Subject: LANL-ALL2287: Director's Outlook
Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:25:21 -0600
From: Distributions
To: LANL-ALL@lanl.gov
June 8, 2009
Positioning the Laboratory to meet global security challenges
President Obama announced in Prague earlier this spring that he and his Administration will work tirelessly to “ensure that terrorists never acquire a nuclear weapon.” In order to meet that goal, he announced “a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years.” He added, “We will set new standards, expand our cooperation with Russia, pursue new partnerships to lock down these sensitive materials.”
We see frequent evidence that the challenge of proliferation is not shrinking but in fact growing. We were reminded of this most recently by news reports that North Korea had attempted yet another nuclear test.
As you all know, the Laboratory has for decades played a significant role in what to date we have called Threat Reduction. Threat Reduction is not one mission but many, providing support to the NNSA’s nonproliferation efforts, to the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the broader intelligence community. Among other areas, the Lab has been a leader in developing technologies to detect and identify nuclear materials, as well as safeguards technologies that ensure that materials are secure and accounted for.
The work that LANL and the other NNSA laboratories do in this area is well recognized, and elements of that work were cited in the recent report of the bipartisan Strategic Posture Commission. In the area of nuclear weapons intelligence analysis, the Commission specifically noted that “For decades, the laboratories have provided unique insights into foreign weapons programs because of their ability to bring weapons design expertise to the study of such programs. As concern about nuclear proliferation and terrorism has grown over the last two decades, this expertise has been in rising demand.”
Given the importance of these mission areas to the Laboratory’s future and their increasing emphasis by the Administration, I have elevated the level of the Laboratory’s leadership position in this area to principal associate director, or PAD.
This new organization, which includes programs in nonproliferation, intelligence support, defense, counterterrorism, and homeland security, will lead the Laboratory’s initiatives to meet the nation’s global security challenges.
In the coming weeks, I will formally announce my selection for the PAD Global Security.
Lab Director Michael Anastasio
Contact: directorsoutlook@lanl.gov
Director Anastasio addresses the Laboratory workforce in a periodic message.
Director's Outlook: 20090607551
35 comments:
More management.
I wonder what kind of D student will be brought in from Bechtel for the PAD position?
At risk of stating the obvious: why has it taken you a full year to fill such an important position, Mikey?
To anonymous at 6/9/09 7:09 AM, I was working on more important things such as PBIs.
MIKEY!
"President Obama announced in Prague earlier this spring that he and his Administration will work tirelessly to “ensure that terrorists never acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Well, in the remote chance they do acquire one of our nukes, why not make sure it has all the latest safety and security technologies rather than an older & more plentiful, HMX based nuke.
Does another one of Mike's cronies from Livermore need a high-paying job?
* North Korea would use nuclear weapons in a 'merciless offensive' *
Associated Press
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a "merciless offensive" if provoked — its latest bellicose rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring any international punishment for its recent atomic test blast.
...Pyongyang raised tensions a notch by reviving its rhetoric in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper today.
"Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means...as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country's dignity and sovereignty even a bit," said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as "offensive" in nature. Pyongyang has long claimed that its nuclear weapons program is a deterrent and only for self-defense against what it calls US attempts to invade it.
============
Meanwhile, back here in the US, Obama and the Congress set LANL on a steady course of budgetary downsizing, low worker morale, unsustainable high costs, national security neglect and further staffing attrition. The 'Best and Brightest' are fleeing the labs, as recent official reports make very clear.
The NNSA labs need to be radically made-over in terms of their management and funding profile, yet continue down the same well worn path of mis-management under the leadership of a broken and risk adverse NNSA and a for-profit construction company called Bechtel. Obama says "go bring me another rock" (i.e., another official reports about the declining weapons complex), and so it goes. The trend only steepens.
Livermore and the 3 letter agencies already do all of this. Why should the taxpayer pay for another mouth to feed?
"Positioning the Laboratory to meet global security challenges"
TRANSLATION: FTE costs for TSMs next year are going up... way up! Overhead rates will need to be raised to pay for this huge new layer of additional bloated executive LANS management. Better get to work on those new funding proposals quickly and remember to pad them with and extra 20% to help pay for Mike's new buddies.
This isn't really new. It's just the already existing TR getting recognized as a PAD, as far as I can tell.
Not so.
Mikey said that he would be
advertising for a new PAD.
While 8:01 was being sarcastic, the sentence is true and correct. PBIs are what the lab owner NNSA wants. The director should not work on other things until PBIs are met.
