COMPLEX 2030: The Costs and Consequences of the Plan to Build a New Generation of Nuclear Weapons

A Special Report By
William D. Hartung and Frida Berrigan

April 2007

Arms Trade Resource Center
World Policy Institute at the New School
66 Fifth Avenue, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10011

[This excerpt was submitted by one of our blog's readers. The entire report can be downloaded as a PDF here.]

Bechtel

“We are not in the construction and engineering business. We are in the business of
making money.”[70]

In December 2005, construction giant Bechtel was part of the consortium that won a $553 million seven-year management contract to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory. That may have been the first time many Americans heard the two words “Bechtel” and “nuclear weapons” in the same sentence, but the company has been profiting from nuclear weapons and power for generations.

The company is involved in work at a number of other facilities in the nuclear weapons complex, including the Pantex plant, the Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, the Savannah River Site, and the Nevada Test Site. In FY 2005, Bechtel received over $1 billion in prime contracts for nuclear-related work at the Nevada Test Site and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. It was also involved in partnerships at Oak Ridge and the test site that generated an additional $1.1 billion in prime contracts (see Table III, page 16). The privately-held, San Francisco-based company has been involved in some of the world’s largest and most ambitious construction projects– the Hoover Dam, the first oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia, the Alaskan oil pipeline, and the nation’s first nuclear power plants.

Bechtel has helped design and/or build 45 nuclear power plants in 22 states.[71] The company also manages the missile test range on Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific, and is building the launch complex in Alaska for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system.[72] But the company is currently most known- or most infamous- for its work in Iraq. The company has reaped tens of millions of dollars in contracts to repair Iraq’s schools, for example, but an independent report found that many of the schools Bechtel claimed to have completed, “haven’t been touched,” and a number of schools remained “in shambles.” One “repaired” school was overflowing with “unflushed sewage.”

In 1951, Bechtel built the “world’s first nuclear reactor designed to generate electrical power” in Idaho.[73] Far from America’s heartland, the company planted the seeds for today’s South Asian arms race, building India’s first nuclear plant at Tarapur which produced the plutonium used in the country’s 1998 atomic bomb test.[74]

Not only did Bechtel’s activities help catalyze the nuclear arms race in South Asia, their plant created serious health risks—it experienced major leaks, causing severe radiation exposure in the area. This toxic phenomenon affected many of Bechtel’s nuclear power stations. In fact, by the 1970s, the entire generation of reactor plants Bechtel began building in the late 1950s were not in compliance with minimum Atomic Energy Commission safety requirements. When Bechtel employees complained that the company used “substandard building techniques and faulty welding techniques in the construction of nuclear power plants,” they were ignored. [75]

In the face of these challenges, Bechtel transferred its business emphasis from nuclear construction to nuclear cleanup—a lucrative switch. The company has been awarded numerous contracts for cleanup in past decades at some of DOE’s largest former weapons productions sites. At the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, for example, Bechtel is working on technology to turn nuclear waste into glass. But, the estimated costs of the plant doubled in one year to about $10 billion while the completion date slipped from 2011 to 2017. Members of Congress have proposed that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission take over Bechtel’s management because of these cost overruns and delays.[76]

Bechtel president Steve Bechtel is not ashamed to talk about his company’s use of influence peddling to promote its business interest: “In this business, you get to know people, sit on their boards and one day when something comes up, they ask you to take on a project. One thing leads to another.”[77]

Bechtel alumni include former Reagan administration Secretary of State George Shultz, who served as the company’s president and director from 1974-1982, right before being tapped President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State.[78] Former Bechtel President, and current Bechtel board member W. Kenneth Davis served as President Reagan’s deputy secretary of Energy and head of the Atomic Energy Commission.[79]

Bechtel spent $1.3 million in political contributions between 1998 and 2006. Its lobbying expenditures for 2006 totaled $620,000.[80]

Notes

70 Laton McCartney, Friends in High Places The Bechtel Story: The Most Secret Corporation and how it Engineered the World, Simon & Schuster, 1998, p.96.
71 Jim Riccio, “Incompetence, Wheeling and Dealing: The Real Bechtel” Multinational Monitor, October, 1989.
72 Bechtel Annual Report, 2005.
73 Pratap Chatterjee, “The Earth Wrecker,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 31, 2000.
74 Bechtel: Profiting from Destruction, Public Citizen, June 2003, p. 18.
75 Public Citizen, June 2003, p. 19.
76 Pratap Chatterjee, “Bechtel’s Nuclear Nightmares,” CorpWatch, May 1, 2003.
77 McCartney, 1998, p.96.
78 Hoover Institute biography of George P. Shultz, http://www.hoover.org/bios/shultz/.
79 Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Diana B. Henriques, “Bechtel Has Ties in Washington, and to Iraq,” New York Times, April 18, 2003.
80 Data on political contributions and lobbying expenditures were calculated by the authors based on information provided on the “Open Secrets” data base of the Center for Responsive Politics.

BSRI's 20 Million Safe Hours Sets National Standard

Posted : Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:22:01 GMT
Author : Bechtel National, Inc.
Category : PressRelease

FREDERICK, Md., June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Bechtel today announced that its Savannah River, Inc. (BSRI) construction employees have set a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) standard as well as a U.S. corporate record by working 20 million consecutive hours without a lost-time accident.

This record-breaking accomplishment means Savannah River Site construction workers have been free of serious industrial illness and injury since 1998. By comparison, based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average construction firm would have experienced 241 lost-time injuries during the same time period.

