FIVE-YEAR EXTENSIONS AT SLAC, PNNL TAKE EFFECT

The Department of Energy, as expected, has wrapped up negotiations on five-year extensions at the SLAC National Accelerator Facility and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. DOE reached agreements on the extensions with the facilities last year, but negotiations on the extensions weren’t formally concluded until September. The new deals at the labs extend Stanford University’s contract at SLAC and Battelle’s contract at PNNL through Sept. 30, 2017. In its justification for extending Stanford’s contract without a competition, which was released Friday, DOE said “considering the exemplary performance of the current contractor, DOE has no expectation of meaningful improvement in performance or cost as a result of the competition at this time. In fact, Stanford has implemented changes and managed the laboratory to effect significant improvements to Laboratory performance. It is highly unlikely that a competition at this time would improve SLAC’s performance.”