Tri-Valley CAREs

Thursday, May 10, 2007  
University Wins Bid for Livermore Lab

By: Katlyn Carter, Staff Writer
Published In: Daily Cal

UC will continue to manage the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for at least the next seven years after partnering with a number of other groups to win the first-ever bid for the U.S. Department of Energy management contract.



The department and the National Nuclear Security Administration announced Tuesday that starting Oct. 1, the lab will be managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, a group formed by the university last year to bid for the contract.



The lab is one of the country's premier nuclear research and development labs and has been managed solely by the university since it?s opening in 1952.



The bidding process was the first in the lab's 55-year history.



The new team will manage Livermore Laboratory for the next seven years with the option of extending the contract on a year-by-year basis for 13 more years based on the quality of performance, said Lynda Seaver, a spokesperson for the management group.



The contract includes a maximum $45.5 million per year management fee, Seaver said.



?For more than 50 years, the University of California has managed Livermore Laboratory, and we are delighted at the opportunity to continue playing a role in supporting the laboratory?s mission of scientific achievement in the interests of national security and global cooperation,? UC President Robert Dynes said in a statement released Tuesday.



The new management group includes Bechtel National, Inc., Virgina-based BWX Technologies, Inc., Idaho-based Washington Group International, and Battelle, a nonprofit lab management group based in Ohio.



The new team was formed with the aim of bringing together groups with different areas of expertise, said UC spokesperson Chris Harrington.



?What this is is an integrated approach to bring in the best of science and the best of business together," Seaver said.



Batelle, which currently operates five other Department of Energy labs and a lab for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was approached to join the team about a year ago, said Bill Madia, the executive vice president for lab operations at Battelle.



?We thought we could add some real value to the lab so we decided to join,? Madia said.



The UC team beat out defense company Northrop Grumman Corporation to secure the contract.



Members of Tri-Valley CAREs, a nuclear watchdog group, paired with other groups to submit a bid for the lab and said they were not pleased with outcome of the contract.



?The Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration really missed what could have been an important opportunity to move Livermore lab in a new direction,?said Marylia Kelley, the executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs.

Katlyn Carter is the news editor. Contact her at [email protected].

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