"This phenomenal achievement has not only set a Bechtel U.S. record, but also a new industry standard," said Tom Hash, President, Bechtel Systems & Infrastructure, Inc. "Our employees at BSRI have made a first-class accomplishment in a hazardous industry where 1 million safe hours is considered outstanding."

After BSRI reached 18 million safe hours in May 2006, the achievement was cited by DOE as a first.

"I can think of no other construction organization that has logged 18-million-plus exposure hours without a 'days-away' illness or injury," said DOE Secretary Samuel W. Bodman in a congratulatory letter to BSRI President Michael Graham. "Overall DOE has an outstanding record in this regard, but when it comes to construction safety your absence of days-away cases sets an enviable example," Bodman added. "This is especially true because of the unusual hazardous work posed at DOE nuclear sites in addition to the normal risks of construction activities," the secretary concluded.

In an announcement to employees, BSRI Manager of Construction Ben Young said, "This accomplishment shows that you are professionals, dedicated to accident prevention and committed to looking out for each other."

Bechtel Savannah River, Inc. (BSRI) supports Washington Savannah River Company in the management and operation of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) 310-square-mile Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. BSRI is responsible for soil and groundwater closure projects, project management, and design and construction services. Bechtel National, Inc.

CONTACT: Michael G. Kidder, +1-240-379-3261, or Brenda K. Thompson,
+1-240-379-3443, both of Bechtel National, Inc.

Web site: http://www.bechtel.com/

Email Exchange with a Loyal Blog Reader

Brad,
What happened to the Bechtel of the 80s? I had a friend who lost his job at Bechtel for allowing a customer to take him to a college football game. Were they crooks back then too? Was I young and dumb? Or have their ethics eroded to this pathetic state in just two decades?

Let me know your preference. I'll post it exactly as you sent it or remove the names.
Thanks,
Pinky


Pinky,
Here's an e-mail from a friend of mine (not a current or former LANL
employee, but just a plain US citizen); the Bechtel cancer is deeply
embedded in Los Alamos now, and the oncological surgery will have to be
invasive to have any effect. Maybe radiation will be required?

-Brad

P.S. As to the 'ethics' of Bechtel, or Halliburton, or just about any member of the Carlyle Group of defense contractors, no amount of money is enough to assuage their guilt, so they just keep raking more in.


Begin forwarded message:

> From: 'The Unafaxer'
> Date: April 11, 2007 1:19:36 PM MDT
> To: Brad
> Subject: Bechtel
>
> 15 minute segment on 'The News Hour w/ Jim Lehrer' Monday news show
> (PBS)
>
> Bechtel, via FEMA, received a $3.4 billion no bid cost plus contract
> for all the trailers that were constructed and moved into the Katrina
> Hurricane area.
>
> Many of the trailers are now vacant, unlivable, etc. but Bechtel
> won't let them be unhooked or moved as Bechtel STILL receives a
> monthly maintenance fee.
>
> . . . even though nothing is being done to maintain what are
> essentially worthless trailers.
>
> These guys REALLY ARE crooks . . . ! ! ! ! !
[Read the news segment The Unafaxer refers to here.]

POGO Aims Higher

Watchdogs rank Bechtel among worst fed contractors

By Dave Wedge, Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter
Thursday, August 9, 2007

While Big Dig general contractor Bechtel Parsons/Brinkerhoff has mostly avoided responsibility for woes on the oft-criticized $15 billion project, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group has tabbed the company as one of the top violators among federal government contractors.
According to a July 18 report by the Project on Government Oversight, Bechtel has more than $4 billion in federal government contracts and has had 10 “instances of misconduct” since 1995, resulting in $1.9 million in fines and damages.
The incidents cited by POGO involve discrimination settlements, asbestos violations, hazardous waste and radioactive materials laws, nuclear-safety violations and other environmental infractions.
The report also refers to a National Transportation Safety Board report that partly blamed the fatal 2006 Big Dig collapse on mistakes made by Bechtel.

Bechtel ranked 14th out of the nation’s top 50 firms on POGO’s Federal Contractor Misconduct Database. The top offender was Lockheed Martin, which had 40 incidents of misconduct resulting in $288 million in damages.

In one instance cited by POGO, Bechtel was slapped with a $162,000 fine in Hanford, Wash., after workers at a plutonium plant were found mishandling hazardous material. The company also was hit with a $330,000 fine that was later reduced to $198,000 at a Hanford water treatment plant for shoddy inspections and other violations.
In 1998, the company was fined $90,000 by New Hampshire environmental officials for violating wetlands laws during construction of a natural-gas pipeline.
A Bechtel spokesman said the instances represent “less than 1/20th of 1 percent of our total government contracts since 1995,” and that the company “stands behind that record.”
dwedge@bostonherald.com

Bechtel reports record year in annual report

San Francisco Business Times - 11:49 AM PDT Monday, April 9, 2007

International engineering giant Bechtel Corp. reported revenue of $20.5 billion for 2006 in its annual report.

A year ago, the San Francisco company reported $18.1 billion in revenue.

The privately held company's oil, gas and chemicals unit led Bechtel to a record year, the company said. Half the company's revenue came from outside North America.

In June, the company's Bechtel National unit won a contract to jointly manage Los Alamos National Laboratory with the University of California for the U.S. government.

Bechtel said 52 people working for it were killed in Iraq during the year.

Looking ahead, Bechtel said it booked $24.7 billion in new work during the year.

The company is led by chairman and CEO Riley Bechtel and president and COO Adrian Zaccaria.

