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Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1999
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Twenty contractors get RIF notices in APT project
Laboratory workers won't lose jobs
About 20 contractors working on the Accelerator Production of Tritium project received reduction in force notices this week, but all Laboratory employees either are continuing their work on the project or being placed in other jobs at the Lab.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Dec. 22, 1998, selected the Tennessee Valley Authority Watts Bar and Sequoyah nuclear reactors as the nation's source of tritium for nuclear weapons, instead of building a new accelerator at the Savannah River Site. (See the Dec. 23, 1998, Daily Newsbulletin and a DOE news release.) The DOE has promised continued funding for the Los Alamos-led efforts to develop an accelerator-based plant as a back-up source, including eventual completion of about 30 percent of the design of an APT plant. (See the President's budget request rollout)
Burns and Roe, the APT prime contractor, announced on Tuesday the layoffs of 20 staff in Los Alamos and Aiken, S.C., said Paul Lisowski, National Project Director for APT.
Jim Anderson, the Laboratory's Technical Project Office director for APT, said, "We are confident that the Laboratory can accommodate APT staff who must move off of the Project into other Laboratory activities. Most of the APT workers who will be transitioned to other positions in the Laboratory have already been notified and many are already working in their new positions."
On Tuesday, Anderson sent a memo to Laboratory APT employees (PDF reader required).
Anderson pointed out that many members of the APT technical staff were on loan from various Laboratory divisions, and had planned to return to their home organizations as design and other work on the APT accelerator was completed. Last fiscal year's work marked the peak employment for Los Alamos' assignment in APT, he said. During the final quarter of 1998, the Laboratory employed a total of 258 full-time equivalent employees in APT. However, many of those employees have completed their APT activities and now have other assignments within the Laboratory. In addition, a large number of craft workers from Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico who were working on construction of the Low-Energy Demonstration Accelerator have been reassigned to other jobs.
Under current budget estimates, the project needs about 215 full-time equivalent employees for the work it must do during 1999.
The budget for APT in the 1999 fiscal year is $128 million. The president's APT budget request for the 2000 fiscal year is $88 million, enough to keep APT engineering demonstration activities on track. However, because the plant will not be constructed, Lisowski and other project directors are planning how best to develop APT as a backup tritium source.
--Jim Danneskiold
DOE issues 'finding of no significant impact' for Laboratory's Strategic Computing Complex
The Department of Energy has issued a "finding of no significant impact" and an environmental assessment on the proposed construction and operation of the Strategic Computing Complex at the Laboratory.
The three-story, 267,000-square-foot Strategic Computing Complex is planned for construction at Technical Area 3 off Pajarito Road. The complex is part of the Laboratory's stockpile stewardship program to maintain and certify the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons in the absence of nuclear testing.
The Strategic Computing Complex would house high-speed computers, multiprocessors and associated infrastructure as the Lab works toward development of a computer system able to perform 100 trillion operations -- 100 TeraOps -- per second. The building would have nearly 44,000 square feet of computer floor space and also house offices, simulational laboratories, four visualization centers and a 200-seat auditorium.
The FONSI and the environmental assessment is available for review in DOE's public reading room at the Lab's Community Relations Office (CRO), 1619 Central Ave., and in the Government Information Department of Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
For more information, call Chris Murnane of the DOE Los Alamos Area Office at 5-8774.
--Steve Sandoval
Call for employees to serve on Healthcare Advisory Committee
The Laboratory is soliciting participation from employees and retirees interested in serving on the Healthcare Advisory Committee.
The committee was formed in 1997 to study alternatives for a new health care plan for Laboratory employees in 1998.
The Healthcare Advisory Committee works to identify broad-based issues related to health care that affect employees and retirees; identify gaps in understanding of health care benefits; enhance communications with employees and retirees; and develop solutions to health care issues, said Rosella Atencio-Gerst of HR-1 and a member of the committee.
An all-employee memo on the request for nominations has been issued to employees through electronic mail. The nomination form is part of the memo, said Atencio-Gerst.
Current members of the committee are Marja Springer of the Environmental Management (EM) Programs' Department of Energy field office. Springer also is a member of Concerned Citizens for Health Care, a local health care advocacy group; Elizabeth Barnett of Communications Arts and Services CIC-1; Steve Czuchlewski of Hydrodynamic Applications (DX-3); Manny Honig of High Power Microwaves, Advanced Accelerators and Electrodynamics (LANSCE-9); Audrey Martinez of Nuclear Materials Management, Control and Accountability (NMT-4); Tom Short of the Business Operations (BUS) Division office; Ken Wilson from the Laboratory Retiree Group Board; and Rosella Atencio-Gerst of HR-1.
Employees interested in serving on the Healthcare Advisory Committee should submit an application by Feb. 9 to HAC@lanl.gov through electronic mail, or to Mail Stop P280 through interoffice mail.
--Steve Sandoval
February is Wise Health Consumer Month
The National Wellness Association has designated February as "Wise Health Consumer Month." To assist Laboratory employees in making wise health-care decisions, the health-promotion program Positive Health Directions offers the following resources:
Health Connection, a 24-hour-a day, seven days a week, health advice hotline managed by nurses at the Mayo Clinic
"Take Care of Yourself," a medical self-care guide that has been distributed to Lab employees over the past year-and-a-half
Also, in recognition of Wise Health Consumer Month, employee feedback is requested through an online survey on Take Care of Yourself. Upon completion of the survey, you can enter your name into a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to the spa Ten Thousand Waves in Santa Fe. For more information, call Jessica Kisiel of Occupational Medicine (ESH-2) at 5-4368.
Director of DoD's Defense Research and Engineering receives briefings on Laboratory programs during visit
PHOTO: Hans Mark, second from right, looks over presentations from Deputy Director William Press, far right, during Mark's visit to the Laboratory last Friday. Mark, who is director for Defense Research and Engineering in the Department of Defense (DoD), heard briefings on computing and simulation, stockpile stewardship, threat reduction technologies and other Laboratory programs during his visit. Looking on, left to right, are Steve Younger, associate Laboratory director for nuclear weapons, Laboratory Director John Browne and Lt. Gen. Randall Rigby, deputy commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez
Discussion session slated on draft Employee Complaint Policy
A discussion session has been scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. on Wednesday in the Administration Building Auditorium to permit Laboratory employees to ask questions and make comments pertaining to the draft Employee Complaint Policy, AM 111, before it is finalized. The draft was available for formal employee comment through REVCOM in December and early January. The human Resources (HR) Division encourages employees to attend.
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