Laboratory Director John Browne spoke about new challenges facing the Laboratory and the nation in the post-Sept. 11, 2001 world and the importance of practicing the Lab's values in his annual State of the Lab address Wednesday in the Administration Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez, Public Affairs

Laboratory is in excellent condition Browne says in State of the Lab address
Talk touches on challenges facing Los Alamos, practicing Lab values

For Laboratory employees, “living our vision” means practicing such values as public service, teamwork and diversity, Director John Browne said Wednesday in his annual State of the Laboratory address in the Administration Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3.

Browne characterized the Laboratory’s overall condition as excellent. In fact, a recent evaluation by the National Nuclear Security Administration found Los Alamos’ technical work in fulfilling its mission “outstanding,” and gave the institution an overall grade of 89 percent.

Last fall’s terrorist attacks present “a new challenge both for the nation and for the Laboratory,” Browne said, adding that the Laboratory’s mission and the needs of the nation haven’t been this closely aligned since the Cold War ended.

He pointed with pride to Los Alamos’ rapid response to national needs in such areas as anthrax DNA analysis, multispectral satellite images of Manhattan after the attacks, infrastructure modeling and nuclear emergency preparedness.

In his wide-ranging talk, Browne discussed the recent Nuclear Posture Review by the Bush Administration, the importance of basic research, institutional revitalization, the need to hire new researchers and the importance of the values practiced by current staff.

“When we think about what we value — whether it’s safety and security, whether it’s teamwork, whether it’s public service, whether it’s diversity, whether it’s technical excellence, or excellence in everything we do — those are the kinds of things that drive your behaviors, and to me it’s the behaviors that drive how the institution performs as an integrated Laboratory,” Browne said. “That’s a major challenge for us, and I think we’re on our way to doing that.”

Browne thanked Laboratory workers for their outstanding technical work and their commitment to the Laboratory in recent years.

“We have great employees at this institution,” he said. “We’ve got to bring in the next generation and train them. How they grow as individuals, as employees, will depend a lot on you and the values and conditions you bring to your workplace, so I have to count on you to help me do that.”

Browne repeatedly returned to a theme of the importance of science in the Laboratory’s mission.

“Science really does underpin everything that we do at this Laboratory,” he said, and offered as examples Los Alamos’ cutting-edge work on the human immunodeficiency virus, atom trapping for the measurement of fundamental properties of materials, quantum information encryption, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the alliance with Sandia National Laboratories in the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, or CINT.

Browne said one of the key challenges the Laboratory faces is ensuring that science remains integral to all Los Alamos’ work. “To me, the science that we do at our Laboratory is really the base and the underpinning of all of our missions because it is where the creativity comes in that allows you to solve problems in the future,” Browne said.

In response to input from Laboratory researchers, Browne said he added the word “develop” to the Laboratory’s mission statement unveiled at last year’s State of the Laboratory address because Los Alamos doesn’t merely apply outstanding science and technology to national problems, “we invent it,” he said.

Browne said he expects the overall Laboratory budget to increase by nearly 10 percent next [fiscal] year, from $1.64 billion to $1.8 billion, with increases in nearly every area except funding for basic research from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which has been flat for years.

Browne expressed deep concern for the continued lack of support for basic research in the physical sciences, a theme he stressed recently in an address to the National Press Club.

“We’ve been eating the seed corn of our research, in my opinion, for the past decade,” Browne said.

The nation recognizes the importance of the Laboratory’s primary mission of stockpile stewardship, he told Lab workers.

“Nuclear weapons will continue to have a critical role in the security of our nation,” Browne said. “We’re driven not by the number of nuclear weapons but by the number of systems and by the capability to address any challenges that the country faces where you need nuclear deterrence.”

The Nuclear Posture Review set out a “new triad” for the nation in which nuclear deterrence fits into a larger defense posture. That triad of non-nuclear and nuclear capabilities, national defenses and an infrastructure capable of quick response will depend heavily on technical creativity, rapid prototyping and concurrent engineering to get innovations quickly into the hands of those who need them.

The Review, he said, also “raises the question of what will the country need to do if it faces a different threat,” such as a buried bunker in which biological weapons are being made.

“We need to provide the nation with balanced and sustainable stewardship,” Browne said, explaining that must include a large range of scientific and engineering capabilities and the ability to recruit, train and retain the best people for the mission over decades.

Turning to counterterrorism, Browne said the demand for technical innovations to stem terrorism will remain a focus for Los Alamos. The overall funding for such programs as chemical/biological defense, Russian collaborations, nuclear emergency response and defense work for non-DOE agencies should increase from about $100.6 million this year to about $116 million next year, and the Laboratory plans to fund 18 innovative internal counterterrorism proposals with Laboratory Directed Research and Development funds.

The Laboratory’s relationship with Washington and with the DOE offices in Albuquerque and Los Alamos “has improved dramatically with the creation of NNSA,” Browne said.

Notable successes in the recent NNSA report card were planning, plutonium pit manufacturing, weapons engineering and directed stockpile work, safeguards and security, financial management and the LDRD program. But the Laboratory needs to improve in safety, facility management and executing its plans, Browne said.

“The planning that has been done to date is good; now we need to implement it,” Browne said.

Ironically, Browne said, the Laboratory’s heavy emphasis on safety and security in recent years has clarified the need for improvements.“We’ve brought our game up in safety to a higher level . . . . We’re doing so much better as an institution that the few places where we need to improve are becoming more evident to use because they are correlated,” he said. “I think that gives us as a Laboratory a chance to really resolve the issues.”

In addition to maintaining a strong science base in the mission, Browne spelled out several other key challenges facing Los Alamos, including:

• Integrated management. Although the Laboratory is large, complicated and widespread both geographically and technically, “We have to act and behave as one Laboratory to be successful,” Browne said. “We can’t have 27 different ways we do everything,” or place different standards on different types of work, because that will result in inefficiency and increased costs.
• People. Retirement rates have nearly doubled in the past two years, reflecting the fact that it’s been nearly a decade since the last significant retirement incentive. Browne said the Laboratory ideally needs to hire up to 1,000 people this year, about 80 percent of them entry-level workers and the rest strategic hires in key mission areas. The Laboratory hired 290 people in the first four months of the 2002 fiscal year, he said.
• Quality of work life. Browne said construction of modern facilities and installation of better equipment will aid in recruitment, retention and morale-building. He pointed to the importance of carrying out plans for replacement of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research building at TA-3 and the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility in an integrated Nuclear Complex at TA-55, and to the construction of four standard small office buildings and plans to build six more. He also vowed to resolve the longstanding issue of child care for employees by clearing up obstacles to the hiring of a private child care contractor.
• Achieving operational excellence. Browne listed several issues that will continue to receive attention: safety and security; implementation of a common business enterprise system; improved facility management; and environmental cleanup of Manhattan Project legacy waste and better handling of new radiological and toxic hazards.
• Maintaining relations with the Lab’s neighbors, especially in the areas of environment, education and economic development.

Browne repeatedly stressed the need for Lab workers to carry out the vision and the mission of the Laboratory.

“The bottom line for me is living our values,” he said.

To see a viewgraph presentation of the talk, click here (Adobe Acrobat required).

--Jim Danneskiold

Terry Hawkins, left, Nonproliferation and International Security (NIS) Division leader, talks with Laboratory Director John Browne in the Administration Building Auditorium after Browne's State of the Lab address on Wednesday. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez

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