8 Los Alamos National Laboratory teams honored for excellence

2020 Defense Programs Awards of Excellence winners recognized for significant national security contributions

May 24, 2022

2022-05-19
Brig. Gen. Stacy Jo Huser presented the awards at Los Alamos for the second consecutive year.

Eight Los Alamos National Laboratory teams were recognized with the 2020 Defense Programs Awards of Excellence in a special ceremony at the Lab on May 18. Because the original award ceremony was delayed due to COVID-19, many of the recipients were reuniting with team members they hadn’t seen since their 2020 successes.

“Your achievements are nothing short of miraculous,” said Brig. Gen. Stacy Jo Huser. “You and the entire Laboratory community continually rise to the occasion and push the boundaries of scientific discovery.”

Huser is the Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Military Application at the National Nuclear Security Administration. She assists Dr. Marvin Adams, Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, with maintaining the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. 

“I want to personally thank everyone on these teams for what you do to ensure our nation’s security,” Huser said.

About the awards

Since 1982, the Office of Defense Programs has recognized team contributions that constitute significant achievements in quality, productivity, cost savings, safety or creativity in support of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons program.

And the winners are …

  • Pete Kendall and the Canned Subassembly Accelerated Aging Team, which developed a new technology and methodology to help address aging concerns in weapon systems.
  • Michael Peters and the W88 Alt 370 Nuclear Explosive Package QER and FPU Achievement Team, which completed a quality engineering release and achieved a nuclear explosives package first production unit (FPU) of the W88 Alt 370 in March 2020.
  • Hannah Wood and the LANL New Employee Training Academy Team, which established a New Employee Training team to onboard and train new Weapons Production employees.
  • Steven Schreiber and the LANL Review and Technical Assessment of the Proposed Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF) Conceptual Design Package Team, which performed a technical peer review of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility project to support submission of the critical decision 1 package.

Exceptional achievement winners

  • Gregory Chavez and the B61-12 LEP Design Review and Acceptance Group (DRAAG) Team, which passed the DRAAG milestone — the final review of the weapon system by a Department of Defense panel, and is the major milestone for the acceptance of a weapon system into the stockpile. This team received Exceptional Achievement recognition.
  • Amy Wong and the CMRR PF-4 Equipment Installation Phase-1 Team, which transitioned operations from a line-item construction project to facility and programmatic groups 15 months ahead of schedule and more than $100 million under budget. This team received Exceptional Achievement recognition.
  • Joe Watts and the Raiders of the Lost Archive Team, which facilitated the transfer of the Rocky Flats archives (hundreds of boxes of classified technical data, reports, laboratory notebooks, procedures and illustrations) from the Denver Federal Center to Los Alamos. This team received Exceptional Achievement recognition.
  • Tommy Morris and the Trinity Exception Evaluation Team, which drafted the B61-12’s Major Assembly Release document, which was required for the Design Review and Acceptance Group milestone. This team received Exceptional Achievement recognition.

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