Energy separates contracts for Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore

The Energy Department on Wednesday revealed a strategy for accepting bids on the management of two nuclear research facilities, but has yet to set a timeline for running the contests.

The University of California, which runs three Energy facilities, will need to submit separate bids if it hopes to maintain control of all of them. Energy officials had considered offering up the management of two of those centers-Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories-as a package. (The third facility run by the university is Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.)

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said he has concluded that "it is very important to ensure we have the broadest possible competition for future contracts." A blue-ribbon commission studying the use of competitive procedures at the department recommended that Abraham separate the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore contracts to allow more organizations to bid on them.

The University of California, which historically has operated Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore on a noncompetitive basis, is waiting to see the department's request for proposals before deciding whether to bid, said Chris Harrington, a university spokesman. Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration will publish the request "in the near future," officials said.

Energy expects to award the Los Alamos contract by October 2005, when the University of California's current agreement expires. The university's contract to manage Lawrence Livermore has been extended two years to 2007, allowing Energy more time to run that competition.

The university's Board of Regents will make a final decision on whether to compete for the contracts, Harrington said. In a poll last month, a majority of 3,271 faculty members surveyed said they favored seeking an extension of the management contracts.

Roughly two thirds of respondents said they would like the university to bid to continue running the facilities, while 21 percent opposed a bid and 13 percent expressed no opinion. Faculty opposed to the renewal cited concerns that the university's "name and reputation are devalued by the adverse publicity associated with these two national laboratories," according to a summary of the poll results.

Management problems at Los Alamos, revealed in the fall of 2002 by whistleblowers Glenn Walp and Steven Doran, entered into Abraham's April 2003 decision to make the University of California compete for the contract to operate the facility. In January 2004, Energy announced it would open four additional lab management contracts, including the one to run Lawrence Livermore, to competition.

Outside consultants are advising the university on strengthening management of the nuclear facilities, and are helping the school position itself to compete, Harrington said.

"This decision [to split the contracts] neither changes the University of California's ongoing preparations to compete for continued management of all three UC-managed national laboratories, nor alters its continuing commitment to serving the nation," said S. Robert Foley, the school's vice president for laboratory management.