In the latest developments in the University of California’s Los Alamos National Laboratory bid, the UC Board of Regents voted 11-1 to submit a proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy to renew the university’s management and operations at the Los Alamos lab.
The regents also voted to appoint Michael R. Anastasio, a nuclear physicist, as director of the laboratory, which deals primarily in nuclear research.
The proposal comes after the university announced its partnership with corporate companies Bechtel National, Inc., BWX Technologies, Inc., and Washington Group International in a bid appeal to the Energy Department, which owns the lab. The university bid will compete against University of Texas and the Livermore, Calif.-based nonprofit Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, both of which have announced intentions to submit bids.
The UC regents said they were optimistic about the university’s chance to renew management of the laboratory, which has been run by the university since 1942.
“The UC–Bechtel-led team is perfectly positioned to preserve the world-class scientific mission of Los Alamos while maximizing the quality and accountability of the laboratory’s business, management, security and operational functions,” UC President Robert C. Dynes stated in a press release. “We at the university have recognized that the management of these laboratories in the 21st century requires a team effort, one bringing together skills that are greater than what the university alone can offer. And we have put together a team that I believe is incredibly strong.”
The system also manages the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Congressional legislation passed in 2003 put the three laboratories up for competitive bidding following the Los Alamos lab’s inability to account for $1.3 million in property and the discovery that another $14.6 million set aside for the lab had been misused on meal and travel expenses under UC management. Despite the controversies, the university was recently awarded a new contract for the Lawrence Berkeley lab.
“In the past, there have been management deficiencies, but the personnel at Los Alamos has been committed to fixing those problems,” UC Board of Regents Chairman Gerald L. Parsky said. “We’ve partnered with corporate businesses to focus on that management. But there is a lot of work to be done in between now and when we submit the bid.”
The lab has attracted national attention in the last two years following a series of security, safety and financial problems under UC management. The lab was shut down for seven months after two classified storage devices were misplaced. However Los Alamos officials later discovered the disks had never existed and were a part of a computer-entry error. The regents said they hope that the partnership with management firm Bechtel will put security issues to rest.
“Obviously, [this is] a brand new process for a private sector,” Bechtel National President Tom Hash said. “We have to want it badly to win it. We are excited about working with UC. It’s a marriage made in heaven. We’re both working in our sweet spots: UC in the science side, and us on the nonscience side.”
The university’s involvement with the lab, which manufactures materials used for nuclear arms, and its partnership with corporations has caused protests by some students. At the regents’ meeting May 25, about 30 student protestors with headrags displaying, “Education Yes, Bechtel No,” jeered at Bechtel officials throughout discussions of the lab bid.
Los Alamos is the nation’s largest laboratory responsible for nuclear arsenals and weapons components.
“What our primary responsibility is right now is to maintain the critical expertise if this nation chose to go into a manufacturing mode in the future,” Dynes said. “The numbers [of nuclear components] manufactured right now are very low.”
The maximum management fee will increase from $8.7 million to $79 million for the winner of the bid, according to the Energy Department Request for Proposals. Though the Los Alamos management contract is possibly profitable, Parsky and the regents made it clear that any profits would be returned to the lab. Energy Department officials have said that raising the maximum pay, which is largely performance-based, would provide incentive to strengthen both business and science at the lab.
Appointment of Los Alamos’ lab director, in the event the university wins the lab bid, was also finalized in last week’s meetings. Michael Anastasio, who has more than two decades of experience in national security and nuclear weapons and has been leading the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 2002, was chosen to lead the Los Alamos lab as director.
The regents will submit their bid to be considered by the Energy Department’s July 19 deadline.
