Former Weapons Program Chief Bret Knapp Dies
NS&D Monitor
11/21/2014
Bret Knapp, the former acting Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director and head of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s weapons program, died earlier this week, Los Alamos Director Charlie McMillan said in a Nov. 19 message to employees. Knapp served as the acting LLNL director for nearly five months from November 2013 to March 2014 before announcing his resignation and pulling out of the search for a permanent Livermore director because he was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. McMillan said he passed away from the disease this week.
Knapp had previously been the head of Los Alamos’ weapons program, reaching the position after moving from Livermore to Los Alamos in 2006 as LANL’s associate director for Weapons Engineering. “Bret was a leader in national nuclear security and his unparalleled expertise in the weapons program was invaluable in shaping the contributions of both Los Alamos and Livermore to this critical mission,” McMillan said. “He had a far reaching impact not only in the stockpile stewardship program, but in cost efficiencies, programmatic excellence, selection of leaders, and open and honest communication that fostered collaboration across the Laboratories.”
Lab Responds to Criticism of Earned Value Mgmt. System
NS&D Monitor
11/21/2014
Los Alamos National Laboratory is working to address repeated deficiencies in its Earned Value Management System uncovered in recent reviews, a lab spokesperson said late last week. As NS&D Monitor reported last week, the National Nuclear Security Administration is set to revoke the lab’s EVMS certification because of “systemic and material deficiencies” with the system. The most recent review of the lab’s EVMS system by DOE’s Office of Acquisition and Project Management found that the lab’s EVMS data is “not reliable, accurate, timely, auditable, traceable, or reconcilable,” calling into question the validity of its project management efforts. “We are working together and aggressively addressing identified issues,” a lab spokesperson said in a statement provided to NS&D Monitor Nov. 14. “We have additional systems in place that give us confidence in our ability to oversee our construction projects.”
The NNSA has requested a recertification plan from the lab by Dec. 10. A review of Los Alamos’ EVMS system this summer by DOE’s Office of Acquisition and Project Management revealed 92 corrective action requests and noncompliance with 31 of 32 American National Standards Institute guidelines (one other guideline was determined to be inapplicable). It also noted a troubling trend in reports since the lab’s EVMS system was certified in 2009 with “repeat deficiencies” and “an increasing trend in repeat findings.” The issues included failures in defining the work scope and defining the project organizational structure to failures in planning, scheduling, budgeting, and accounting.
The lab has struggled with project management, with massive cost increases forcing the cancellation of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility and causing major cost and schedule overruns on the Nuclear Materials Security and Safeguards Upgrade Project. “The Review Team determined that the LANS EVMS data is not reliable, accurate, timely, auditable, traceable, or reconcilable, and therefore, any performance Measurement Baseline would be invalid such that neither the current project status nor the forecast completion cost and schedule are determinable,” DOE APM chief Paul Bosco said in an Oct. 30 memo to NNSA Associate Administrator for Acquisition and Project Management Bob Raines and Los Alamos Field Office Contracting Officer Robert Poole. “As a result the Government cannot have confidence in any project’s reported financial position, and the Government’s ability to manage and take corrective actions has been hampered.”