Construction Companies, the NNSA, and DOE National Laboratories

At what point is somebody important going to admit that it was a huge mistake to have sold off LANL to Bechtel, a large construction company? How much more evidence will it take before somebody owns up to the fact that that the additional $200 million it costs each year to have Bechtel, hiding under the umbrella of the LANS Limited Liability Corporation running LANL will never be reclaimed through "increased efficiency of operations", as was claimed back in 2005 when NNSA put LANL up on the bidding block?

When the University of California operated the LANL contract, they did so for a fee of $8 million per year. Granted, they did a terrible job during the last twenty or thirty years of LANL's history. Remember Pete Nanos, UC's grand plan for putting LANL back on the straight and narrow? Look where that got us. However, three years later LANS and Bechtel, in retrospect, make UC look like a paragon of efficiency. And that's saying something. If you worked at LANL under UC, you know what I mean.

Before anybody rushes to explain to *why* no one has owned up to the horrible mistake that NNSA made back in 2005 when they put the LANL contract up for bid, I already think I know the answer. Let's see if you agree.

But before we get too much farther on in this ramble, let's just take a second to thank former New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici one more time for his brilliant decision to create the NNSA. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks, Pete.

Ok, back to *why* nobody will admit that the NNSA, and their decision to sell off LANL (and LLNL) to a large, for-profit military industrial construction contractor was a huge mistake. I actually think there are three, perhaps four possible explanations for this massively flawed decision, and why nobody will now own up to it:

Explanation Number 1. Congress and Bill Richardson, ex-DOE Secretary of Energy actually believed Linton Brooks, then head of the NNSA, and Tom D'Agostino when they made their claim that the new LLC would recoup their approximately $200 / year costs through improved efficiencies of operation. Nobody will admit to having believed that now, since it is so patently absurd to have ever believed the fairy tail, in retrospect. Domenici is no longer around, so he's certainly not going to 'fess up to falling for such a whopper. Bingaman? Udall? Don't make me laugh.

Explanation Number 2. Nobody believed Brooks and D'Agostino, because they were all in agreement with the (then) secret plan to strip all non-plutonium pit science from LANL, and turn the rest of the place into the next Rocky Flats Plant. Costs? Efficiency of operation? Who gives a shit? Now, however, since the plans to build a new "Taj Mahal" of a plutonium science complex at LANL seem to be falling apart, nobody is going to admit having been a backer of that plan.

Explanation Number 3. Everybody believed Brooks and D'Agostino on their claims that the new LLC would be more cost-efficient than UC had been. I guess it is possible for that many people high up in the decision chain to be that stupid, but who would ever admit to it after the fact?

Explanation Number 4. Bechtel wanted the LANL contract, so Bechtel bought the contract through the usual corporate/political process; i.e. they bought the miscellaneous government officials responsible for approving the sale, thus guaranteeing the sale.

Take a look at LANL and LLNL today. They are buried under unbelievable mountains of useless bureaucracy. They make the old days of working under the University of California look like a finely tuned Swiss clock. Look at the latest gems that Bechtel has bequeathed upon the two sister labs: Ladder Training for both sites, and mandatory Bicycle Helmet Training for anybody at LLNL who wants to ride one of the old clunker bikes they have laying around the place for staff to use to get from one building to another. Have you ever been to Livermore, and have you ever seen one of those bikes? First, it's flat as a pancake at LLNL, and second, you could not get one of those old clunkers going fast enough to hurt anybody, and finally, it has worked fine the just way it is now for umpteen years.

These are just two of the latest dictoms of idiocy that our fine new for-profit contractor has brought to the table. Why is nobody paying attention? Where is DOE Secretary Chu while all of this is happening? Good questions; I have no idea.

--Doug

Energy Dept. acknowledges lab's e-mail security lapse

Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
Saturday, June 16, 2007

Officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory sent top-secret information about nuclear weapons through open e-mail networks, fueling concerns that security lapses, long an issue at the New Mexico lab, have not been solved by the recent installation of a UC-Bechtel management team.

The latest security breach was acknowledged Friday by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman after it was revealed by two congressmen.

In a letter obtained by The Chronicle, Bodman assured Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, that the incident was immediately and fully investigated and that "appropriate measures have been taken to address the situation."

He gave no further details other than to blame the incident on "human error," and did not indicate when the breach occurred.

"An individual did in fact unintentionally transmit sensitive information through an unsecured e-mail system," Bodman said in the letter.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who chairs the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, called the latest security lapse a fresh example of Los Alamos' "mind-bogglingly poor track record" on security issues.

The scandal comes less than two years after the Energy Department awarded a consortium led by the University of California and Bechtel Corp. a new contract to run Los Alamos partly in order to prevent a repeat of numerous scandals involving the security of weapons information at the lab. The consortium operates under the name Los Alamos National Security LLC.

A similar managerial consortium -- one that is also dominated by UC and Bechtel -- was selected May 8 to manage the nation's other nuclear weapons design lab, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore.

According to the Associated Press, the breach at Los Alamos occurred when a consultant to the Los Alamos National Security board sent an e-mail containing highly classified, non-encrypted nuclear weapons information to several board members, who forwarded it to other members.

The news agency identified the consultant as Harold Smith. A spokeswoman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation's nuclear weapons labs, would not confirm that, but said a person had been issued an infraction. Two more infractions during the calendar year, she said, would lead to an unspecified personnel action.

Spokesmen Chris Harrington of UC and Jeff Berger of Los Alamos declined comment.

Lab critics jumped on the news of the latest security breach.

"The UC-Bechtel consortium at Los Alamos has taken what was a bad managerial situation and made it a lot worse," said Marylia Kelley, head of Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, which is based in Livermore. "As long as the United States continues to design and develop new nuclear weapons, some of that information can and will leak out. ... Better management cannot solve that deeper problem."

