of Wi-Fi devices. By going this route, you'll be flaunting the gray areas of policies and could end up getting fired, but that's the way LANS likes it.

It's becoming clear that LANS really doesn't give a damn about productivity or the tools which scientists need to perform their research. This is just another nail in the coffin for science at this so-called "lab". It's only going to get worse with time.

Anonymous said...

LANS (Bechtel) doesn't want anyone doing lab work unless it is done right here on lab property.

It doesn't matter if this might hurt ongoing projects. It doesn't matter if these policies are unworkable for some people.

It's what they want and what they will get. Nothing else matters. It's all about the PBIs, baby! Even more to the point, it's all about making the metrics for safety and security. It's risk aversion run amok.

Anonymous said...

This laptop story is a joke, Right?

Anonymous said...

But, of course, this laptop business does no apply to me and my PADs.

MIKEY!

Anonymous said...

To 4/16/09 3:22 PM:
The laptop article above is satirical, but dead on. PurchaseIT is real, and the "hardening" is real. Travelers are screwed, unless they take the gray measures mentioned above. You can't VPN to the lab on a non-government computer.

Anonymous said...

"If things don't improve soon, I'm taking my best-and-brightest butt over to Google."

WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? do you need another shoes that grip sign?? if you are truly best and brightest as you claim, you would already be in negotiations!

Anonymous said...

You can get a USB wireless adapter off JIT and use it on travel.

Anonymous said...

Yes, and then out comes the JB Weld. How quickly they forget.

Anonymous said...

Not connected 24/7??!!?? Waaah, waaahh!!! Ever hear of a telephone?

Anonymous said...

8:11 PM, with all due respect, F*ck you! (oh, and the horse you rode on). You must be from SF or the elsewhere (or just a manager) and sucking off the teet of the scientists who pay your f-in salaries.

Anonymous said...

"You can get a USB wireless adapter off JIT and use it on travel.

4/16/09 6:19 PM"

But, of course, you have no authority to buy anything on JIT !

Argh, har, har, har ..

Oops, just spilt my margarita ...

Life is so good in Fanta Se

Mike A.

Anonymous said...

"You can get a USB wireless adapter off JIT and use it on travel." (6:19 PM)

It's my understandning that JIT (Just in Time) will no longer be available for IT hardware purchases. That the whole point of this new PurchaseIT policy!

Everything computer related must now go through GLs to DPRs and then pass the tests of the LANL Cyber-Nazis who are controlled by CIO Tom Harper.

LANS claimed at the PurchaseIT roll-out that this program is being done to not only increase cyber-security, but also to enhance productivity and to lower costs. What a sick joke.

Anonymous said...

Anyone read the article over in yesterday's Los Alamos Monitor about the cleanup stimulus funding that LANL is getting ($212 million)? About 70% of it is going to be used to hire new contractors down in ABQ to do the cleanup work at LANL.

PHEEEW-EEE! Can you smell the rotten political pork being passed around?

Anonymous said...

" sounds to me like you are divorced and understandably so..."

Nope. Gay.

Ears are too sensitive.

Anonymous said...

" Webster's dictionary describes a wedding as the act of removing weeds from one's garden..."

what the heck was Webster smoking?

Anonymous said...

"...Overseas, Bechtel is working on renovations of three lines — Jubilee, Northern and Picadilly — of London’s Underground subway system under a 30-year contract..."

Damn. I and my family just rode those lines.

I hope the don't still use quickset epoxy inserts in oversize holes in the overhead position to secure tunnel retainers like they did in the Big Dig....crash....

Anonymous said...

"what the heck was Webster smoking?"

it's a simpson's quote. i think it was when homer becomes ordained and was going to marry patty and her girlfriend.

Anonymous said...

Any more on the ADTR Mike Burns whipping of the troops and theatening to put them out of business?

Anonymous said...

4/16 8:30 pm: "8:11 PM, with all due respect, F*ck you! (oh, and the horse you rode on). You must be from SF or the elsewhere (or just a manager) and sucking off the teet of the scientists who pay your f-in salaries."

Wow, struck a nerve, huh? Techno-nerds, unite! Your social skills (and intellect, and vocabulary) are about as expected for your ilk. Go bandage your sore teet.