Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
7/31/2015
New Mexico Tech (NMT) and New Mexico State University (NMSU) have formed a consortium that will bid on the management and operation contract for Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). Earlier this year the Department of Energy (DOE) issued a sources sought solicitation for SNL’s management and will award the contract following an open competition. SNL’s current contract with Lockheed Martin Corp. ends on April 30, 2017.
In an interview with NS&D Monitor, Van Romero, NMT vice president of research and economic development, said he is creating a consortium that will eventually bid on the contract. Other entities could eventually join NMT and NMSU in the effort. “I think the successful bidder will be a public-private partnership,” Romero said, with contractors heavily involved with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) taking on management roles and public universities staffing the labs. “There are people that have asked to meet with us to talk about the potential public-private partnership,” he said, and “we know that teams are starting to form.” Romero said NMT and NMSU are “already putting some resources in . . . but they’re modest compared to what large corporate America will have to put in.” The universities “are hoping that we might be able to get some state funding . . . to put together a large significant proposal,” Romero said.
Both NMT and NMSU boast a long history of partnership with SNL and other NNSA labs, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). “The research that has always flourished has centered [on] the weapons complex,” Romero said of his institution. “A lot of our students end up either working at [LANL] or [SNL] . . . so we see this new competition for the management of [SNL] as a way to get even closer to the lab.” NMT’s partnership has included SNL’s use of the university’s Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, NMT’s support for NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship initiative, and joint explosives detection projects for the university’s largest customer, the Department of Homeland Security.
The consortium could grow to include other institutions, Vimal Chaitanya, NMSU’s vice president for research, told NS&D Monitor in an interview. The universities “are just beginning to have dialogue,” he said. Chaitanya noted that NMSU’s research and development expenditures per year average about $140 million to $145 million. “We are used to dealing with large contracts to the satisfaction of the government,” he said. “We have the expertise, we have the manpower, [and] we have the know-how.” NMSU has partnered with the DOE for an alternative fuels project, LANL for nuclear nonproliferation work, and SNL for power electronics. “We really believe that we bring a lot of strength to the team,” Chaitanya said. “Some of our units were created really in response to the national defense needs,” he added, calling attention to the university’s Physical Science Laboratory for rocket technology research.
The University of New Mexico (UNM) confirmed that it responded to DOE’s sources sought solicitation. “We’re very interested based on more than 30 years of ever closer collaboration,” Joe Cecchi, dean of the School of Engineering, told NS&D Monitor. “We’re exploring all possibilities.” Cecchi said UNM is evaluating “whether our participation would bring value in the eyes of DOE and NNSA” and that it would consider collaborating with the other New Mexico universities once DOE issues a request for proposals. All three universities “can play a role,” he said, adding that “I anticipate that we will all have some close involvement in the process going forward.” Earlier this month, UNM signed a research partnership pact with SNL that facilitates joint research programs and personnel exchanges.
NMT and NMSU also indicated the potential for involvement in the Nevada National Security Site M&O contract. DOE issued a presolicitation announcement in May seeking management for the site after the current contract ends on Sept. 30, 2016. “I could see us playing a small role at the Nevada Test Site,” Romero said, noting that NMT is familiar with the site through a homeland security program partnership. “I wouldn’t say I’m planning on it,” he said regarding a bid for the Nevada contract, but “I’m certainly open to that idea.” Chaitanya said that NMSU is currently “not thinking about it” but that if contractors “see us as a big value added to them,” the university could then “think bigger in the future.”