After the news leaked out, Dingell and Stupak wrote Bodman demanding to know why the breach wasn't reported to Congress for six months, even though an unidentified UC official informed the National Nuclear Security Administration of the breach on Jan. 19.

The timing delay raises the question of whether another scandal is being covered up -- in effect, the possibility that authorities dragged their feet for almost six months investigating the security breach so that UC and Bechtel could win their joint bid for the Livermore contract without suffering any taint of scandal. Dingell is well known for initiating congressional investigations into such federal malfeasance.

"Livermore laboratory has lost numerous keys to classified areas, and some of those keys have gone missing for many, many months before their loss was reported to upper management," Kelley said. "In another instance, one of the main laboratory gates was left unlocked over a holiday period -- and I'm not talking about a little gate, I'm talking about (a gate with) two lanes in and two lanes out."

E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com.

Graham to lead Lab's environmental programs

Michael Graham is the Laboratory's new associate director for environmental programs (ADEP). Graham succeeds Susan Stiger, who has taken a new assignment with Bechtel National.

Graham comes to Los Alamos from the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site.

"Under Susan's leadership, the Laboratory has made great strides in its performance under the New Mexico Consent Order, significantly increasing shipments of transuranic waste to WIPP, and strengthening the Laboratory's groundwater monitoring program," said Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio. "I want to personally thank Susan for putting us on a positive path for the future."

For the past two years, Graham has been president of Bechtel Savannah River Inc., the contractor responsible for more than $400 million annually of construction, environmental remediation, decommissioning, and dismantlement at the DOE site. Previously at Bechtel Savannah River, Graham was a vice president with responsibility for a variety of soil and groundwater closure projects.

Prior to his Savannah River assignments, Graham managed for Bechtel environmental cleanup and restoration work at what was then known as Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and DOE's Hanford Site. He joined the Bechtel group of companies in 1996 following management positions with Battelle Memorial Institute (Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, Richland, Washington) and Rockwell International (Hanford Operations, Richland).

Graham earned a doctoral degree in geological sciences from Indiana University. He earned a master's degree in geological sciences from Indiana University and a bachelor's degree in science from Notre Dame.

Hippocratic Oath Overruled by Bechtel

Frank,
When Bechtel/LANS took over, doctors and medical providers at Occupational Medicine treated patients to diagnose and heal.

Imported Bechtel managers would tell the medical staff that they needed to reduce the number of “recordable” injuries and were told by same staff that their duty was to their patient and to uphold the Hippocratic Oath. Those were the early days of the transition.

Now, three years later, Occupational Medicine is bringing in an OSHA trainer from Denver to “instruct” them on what makes an injury recordable. This is important because recordable injuries are a metric by which LANS is judged, and which can determine those upper management bonuses.

No longer will an employee be treated to heal and minimize pain, but only in the most minimal method so as to avoid making their injury recordable. Examples include sending employees with serious ergonomic injuries away with instructions to take prevention classes, rather than referring to physical therapy. Physical therapy, you see, is a “trigger” which would make that injury recordable and jeopardize those bonuses.

What to do? Since (some) providers at Occupational Medicine no longer have your healing as a prime motivator, here is some advice.

If you are injured at work, go ahead and report it and go to Occupational Medicine. Expect them to minimize the injury to you and send you away with ibuprofen or some other over the counter medication. You therefore do not become one of their “recordable” cases.

If you are still in pain, or have questions, see your personal health care provider, who is still working to heal you and reduce pain.

Good luck! Remember, Occupational Medicine has become an extension of LANS/Bechtel Management- your wellness is NOT their goal- only their injury/illness statistics.

-Anonymous

Anonymous,
I doubt most contractors know Occupational Medicine exists. I certainly would have gone there before the Los Alamos Medical Center. It has been frustrating having to explain to doctors that TA-55 is not the UFO landing strip in Nevada.
Frank

Blogging Bechtel Blunders

Wyden pushes Hanford 'accountability'

Posted: 2:37 PM, May. 10, 2007
Last Updated: 2:38 PM, May. 10, 2007

WASHINGTON - Citing a recent report by the Inspector General of the Department of Energy -- which stated that the control system intended for use at the Nuclear Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford "does not meet the stringent procedures, plans, specifications, or work practices associated with nuclear quality standards" -- Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to Secretary Samuel Bodman Thursday asking what actions the Department will be taking in response to the Inspector General's findings.

"On top of the litany of problems already plaguing construction of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, the Inspector General's report raises serious concerns about the Department's ability to manage nuclear waste clean-up," Wyden said. "Failure to properly manage the project has already added eight years of delay and billions of dollars to the taxpayer's bill. Assurances need to be made that this project is being taken seriously."

In March 2006, Wyden requested that the Inspector General conduct an investigation after a former employee of Bechtel National, Inc - the U.S. Department of Energy's principle contractor for the Hanford Nuclear Waste Treatment Plant Project - raised concerns about his former employer's use of unproven and flawed control systems.

Wyden's letter to Secretary Bodman is below. (To read the Inspector General's Report in its entirety, visit: http://wyden.senate.gov/DOE_Hanford_Report.pdf).

