Watchblog
New Plutonium Facility Estimate Embraces $4.5 Billion
Buried in Volume 1 of the Department of Energy’s FY 2011 Congressional Budget Request are the Details of Project Cost Estimate for LANL’s proposed Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building Replacement (CMRR) Project. (Pg.226 & 227) The Details – $164 million – The cost of the Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building (RLUOB) recently finished with...Continue reading→
DOE Fails to Make Minimum Payment on Environmental Cleanup
Last I looked, the Cold War ended 18 years ago. We won. OK, I used to think we won, but there is still a big debt that needs to be paid off before any victory party. The Department of Energy’s Agency Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2009 (Pg.52) gives some sobering figures. Even with extra...Continue reading→
Mother of Nuclear Weapons Complex Modernization speaks at Global Zero Summit
Re : Ellen Tauscher, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, addressing Global Zero Summit, Paris, February 3, 2010 The good news is there is no bad news in her speech… she basically goes rhetorical using standard mountain climbing analogy language of journeying to the summit of a world free of nuclear weapons. But...Continue reading→
Despite Non-Proliferation Pledge – $7B for Nuclear Arsenal
February 2, 2010 – Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman interviews Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch AMY GOODMAN: All forty Republican senators, as well as Joseph Lieberman, implied in a letter to Obama last month that they would block ratification of the new treaty with Russia unless he funds a, quote, “modern” warhead and new facilities at...Continue reading→
Obama’s New Budget Increases Funding for Nuclear Weapons Production Facilities; Cuts Dismantlements
In the new budget request for 2011 the Obama Administration proposes to freeze discretionary domestic spending for programs such as education, nutrition, air traffic control and national parks for three years while dramatically increasing funding for new US nuclear weapons production facilities. Meanwhile the proposed budget for dismantling warheads retired from the stockpile is down...Continue reading→
Meet the Nuke Boss, Just Like the Old Boss!
While Obama’s rhetoric soars toward a grand nuclear weapons-free world, his Office of Management and Budget is getting ready to ask Congress for a 10% increase in research and production? Apparently our president is preemptively surrendering to the 40 Republican senators +1 (“independent” Lieberman) that demanded linkage of ratification of a new Strategic Arms Reduction...Continue reading→
Kansas City (Nuke Plant) Blues
Some pertinent points on the new Kansas City Plant, prompted by the Kansas City Star article: • Groundbreaking will probably be sometime after March given that final private financing still has to be found. • However, groundbreaking for a major new U.S. nuclear weapons production plant, costing $4.76 billion to build and operate over its...Continue reading→
Sandia Claims Technology Supports the CTBT While Modernizing Weapons
Above its masthead the hard copy 12/4/09 Sandia Lab News has a cool NNSA/DoD “W76-1/MK4A” badge with a black submarine and a vertical warhead above it with a slanted trident across it. MK4A is the reentry vehicle for the W76. The sub, of course, is a Trident submarine. To summarize some points: • It states...Continue reading→
Update – Lab Shipment Scare at Sunport
Phil Parker at the Journal gives an update. The package was labeled “explosives” on the inside, so the cargo handlers were rightfully concerned when their alarms went off. The cargo facility was closed for about four hours during the incident. It was reported that , “The containers are usually shipped via ground transportation but sometimes,...Continue reading→
Lab Tries To Ship Explosives on Commercial Airline
KOB TV 4 broke the story and is still has the only account as best as I can tell. Read report and see video here. Los Alamos National Laboratory sent an 8’ package labeled “explosives” to the Sunport to be flown to California on Southwest Airlines (where bags fly free). A sensor alarm alerted the...Continue reading→
Lab’s Cyber Security Still Not Trustworthy
A GAO Report released Friday the 13th found that “significant information security control weaknesses remain on LANL’s classified computer network. LANL had vulnerabilities in several critical areas, including (1) identifying and authenticating the identity of users, (2) authorizing user access, (3) encrypting classified information, (4) monitoring and auditing compliance with security policies, and (5) maintaining...Continue reading→
Complete excavation of Area G now estimated at only $9.1 billion
Q: How much does it cost to cleanup a 65-acre, 50-year-old, nuclear weapons laboratory unlined dump full of low-level radioactive waste (LLW), radioactively contaminated infectious waste, asbestos contaminated material, transuranic waste, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and much more? A: About 8 years of the Lab’s nuclear weapons activities budget. First, define cleanup. (Closure is the better...Continue reading→
What NIF Might Do?
Speaking for myself, I will grudgingly concede that NIF has succeeded in its real mission of ensuring that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory survives as a nuclear weapons labContinue reading→
Operations at Plutonium Facility stood down due to fire suppression system
In the latest of a string of fire system deficiencies on Wednesday September 30th, LANL management declared the fire suppression system inoperable in PF-4 at TA-55. Facility activities were placed in stand-by mode, which were still stood down as of three weeks later on Oct. 23rd. DNFSB explained that the stand down was based on...Continue reading→
(Un)Reliable Replacement Rationale
The rationale for the new Kansas City Plant was originally predicated upon extensive production of new Reliable Replacement Warheads and Life Extension Programs involving existing nuclear weapons numbering in the 1,000’s.Continue reading→
Los Alamos Director Anastasio’s Two Hats
Apparently the National Nuclear Security Administration reimburses Los Alamos National Security LLC (LANS) $397,341 for LANL Director Anastasio’s salary. Then LANS LLC pays him another $400K to promote the NNSA agenda from which LANS LLC derives a profit. During all this time Anastasio also acts as President of the for profit LANS (for which he gets a combined total of $800K).Continue reading→
Weapons Lab Director Paid Double the Salary of Nobel Peace Prize-Winning President Obama
Santa Fe, NM – On December 10 President Barack Obama will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway for his beginning efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. The President is paid $400,000 a year for running the country. Michael Anastasio, the Director of the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in northern New Mexico, is paid...Continue reading→
Hikers, dogs found inside the fence
Summary Report of Occurrences Reviewed From October 26 – 30, 2009 Near Miss – • NA – Los Alamos National Laboratory (Significance Category 3). On October 22, a Water Quality sampling crew discovered two hikers with three dogs at Technical Area 68 (TA-68) during High Explosive (HE) Operations. The hikers were instructed to exit DOE...
Los Alamos – Plutonium Center of Negligence
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) reveals public safety vulnerability and seismic issues at TA-55 (The Lab’s plutonium Technical Area).Continue reading→