Los Alamos Nuclear Lab....in trouble...

From Lanl-the-real-story :

Friday, April 07, 2006
DX is facing another shutdown

DX is facing another shutdown.There have been three major incidents in DX Division in the past two weeks. One involved a DX manager. 6 weeks ago there was a stop work issued for another operation involving firearms use at DX. Since Nanos shut down the lab everyone in DX who knew what they were doing has either retired or quit.

They are left with inadequate procedures and a workforce that does not have the experience to fill in the gaps. This has led to a very dangerous work environment at DX.

Incident 1-- A firing point worker operating a mobile crane at DARHT failed to obey the signals of the ground crew and removed a counter weight from the crane without ensuring that the hook was directly over the load. This caused the load to swing into the cab damaging the crane. The independent inspector who came out to look over the crane after the incident said that he had seen this type of accident before but usually the cab is crushed and the operator injured or killed.

Incident 2-- An electrical accident placed a DX worker in the hospital due to a 110v shock.Incident 3-- A DX Division Manager ran a road block during an explosive operation. He ended up at the firing point where the operation was being conducted. This incident indicates the lack of knowledge that DX managers have regarding the operations they oversee and authorize. There are virtually no managers left in DX that have experience in explosive operations.

Work Stoppage – A stop work was issued for a test involving a firearm at DX. When the operation was reviewed by the Firearms Safety Committee it was found that DX procedures were woefully inadequate and the firearms were in a state of dangerous disrepair. When asked why this situation existed DX said that the person who used to do this work had retired.

# posted by Doug Roberts : 4/07/2006 11:25:00 AM

Comments:
Let me be the first to say "I TOLD YOU SO!"No organization can suffer the abuse of a person such as Admiral Butthead combined with the loss of experienced personnel.This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Wrap....