The Honorable Samuel Bodman

Secretary

U.S. Department of Energy

1000 Independence Ave. SW

Washington, DC 20585

Dear Mr. Secretary,

In March 2006, I requested that the Inspector General of the Department of Energy conduct an investigation into complaints that equipment and control systems destined for use in the Nuclear Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford did not meet nuclear safety and quality standards. The Inspector General has just completed the first portion of this investigation concerning the plant's integrated control system. The Inspector General found that this system "...does not meet the stringent procedures, plans, specifications, or work practices associated with nuclear quality standards." For its part, the Department's contractor continues to insist that it has done nothing wrong and the proposed control system is acceptable. I am therefore requesting an explanation of what actions the Department intends to take in response to the Inspector General's findings.

The Inspector General's report quite clearly identifies a number of areas where the Department's contractor failed to establish adequate quality assurance requirements to ensure that the proposed control system met the Department's standards for nuclear activities. For example, the report states that the prime contractor - Bechtel National - had not made sure that subcontractors working on the system had appropriate quality assurance programs, had not clearly set forth the quality assurance standards the system was supposed to meet, and had not consistently applied those standards throughout the plant.

The report also concluded that the Department itself had not properly managed this activity and made sure that Bechtel National was meeting the Department's quality assurance standards. In fact, the report notes that the Department "...was unaware of the nuclear quality assurance standards issue prior to our review."

Unfortunately, this is just the latest example of serious management problems concerning the design and construction of this high-level waste treatment facility - a facility that is essential to the clean up of millions of gallons of high-level waste at the Hanford site. This facility is already being delayed approximately eight years until 2019 at a cost that has more than doubled - from $5.8 billion estimated in 2003 to this year's estimate of $12.3 billion. DOE still lacks a viable plan for more than half of the so-called low-activity waste that is supposed to be removed from the waste tanks and which also has to be vitrified.

Please describe what actions the Department will take to address the Inspector General's findings concerning the design and procurement of this control system and the Department's management of the Waste Treatment Facility. I look forward to your response at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Ron Wyden

United States Senator

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Frank,
A day late and a dollar short, as usual.
-Anonymous

To/MS: Master Management
From/MS: Michael R. Anastasio, A100
Phone/Fax: 7-5101/7-2997
Symbol: DIR-08-142
Date: June 6, 2008



SUBJECT: Organizational Changes and Personnel Assignments

At a recent senior leadership meeting I announced several organizational changes and personnel assignments. These changes further my objective of aligning our organization and management team with a strategic direction that enables the Laboratory to successfully address future challenges and opportunities. This includes the need to be more efficient and effective in providing infrastructure and project management support that enables science and mission delivery.

Asa Kelley, Associate Director for Project Management (PM), has accepted a new Bechtel assignment in Tennessee. Tom McKinney, a Bechtel Principal Vice President with strong management experience, has been selected to replace Asa effective June 9, 2008. Tom's most recent assignment was as Deputy General Manager of Bechtel SAIC Company, LLC, for the design and licensing of the Yucca Mountain Project. Tom holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Masters in Nuclear Engineering. With the projected volume of construction activity at the Laboratory and the varied and complex project management portfolio, this position is critical to the Laboratory's future and the shaping of a modern infrastructure. I greatly appreciate Asa's contributions to setting a solid baseline and correct path for project management improvement and wish him continued success in his career.

In addition, I have decided to reorganize functions that currently reside in the Infrastructure and Site Services (ISS) Directorate. The Emergency Operations Division will be transferred into the Safeguards and Security Directorate, the Facility Management and Operations functions will transfer to the Nuclear and High Hazard Operations Directorate along with the fire protection engineering functions, and the balance of the ISS functions, including maintenance and infrastructure planning, will be transferred to the Project Management Directorate. Jerry Ethridge, currently Associate Director for ISS, will be reassigned to the Weapons Physics Directorate. Jerry has been instrumental in facility management improvements over the past two years, including the assumption of work planning functions from KSL and the Footprint Reduction initiative, and I look forward to his continued contributions to the success of the Laboratory.

We recently announced the in-sourcing of the balance of KSL activities. Jay Johnson, Acting Deputy Associate Director for Project Management, has been assigned to lead the transition and will report to Mike Mallory, Principal Associate Director for Operations. John Bretkze, who has been on temporary assignment to manage operations for the Environmental Programs Directorate, will be reassigned as Deputy Associate Director for Project Management. Jay and John bring a wealth of Laboratory management experience to these two key assignments and they will no doubt continue their track record of success.

Bruce Schappell and Mark Schmitz have joined our management team. Bruce was most recently assigned to Bechtel Savannah River, and will support Sue Stiger, Associate Director for Environmental Programs, as Operations Deputy. Bruce brings twenty-eight years of project management and environmental program experience and will provide valuable expertise in support of our day-to-day environmental clean up activities. Bruce holds a Bachelor of Science as well as a Masters of Engineering.

Mark Schmitz will be supporting Bob McQuinn as the Deputy Associate Director for Nuclear and High Hazard Operations. Mark has twenty-seven years Department of Energy nuclear facilities and twenty-one years multifunctional management of complex nuclear facilities, including tritium, uranium, plutonium, and spent fuel processing facilities experience. Mark is well respected within the DOE Complex nuclear facilities and operations community and will be an excellent addition to the team.

Finally, David McCumber has expressed a desire to resume his legal career. As such he will transfer to the Laboratory's Office of Chief Counsel and will relinquish his position as Division Leader of Communications and Government Affairs. This change will be effective as soon as we are able to fill this critical vacancy for which we are currently conducting a national search. David has served in this position since 2004. He has done a commendable job serving an institution that has undergone continued change during that period.

Thank you for supporting these changes. Our goal is continuous improvement and these changes will further advance the strategic goals of the Laboratory.

