Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
5/9/2014
In a surprising move that raises questions about competition for the new Brookhaven National Laboratory management and operating contract, Southeastern Universities Research Association said late this week that it was taking a pass on bidding for management of the Long Island laboratory. Days after it appeared that SURA was preparing to team with AECOM on its bid for Brookhaven, SURA spokesman Greg Kubiak confirmed that SURA had pulled the plug on the bid. He didn’t offer any reasons for the decision, which leaves incumbent Brookhaven Science Associates—a partnership of Battelle and Stony Brook University—as the only likely bidder for the contract. “I think DOE really wants an alternative [to BSA] or they wouldn’t be doing this,” one industry official told NS&D Monitor. “But I don’t know that they’re going to get it.”
Kubiak last week confirmed that SURA had interest in the Brookhaven contract, but did not provide any other details, and as recently as early this week, SURA was still moving forward on plans to team with AECOM. “I can confirm that SURA has expressed an interest to DOE in the competition,” Kubiak said last week. “But as we examine the proposal and partnership opportunities, it would be premature to say any more than that. As a tried and trusted contractor for another DOE lab, we are interested to see if that success can be extended in a new venture.” SURA has successfully managed the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility with CSC Applied Technologies since 2006.
Incumbent Vulnerable?
SURA is not the first entity to consider making a run at the Brookhaven contract. Universities Research Association, which manages Fermilab for DOE, was linked at times with URS, and Fluor, Honeywell, CB&I and IBM all previously showed interest in playing a role in running the laboratory but have faded into the background as the due date for proposals draws closer.
When DOE made the decision to compete the Brookhaven contract, incumbent Brookhaven Science Associates appeared vulnerable. In Fiscal Year 2012, it received its first “C-” on its annual evaluation from DOE, in environment, safety and health, and last summer DOE finalized a $959,595 fee reduction for Brookhaven Science Associates because of an accident that occurred in 2011 during decommissioning activities at the lab’s Graphite Research Reactor. When it announced that it planned to compete the lab contract in 2012, DOE said that it hoped the competition would “result in improved contractor performance and cost efficiencies at BNL.” At the time, the decision to compete the contract stood in stark contrast to recent extensions handed out at Oak Ridge and Pacific Northwest national laboratories.
BSA, however, took a proactive approach to addressing its management issues, bringing in Doon Gibbs as the lab’s director last year and shoring up operations by hiring former Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Fermilab official Jack Anderson as Deputy Director for Operations. In Fiscal Year 2013, it improved its performance, receiving two “A-s” and six “B+s” on its annual review.