You are too cute 10:46, with your "The 'Best and Brightest' are fleeing the labs..."
Anyone left is too slow-witted to have left.
"Mikey said that he would be
advertising for a new PAD."
Isn't the new PAD Beason's replacement? That person has already been selected, but not announced.
2:17 PM, this position was advertised many months ago and the preferred individual and his hire package have recently been vetted by both the LANS Board of Governers and UC. This is not a "new" position, only an elevation of the old Doug Beason ADTR job.
2:17 PM... WTF is that about? LANL has been in this business for years. Nuclear Safeguards were literally invented here. Get a clue.
To paraphrase Ms. Mackenzie M. Eaglen of Heritage Foundation, I would like to say, "Protecting the Nuclear Arsenal and Nuclear Weapons Complex by Investing in Scientists and Next-Generation Nuclear Weapons, Its Delivery Systems, And Adopt Missile Defense."
But, the anti-nukes, and anti-military amongst the White House, Congress, MSM, and the general public acts in a total different direction, e.g. no protecting of the nuclear arsenal and nuclear complex, as well as no investments in any scientists and engineers, and a very aggressive no to next-generation nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, and a no to missile defense, but an aggressive seek to ratify the CTBT by the Senate, and arbitrary follow-on treaties to START, and the Moscow Treaty, e.g. "Too Much Too Soon" to paraphrase the New York Dolls.
What is required from the nuclear weapons complex, DOE and DoD, and is it a path forward out of this stalemate, and labyrith?
Yes, if there is a will towards that direction, like the path shown by Dr. Edward Teller, that during all his adult life pushed for nuclear weapons and nuclear power, first during the Manhattan Project and the nuclear bombing of Japan, later with the hydrogen bomb, pushing and defending nuclear power, the SDI Project, the win of the Cold War, Missile Defense, and to protect US from terrorist attacks.
PS: We don´t just have a left wing President. We have a caricature of a left wing President.
Obama is a living answer to the question: "Can they really be as stupid as conservatives say they are?"
"Yes we can!"
PPS: For an in depth analyze of Pres. Obama, I recommend, "The Obama File, An Historical Archive," http://theobamafile.com/, where his weak US national security and foreign policy is shown 24/7/365, as well as his non-valid birth certificate, et cetera.
PPPS: "Protecting the Protectors by Investing in People and Next-Generation Equipment," by Mackenzie Eaglen, http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/sr0054.cfm.
Hey, 7:44.
You forgot the part about how Obama is going to take our guns away.
6/9/09 8:03 PM
I didn´t forget, but I will follow the Obama file closely, and you prefer a non-Obama file, e.g. it should be closed immediately, due to the fact it tells to much truths of Pres. Barack Obama.
Frank, Doug:
I think some of the Livermore whackos are here...
"In the coming weeks, I will formally announce my selection for the PAD Global Security."
The obvious choice would be John Pike. He already has the domain name!
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/staff/pike.htm
Deterrence theory is based largely upon the notion of a rational opponent that does not want their cities incinerated. Given North Korea's predilection for starving their own people, it is not clear that a bigger, better stockpile and complex in the U.S. is going to have any effect. There are other reasons to vigorously debate the future nuclear posture, but North Korea doesn't seem rush to the top of the list.
9:25 pm: It's not about North Korea, It's about, to paraphrase Obama, "making sure no terrorist gets a WORKABLE nuclear weapon" (from the US).
Stimulus money is pouring into ORNL. It's now going to be used to help them build the world's fastest supercomputer.
Congress forbid any stimulus money going to the NNSA research labs for science. Only money for some cleanup was allowed and most of that funding at LANL will be spent on subcontractors.
This really sucks! And note that ORNL is apparently doing a lot of hiring for their computer science work. Is it any wonder that John Turner recently left LANL to go work for a rapidly growing ORNL?
==============================
Jaguar may soon be world's fastest computer
(Knoxville News, June 9)
Thanks to a rapid upgrade with stimulus money, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's "Jaguar" will likely become the world's fastest computer within a few months. The Cray XT5 supercomputer already is the world's fastest machine for open scientific uses.
The University of Tennessee's "Kraken," which is housed at ORNL and funded by the National Science Foundation, is also being upgraded with new six-core processors and will join Jaguar as a member of the exclusive petaflops club -- capable of more than 1,000 trillion calculations per second.
Jeff Nichols, ORNL's interim associate lab director for scientific computing, said the new six-core "Istanbul" processors from AMD are expected to arrive later this summer and will rev up Jaguar's peak processing capability to "well over 2 petaflops." That's more than 2,000 trillion mathematical calculations per second.