New LANL Deputy Director

The following was a comment on last night's Holiday Email Quarantine post. There is also an announcement in today's LANL Daily News Bulletin. I was unable to find a photo or bio for this post, just a few stories about him being named the federal security director for O'Hare International Airport. Is he a relative of Gov. Bill Richardson? I don't know.


In typical LANS fashion, a major leadership change was announced today via LINKS - knowing full well that only 10% of the workforce is on site.

To/MS: LANL-All
From/MS: Michael R. Anastasio, A100
Phone/Fax: 7-5101/7-2997
Symbol: DIR-08-270
Date: November 25, 2008
SUBJECT: New LANL Deputy Director

I am pleased to announce that Isaac “Ike” Richardson has been named the new deputy director of the Laboratory, effective February 1, 2009. Ike will replace Jan Van Prooyen, who – after three years at the Lab and a distinguished 43-year career in national security matters – has announced his plans to retire in early 2009.

Ike brings 37 years of leadership experience to Los Alamos. He spent 31 years in the U.S. Navy, where he attained the rank of rear admiral. He commanded the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and provided strategic direction of large, complex organizations, such as the naval aircraft carrier program. He also provided oversight of storage and compliance programs for pre-positioned U.S. nuclear weapons assigned to NATO throughout Europe. He joined Bechtel in 2003. Most recently, Ike oversaw Bechtel’s civil infrastructure projects in Qatar, where he guided development of the $11 billion New Doha International Airport. Before that, he directed Bechtel’s Defense and Space division and Aviation business line. He has a master of science degree in aeronautical systems from the University of West Florida, a master of arts in strategy and policy from the Naval War College, and a bachelor of engineering degree from Vanderbilt University.

There will be a 60-day overlapping transition period between the two deputy directors. I personally want to thank Jan for his commitment to the Laboratory, valuable insights and extraordinary operational leadership over the last couple of years. Please join me over the coming weeks (and months) in wishing Jan the very best in his retirement.

Private executives hired at Livermore National Lab

By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
05/31/2007

For the first time, executives from private industry are taking places in the upper ranks of Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab, in some cases pushing aside career managers for the University of California.

Lab director George Miller on Wednesday named Bechtel vice president Steve Liedle as his second in command and six other executives from the San Francisco-based engineering giant and other private firms to key lab positions over business operations, safety, nuclear operations, facilities and more.

To make way, high-ranking executives of the lab - among them, nonproliferation and homeland security chief Ray Juzaitis, safety and environmental director William Bookless, associate director at large Bruce Warner, even human resources director and former lab counsel Jan Tulk - no longer would be listed as top managers when the new UC/Bechtel-led team takes charge in October. They along with all other lab staff in good standing will be offered jobs within the next six weeks, Miller said.

The lab's small yet respected Energy and Environmental Directorate disappeared altogether, subsumed under a new program called "global security" that includes everything from homeland security to nonproliferation policy and intelligence analysis on foreign weapons of mass destruction, all gathered under a former Army general and Battelle vice president John Doesburg.

Those areas and other unclassified research are expected to grow rapidly and become as much a part of the lab's bottom line as its bread-and-butter mission of designing and maintaining nuclear weapons, according to Miller.

"I think our belief is that the laboratory over the next decade or so is going to become much more balanced than it currently is. It's probably two-thirds or so nuclear stuff right now," he said, predicting "much more balance, a 50-50 kind of a deal" with more work devoted to homeland security, climate science and developing sources of clean energy and water.

"The sense of the laboratory was that many of these energy and environmental issues were going to become important to the future of the country and to the future of the globe," Miller said. "We believe all of these fall under the rubric of global security not just defense."

The management shakeup makes clear, however, that nuclear weapons remain front and center at Livermore. Under Miller and Liedle are five principal associate directors, and two of them - Bruce Goodwin over weapons and complex integration, and Ed Moses over the National Ignition Facility and Photon Science - are funded chiefly by the National Nuclear Security Administration, the nuclear weapons arm of the U.S. Energy Department. The other principal associates include former Bell Labs physicist Cherry Murray remaining over science and technology; Bechtel vice president Frank Russo over operations and business; and Battelle's Doesburg over global security.

Contact Ian Hoffman at ihoffman@angnewspapers.

The Perfect Storm

This warning was left on the recent Comment of The Week post. The news isn't all bad, however. The upcoming RIF will allow Bechtel's LANS to selectively expedite the process of weeding out the real "scientists", the trouble makers, and those with less seniority, leaving us with just the "C students". This type of staff is what Bechtel wants on hand for when they begin ramping up for the actual profitable operations: pit manufacturing. Bechtel isn't in this game for a measly $79 million per year.

--Pinky, with an assist from Gussie

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Word up. The budget situation for FY08 is more dire than most people at LANL fully realize. We may be looking at the need for some layoffs by Christmas and you can take it as a given that we'll be seeing significant layoffs by early Spring '08. LANL's budget for FY08 is shaping up to be extremely shaky especially for the weapons budget. We are about to enter the Perfect Storm. Beware of sugar-coated comfort words coming from LANS management over the next two months. Start preparing as best you can for the financial storm that is headed our way. It will hit with a bang beginning on October 1st. This is, without a doubt, the worst budget situation I've ever seen at LANL and I've been here long enough to see the peaks and the valleys. It's going to create an all out panic among a large segment of the workforce. I"m not trying to scare folks. It's just that being forewarned can help some people better cope with the bad situation we are about to face. At a minimum, you really need to keep all your employment options open as this next year unfolds. You're going to need every single one of them.

