“I’m not only pleased, I’m excited to be here,” Interim Laboratory Director Robert Kuckuck told workers at an all-employee meeting Monday in the Administration Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3.
“I believe that Los Alamos is a great scientific lab and the premiere example of science in the service of the nation,” continued Kuckuck. “The people here are committed, capable, and stimulating to be with, and the national defense mission has been and continues to be crucial to the nation.”
University of California President Robert Dynes and Bob Foley, UC vice president for laboratory management, also spoke at the all-employee meeting, which also was broadcast live on LABNET Channel 9 and on desktop computers.
Dynes introduced Kuckuck as a physicist with more than four decades of nuclear weapons work, adding that, “with his experience, I know Bob will be an excellent director.”
In his opening remarks, Kuckuck said he felt “awesome to be here” and called Los Alamos the “shrine” of the nation’s weapons complex.
Kuckuck outlined three overarching priorities. The first objective, changing the external perception of Los Alamos, relies on continued progress in the areas of business, operations, safety and security. “Our grand challenge is to … meet the needs and challenges of the outside [world] but do science and technology on the inside,” Kuckuck said.
According to Kuckuck, the Laboratory answers to a wide range of stakeholders and external constraints. To thrive within this environment, Los Alamos must continue its forward momentum, while simultaneously eliminating unnecessary burdens on daily work. “The essence of Los Alamos is a scientific lab underpinning a nuclear weapons mission. We have to keep the science healthy … [and] I need from you specifics of what we can change within the constraints we live in to allow science to flourish.”
Second, Kuckuck committed himself to advancing an atmosphere of trust, respect, civility and communication. “When I say we,” Kuckuck clarified, “I mean ‘we’ in the sense that I really intend to be part of Los Alamos, not that I presume to have been a part of your hard work and great accomplishments of the past. I want to help us move into the future … and [I hope] we’re … working together as we go on.”
Kuckuck’s third priority was addressing employees’ uncertainty about the changes ahead. “I will be telling you everything I learn … as soon as I have it. [By staying] together through this interim period … we will have done the best we can to position Los Alamos for success in the new contract,” Kuckuck said. Dynes added that Linton Brooks, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, urged employees to utilize the six-month contract transition period to avoid making premature retirement decisions.
Regarding the competition for the Laboratory’s management contract, Dynes underscored that, “It is my hope that the [request for proposal] will still have science and technology – which is what you do best – at [its] foundation … If that is the case, I will enthusiastically recommend to the regents that we compete.” Kuckuck concurred, garnering widespread applause as he paraphrased a recent San Francisco Chronicle editorial: “Los Alamos has served the nation in ways far beyond the imagination of Robert Oppenheimer, and for the good of the country, the University of California must win.”
In the final analysis, Dynes urged employees to “help us define the future of this lab and … put something in place you can be proud of.” The Laboratory’s value to the country is inestimable, and now is the “golden opportunity to look to the future, not the past, for how [Los Alamos] can serve the nation.”
Lab personnel who missed Monday’s all-employee meeting can watch the talk on LABNET, Channel 10. Go to the LABNET Channel 10 Web page for rebroadcast times.
To view a Quicktime video, click here.
