Los Alamos Contract Announcement Delayed

UC will have to wait to find out whether it will continue to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory after federal officials said Wednesday they will delay the announcement of the winner of the management contract until after the Dec.1 deadline.

Originally scheduled to be announced Thursday, the management contract for the federally owned lab was pushed back following a request from National Nuclear Security Administration officials for more time to weigh the proposals.

"The Source Evaluation Board, which is preparing an evaluation report for the selecting official at NNSA headquarters, simply needed more time to finish its analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the proposals," said administration spokesperson Al Stotts in an e-mail.

Although a new deadline has not been set, officials on the board "do not anticipate a significant delay in the decision," Stotts said.

UC tapped Bechtel National, Inc. as its corporate partner earlier this summer and formally entered the race in May after the UC Board of Regents approved the bid in an 11-1 vote last May.

The University of Texas and Lockheed Martin Corp. also submitted a joint bid.

The delay will not affect how the UC-Bechtel team is preparing to transition management of the lab should they win the bid, said Jeff Berger, spokesperson for Los Alamos National Security LLC, which is handling the joint bid for UC and Bechtel, Inc.

"I don't know what it means," said Berger, referring to the delayed announcement. "We feel very good about the proposal that we submitted."

UC, which has managed the lab since its inception in 1943, was forced to compete to hold its management contract after reports of fiscal misconduct and security and safety lapses prompted the energy department to open management of the lab to national competition in 2003.

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