UC Team Receives Livermore Contract

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 8, 2007, 8:34 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A team co-led by the University of California is getting the management contract for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory despite past problems at the lab under the university's management, the Energy Department announced Tuesday.

The decision comes after a series of financial and security gaffes at the nation's premier nuclear weapons labs -- Lawrence Livermore in northern California and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico -- led the federal government to require competitive bidding for the management contracts for the first time.

The University of California had managed both labs since their inception.

''The University of California knows how to do research and development. It's the largest research institution at least in the country if not in the world,'' Tyler Przybylek, senior adviser at the National Nuclear Security Administration, said in announcing the decision.

At the same time Przybylek emphasized that UC will be partnering with Bechtel National Inc. to provide the management know-how that has sometimes been lacking at Lawrence Livermore.

A UC-Bechtel team won the Los Alamos contract in 2005.

Los Alamos has struggled with security lapses, credit card abuses, theft of equipment and other instances of mismanagement that subjected it to withering criticism from Congress, and led to the 2003 decision to bid out the contracts. Problems at Livermore were less dramatic but included the disappearance of an electronic key card and the loss of keys to perimeter gates and office doors.

California officials welcomed the decision to keep UC involved at both Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said it ''reaffirms the high standards of our public university system and the high quality of the talented and insightful employees at our research institutions.''

The UC-Bechtel team also includes BWX Technologies Inc.; Texas A&M University; Washington Group International; and Battelle Memorial Institute. The group beat out a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp.

The seven-year contract allows a maximum payment of $45.5 million per year depending on performance, with possible extensions for 13 more years. The annual budget of the lab is $1.6 billion.

In March, the Bush administration selected Lawrence Livermore for a controversial new weapons program that could lead to a new generation of nuclear warheads. Congress has reacted skeptically.

Lawrence Livermore, an 8,000-employee lab that opened its doors about 50 miles east of San Francisco in 1952, also works on stewardship of existing nuclear weapon stockpiles and conducts a variety of scientific research.

The Energy Department's decision to stick with UC drew criticism from a government watchdog group.

''It is ridiculous that after years of security breaches and safety debacles DOE would decide that the best way to fix these problems is by hiring the same incompetent contractors,'' said Peter Stockton, senior investigator for the Project On Government Oversight.

Toon Moves From Hill to Bechtel

By: Aoife McCarthy Politico.com
Jun 12, 2007 02:20 PM EST

Bechtel, an engineering, construction and project management company, has hired a senior staffer from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to lead the firm's D.C. office. Bernie Toon will be working with the Washington staff on Bechtel's government relations priorities, including the funding of Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National laboratories.

Toon came to Washington in 1981 as a presidential management intern from Medora, Ind. Since then, he has done tours as chief of staff for Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.). He had the same job for former Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.). That relationship has had permanent reverberations; Toon met his wife on one of Roemer's campaigns, and the congressman was best man in the wedding.

He said he is looking forward to taking a break from campaigns and working with a company that has what he called an impeccable reputation in the engineering community.

Rumor Mill

Let’s still keep it anonymous please... I still gotta protect myself somewhat.

Let’s get the rumor mill going again. Otherwise the blog is kinda blah… I like it all but I want to know what’s going on right now. And thanks for picking up the blog. It is our only source of information…

Rumor 1: There is a FTE shortfall at LANL for LANS to meet PBIs, etc.

My thoughts… FTE shortfall from needed manpower. LANS doesn’t need support or admin or ??? They need engineers. So does this mean that a RIF, in 50 person increments to be able to meet AM 114, could be imminent to reduce support admins and support. Hey, rid the lab of 2000 of those classifications mean hire 1000 of the right mix to meet PBIs.

Rumor 2: Mass exodus of Bechtel people in June. They were brought here in June to do a job. Most have been given a stipend to live here to pay for house payments, etc. Many bought $1M houses in Santa Fe and come June are faced with paying their own $4000/mo mortgage. I do hear that Bechtel people are asking now to be transferred someplace else, even before the 2 year mark because they can’t afford to be here.

Rumor 3: LANL has paid out $20M more in payroll thus far than in the past.

My thoughts – friggin’ yes. Given the high salaries of the new Bechtel folks, the new ADs, etc. No surprise there.

Any thing else out there??

Pinky,
Hi, the new LLNL management team was announced by LLNS President George Miller today (May 30)... I added in where they came from...

[Biographical information available at http://www.llnsllc.com/news/05302007.asp]

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LLNS PRESIDENT GEORGE MILLER NAMES KEY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL

LIVERMORE, Calif., May 30, 2007 - With a focus on scientific and engineering excellence, best business practices, safety and security, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) President George Miller announced today his key personnel within the LLNS organizational structure.

The announcement was made during the first of a series of town hall meetings with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees. LLNS will take over management of the Laboratory beginning Oct. 1.

LLNS is a limited liability corporation (LLC) made of five partners - the University of California, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, Washington Group and Battelle. Texas A&M University provides an academic alliance.

-The LLNS management team, working closely with Lawrence Livermore employees, will build on the Laboratory-s proud tradition of outstanding science and technology, while fully integrating world-class business systems and safety and security practices,- Miller said.

Miller emphasized the LLNS management team will take an integrated approach, -capitalizing on the strengths of the LLNS partners as well as the efforts of each Laboratory employee.-

-I recognize the value that all the employees bring to this Laboratory, and I want to ensure you under my team-s leadership LLNS will continue to value and nurture this tremendous talent and focus it on helping to solve important issues facing our nation,- Miller emphasized.

