Tele town hall with Udall

Synopsis

1. The newspaper articles on http://lanl-the-rest-of-the-story.blogspot.com/ capture the essence of the meeting well.
2. Congressman Udall was listening. His staff was recording things well.
3. One person, Mark Dunham, asked whether the lab should be divided into functionally separate areas, each with its own overhead rate, so that the rest of the Lab is no longer paying for the security needed for plutonium processing.
4. He said that the cost per person at LANL is double the cost elsewhere so that the lab is non-competitive in many areas.
5. The lab was very diverse in the 70's and 80's in terms of broad scientific research. It became much less diverse in the 90's when it was no longer able to compete effectively for these projects.
6. One caller, Marlo Martinez, said that the Lab's behavior toward contractors, whether local or non local, was killing businesses in Northern New Mexico.
7. There is apparently $600,000,000 available for non weapons research. It is not clear whether the Lab will be competitive in getting this money. It is not clear whether local businesses near the lab will be allowed to compete for this money.