The company that has run the Los Alamos National Laboratory for a decade will split up, with members of the incumbent manager set to pursue separate bids to run the nuclear weapons lab for the next 10 years, a University of California official said Wednesday.
The University of California (UC) managed the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on its own for most of the New Mexico site’s nearly 75-year history. Since 2006, however, the university has partnered with senior industry partner Bechtel National and industry teammates AECOM and BWX Technologies as site prime Los Alamos National Security.
Now, according to a University of California regent, that partnership will split up, with some of the incumbent’s industry teammates pursuing other proposals to run LANL.
“We now find ourselves in a situation where there will be bids coming from some of our partners,” Norman Pattiz, the UC regent who chairs the board’s national laboratories subcommittee, said Wednesday.
Pattiz spoke during a Board of Regents meeting that was webcast from San Diego. During the meeting, the board officially and unanimously approved the university’s plan to bid on the next LANL management contract.
The pact includes a five-year base and five one-year options. The lab-management portion of the deal, which represents the lion’s share of the work, would cost more than $20 billion, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration estimates. The winning bidder could pull in up to $50 million in annual fees.
The University of California signaled it would bid well before DOE released a request for proposals from would-be LANL managers on Oct. 25. However, its entry into the competition was not official before the regents’ approval on Wednesday. Bids are due Dec. 11.
Spokespersons for AECOM, Bechtel National, and BWX Technologies did not immediately reply to requests for comment late Wednesday. BWXT CEO Rex Geveden, during the company’s quarterly earnings call last week, suggested his company’s interest in the Los Alamos contract.
While it is best known for the nuclear weapons work that accounts for the vast bulk of its annual spending, the 11,200-employee, 40-square-mile facility today conducts research into fields ranging from nanotechnology to biosurveillance.
“NNSA is a tough, demanding customer, but the work to be done at Los Alamos is too important for the university to walk away from,” Pattiz said Wednesday.