The new organizational structure includes Miller as Laboratory direction and Steve Liedle as deputy director. The LLNS management team is organized five areas headed by principal associate directors: Science & Technology, Operations & Business and three mission areas - Global Security, National Ignition Facility (NIF) and Photon Science and Weapons and Complex Integration.

A principal associate director for each of the five areas are:

* Cherry Murray (UC/LLNL) - Science & Technology
* Frank Russo (Bechtel) - Operations & Business
* John Doesburg (Battelle) - Global Security
* Ed Moses (UC/LLNL) - NIF and Photon Science
* Bruce Goodwin (UC/LLNL) - Weapons and Complex Integration

Thirteen additional key personnel have been named:

* Melissa Allain (UC/LLNL) - Laboratory Counsel
* Harold Conner Jr. (WGI) - Facilities and Infrastructure associate director
* Dona Crawford (UC/LLNL) - Computation and Simulation associate director
* Tomas Diaz de la Rubia (UC/LLNL) - Chemistry, Materials & Life Sciences associate director
* William Goldstein (UC/LLNL) - Physical Sciences associate director
* Pamela Horning (BWXT) - Nuclear Operations associate director
* Tamara Jernigan (UC/LLNL) - Strategic Human Capital Management associate director
* Kirkland Jones (DynMcDermott/SPRO) - Contractor Assurance Officer
* David Leary (UC/LLNL) - Business associate director
* Allen Macenski (Bechtel) - Environment, Safety, Health and Quality director
* Russell Miller (UC/LLNL) - Safeguards and Security director
* Steven Patterson (UC/LLNL) - Engineering associate director
* Linda Rakow (UC/LLNL) - Chief Financial Officer

The leadership team will be meeting with Laboratory employees over the next several months to discuss in greater detail employee input; Laboratory vision, the organization structure and mapping of responsibilities.

The Bechtel Unit of Measure

Frank,
While I was cleaning up the back yard this weekend, I pondered what the unit of measure of one dog stool. In a flash, I realized it was the Bechtel! My dog delivers two Bechtels a day (sometimes three) that need to be gathered and disposed of. I propose a contest to see how many LANS organizations can top the Bechtel mark.

My initial nomination is the Purchasing Department. First, I had to attend a secret training session in the Physics Auditorium (there were less than 20 of us in the entire auditorium) to discover that "Management Level Determination" has absolutely nothing to do with "Management Level. " Then I had a multitude of forms to get signed. I hand-carried the crucial 838c form downtown and the nice man signed it, even though he wasn't sure that it was all copasetic.

Then I went over to the Purchasing Department - in case you haven't been there, it's a very fine building behind the China Moon Restaurant - not at all like the moldy trailers that TSMs work in. There, all the shaded parking spots were occupied by government vehicles, with signs that you'll be towed away if you even pause there. Why the purchasing department (which one would hope does all their business through electronic communications) needs close to a dozen GSA vehicles is beyond me. But, being the dutiful direct employee (instead of one of the far more important Bechtelite indirect employees), I parked outside of the reserved government vehicle area.

I dutifully walked up to the golden door and swiped my Q-Badge (with Sigmas 1-10). You wormy bastard! You cannot enter our exalted space! You might be one of those Los Alamos vagrants that pay our salaries! I called my two contacts from the telephone at the front door and got no response - either they were away from their phones or they had no interest in granting admission to a peasant who might bring them work. Caller ID is a wonderful thing.

For customer service, I give Purchasing 5 Bechtels. For customer friendliness (including their user-hostile parking spaces and front-door reception) I give Purchasing 5 Bechtels for a grand total of 10 out of 10. Any other nominees?
- Anonymous

Is there a conversion factor to UCs?

Budget Squeeze Has Lab Lease Facility

By John Fleck
Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

Los Alamos has had major successes of late, but is feeling squeezed by dwindling funding and aging infrastructure, the lab's director told members of the University of California board of regents on Wednesday.

With aging buildings and little money to replace them, the lab is trying a new approach to building a new science complex — having a private developer finance and construct the building, which the lab will then lease.

The lab last week chose Pacific Equity Partners to build the new Los Alamos Science Complex.

The problem, Michael Anastasio said at the California meeting, which was broadcast over the Internet, is a federal governmentwide squeeze on money for science.

Located in the Jemez Mountains west of Santa Fe, Los Alamos is one of the nation's three nuclear weapons research centers. Anastasio took over as the laboratory's director two years ago when a consortium led by engineering giant Bechtel took over lab management from the University of California, which had managed Los Alamos since its founding during World War II.

The University of California is one of Bechtel's partners in the new management group set up two years ago to run the lab.

Anastasio called the current period “an important time of transition for the laboratory.”

The additional cost associated with the transition to private management, combined with a budget losing ground to inflation, has meant the equivalent of a 25 percent reduction in available money to run Los Alamos, Anastasio told the UC regents.

Lab employment has dropped by 2,200, he said.

Despite the tough times, Anastasio praised the science being done at Los Alamos, both in the nuclear weapons program and elsewhere.

The lab's new Roadrunner supercomputer is the world's fastest — the first computer in the world to break the petaflop barrier, a thousand trillion calculations per second.

The U.S. nuclear weapons program financed Roadrunner, but Anastasio noted that one of its first scientific calculations will be a simulation of the human brain.

According to Anastasio, Los Alamos has shown marked improvements in two areas that have caused problems in the past: safety and security.

Security incidents are down 75 percent from a year ago, and safety incidents are down 35 percent, he said.

Norman Pattiz, head of the regents' Lab Oversight Committee, said lab management at Los Alamos and the other two laboratories the university helps manage for the federal government have received “extremely positive feedback” from the federal officials responsible for the labs.