Government Sets Bid Timeline for UC-Run Lab
by Rachel Luna, October 6, 2004

One of the UC-run Department of Energy labs could be one step closer to changing hands or staying under UC-management, after the National Nuclear Security Administration released a guide last week outlining the conditions for managing the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The administration's Formal Acquisition Plan provides a timeline that calls for bids as early as the middle of this month.

In the first national bidding process in the lab's 61-year history, the administration is looking to ensure “the safety, security and reliability” of the lab's weapons stockpile and integrate “world class science and technology,” according to the plan.

The plan preserves the jobs of all personnel under new management, except for senior administration. Employees will also be guaranteed pension plans comparable but not identical to those they currently have under UC stewardship.

The plan sets the initial contract for management for five years, with a possible extension to 20 total years if the manager achieves the “highest performance rating attainable.”

Although the DOE pays $2.2 billion annually to run the nuclear weapons facility, the five-year contract will carry a $2.1 billion annual price tag.

According to the plan, the administration is expected to release a formal Request for Proposals in mid-October although no specific date has been released. If UC loses control of the lab when the winner is announced by July 1 of next year, it will turn over the reigns Sept. 30.

While UC has expressed interest in competing for control of the lab, the university must wait for the UC Board of Regents to give it the green light before submitting the bid.

“The university is aggressively preparing as if we will compete for continued management of LANL,” said UC spokesperson Chris Harrington. “UC is planning so that we may respond quickly, strongly and efficiently to the (request for proposals).”

In last month's Regents meeting, the UC President's Council on the National Laboratories urged the university to move forward with the competition, and the UC Academic Senate showed overwhelming faculty and staff support last spring.

“The important question for the university to ask is why is managing Los Alamos relevant for the university's future,” said UC Berkeley physics professor Charles Shank, who managed the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for 15 years.

The university showed interest in partnering with Lockheed Martin, a private contractor, to place a bid, but the corporation bowed out of the competition in July, leaving the university to turn elsewhere for a corporate partner.

“The UC is having ongoing discussions with other potential partners regarding the management of LANL, but it is too premature to discuss the content of those discussions,” Harrington said.

The DOE put the lab up for national bidding in April 2003 amid reports of financial mismanagement and security blunders. UC-run Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National labs were put up last fall after Congress passed a law requiring all labs that had not been put up for bid in 50 years to be put up for grabs.

Contact Rachel Luna at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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