Although nothing is certain, Nichols said he was "fairly confident" that Jaguar would become the world's fastest computer sometime this fall. The ORNL supercomputer is currently ranked second behind the IBM Roadrunner machine at Los Alamos National Lab.
The new processing capability will be a huge benefit to science, allowing researchers to tackle increasingly complex models of climate change and simulate advanced sources of energy, the ORNL official said.
...ORNL's National Center for Computational Sciences continues to expand its role as an international hub for scientific computing and is attracting talent from other institutions.
The most recent hire was David Bader from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Yesterday was his first day at ORNL, becoming the program manager for climate change research, and today he is testifying in Washington before a subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee.
Nichols said ORNL's scientific computing center has averaged one new hire per week for the past five years.
==============================
blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/munger
/2009/06
/jaguar_to_be_worlds_fastest_co.html
To 9:05 PM, and you heard it here first ... the answer for a long time has been William J. Lynn who outbeat Mike Burns for his DOD post. Mike is not a happy camper and this is the second time he has been ousted by Will.
9:43,
It doesn't suck. All is going according to plan. Nanos initiated it, NNSA followed through. Bingaman & Udall approve. What are you complaining about?
LANL is all about plutonium production now. Fast HPC is not needed for LANL's new mission. What would a construction company do with a big fast cluster, anyhow?
Get with the program, or move to Oak Ridge, if they'd have you.
6/9/09 8:34 PM
Do you practice groupthink? (I don´t.)
This William J. Lynn? Wants to come to LANL? Holy cr@p.
WILLIAM J. LYNN, III
Deputy Secretary of Defense
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William J. Lynn III is the 30th Deputy Secretary of Defense. Mr. Lynn’s career has included extensive public service at various levels within government. Mr. Lynn served as the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) from 1997 until 2001 and for four years prior to that he was the Director of Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Before entering the Department of Defense in 1993, Mr. Lynn served for six years on the staff of Senator Edward Kennedy as liaison to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Prior to 1987, he was a senior fellow at the National Defense University and was on the professional staff of the Institute for Defense Analyses. From 1982 to 1985, he served as the executive director of the Defense Organization Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Mr. Lynn also has experience in the private sector from 2001-2009. He served as senior vice president of Government Operations and Strategy at Raytheon Company. He also served as executive vice president of DFI International, a Washington-based management consulting firm, from 2001 to 2002.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Mr. Lynn has a law degree from Cornell Law School and a master’s in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. His publications include a book, Toward a More Effective Defense, as well as articles in various newspapers and professional journals. He has been recognized for numerous professional and service contributions, including three DoD medals for distinguished public service, the Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and awards from the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Nope. Beason's replacement will be William Reese, Jr., Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Laboratories and Basic Sciences.
"Isn't the new PAD Beason's replacement?" (6:37 PM)
Yes, but Beason was running the whole TR operation only as and AD, and not as a PAD.
Creating a new, highly compensated postion for TR PAD means you'll now have to have several ADs sitting under the PAD with all the ADs associated staff along with the newly created PAD position and all the PADs associated staff.
It's going to be an expensive new burden to LANL's overhead. But then, what does LANS care about that?
LANL was only allowed stimulus money to do some cleanup work, but look at all the good it will do for the LLC corporate partners.
The FOBs ("Friends of Bechtel") will be hired as environmental cleanup subcontractors. It fits in well with the recent decision to hire another FOB, COMPA, to handle hiring and management of all subcontract positions at LANL.
Bechtel is using FOBs as one of their major components to milk this lab for additional cash.
7:32 AM
Is this the guy?
www.defenselink.mil/home/blog/docs/Rees_William_S._Jr._DR_DUSD.pdf
Got more than 1,000 hits from a search on this name.
6/10/09 6:50 PM, let's hope so!
To 8:15 AM - why would someone so smart with such a distinguished resume want to blow it all and come work at LANL?
To 8:15 AM - why would someone so smart with such a distinguished resume want to blow it all and come work at LANL?
Show me da money!! The huge bonuses makes all kinds of sluts sell their souls ... eh, Mary, Sue, Alan, Terry?
Knock it off, people. Unless it involves a senior manager and an inflatable sheep, I don't want to see any comments about sexual preferences.
"Unless it involves a senior manager and an inflatable sheep, I don't want to see any comments about sexual preferences." (Frank)
Why does it have to be an inflatable sheep. Wouldn't private encounters with real sheep be even more relevant? And just think how many sheeple are available at LANL for the taking!
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