sPHENIX is a new detector at RHIC.

["Ming Liu (ming AT bnl.gov)" <ming AT bnl.gov>]

Hi Spencer and all,

You raised the right questions. Here is a reply from Dave Lee this
morning, detailing about the updated cost and schedule to Leo, somehow the
reply didn’t go through the list. Hope this email can help people to
better understand the changes. As we discussed it at LBNL last week, we
are asked to keep the total project cost under $5M.

Cheers,
Ming 

―― 
Hi Leo,
Let me reply and Ming can provide further.  As a backdrop I had a long
conversation with Ed O'Brien concerning the MVTX project and strategy.
The cost of new projects with the ONP has implications as to how the
funding route would be.  For projects >$5M the project does not go through
the CD process but does become part of the OMB budget process and
therefore is at least a 2 year process.  For projects <$5M the project is
funded directly from the ONP without being in the OMB budget process and
thus can be approved internal to the ONP much sooner.  By trimming the
budget to less than $5M we hope a much more favorable outcome from the
late February DOE-NP will occur.  To achieve these savings we have trimmed
resources across the project by using more uncosted or less expensive
labor, moving some integration tasks to BNL engineers outside of the
project,  moving part of the LANL design efforts on global integration to
BNL, reducing LANL hourly rate by using contracted labor, reducing travel
expenses by ~20%, and by reducing some durations so that we meet Ed's
start installation date of 2/2021.  Nothing drastic was done to any
activity or procurement cost.  Hope this helps
Dave

David M Lee. Ph.D
MS H846
tel:  505 667-8888
Fax: 505 6665-7920
Cell 505 690-4820






 
-- 
Ming Xiong Liu
P-25, MS H846                   TEL:            505-667-7125
Physics Division                                        631-344-7821(BNL)
LANL                                                    630-840-5708(FNAL)
Los Alamos, NM 87545    FAX:    505-665-7020






On 2/2/17, 9:27 AM, "Spencer Klein" <srklein AT lbl.gov> wrote:

>Ming:
>
>I'd like to hear more from Dave, but both of these seem a bit risky.
>Will LANL guarantee the engineering rate, even if no one retires?  If
>not, this cost saving is unlikely to survive a careful review.
>
>And, 'free labor' is only free if it is available when needed, and
>willing & able to do the work needed.  During the construction of the
>STAR TPC, we relied a lot on 'free' labor from various universities.
>This did not work out well.   We could not get people when we needed
>them, and, in at least one case, the person was unsuitable.  In the end,
>we had to use a lot of LBNL technicians; this put a big hole in the
>budget.
>
>Budgeting for success makes me nervous.
>
>Spencer
>
>
>
>On 2/2/17 09:39, Ming Liu (ming AT bnl.gov) wrote:
>> Hi Leo,
>>
>> Dave Lee can comment more later, the reduction is mostly coming from
>> reducing LANL engineers¹ labor rate (assuming someone retires but comes
>> back to work as a contractor, as Dave Lee does) and reducing some of the
>> high cost labor in several areas, such as installation etc, using more
>> ³free" university labor.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Ming
>>   
>