Despite a public rebuff from rival University of Texas last week, Texas A&M University expects to join “strong partners” in a bid to manage the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Oct. 25 solicited bids for a new lab contract that is expected to cost some $21 billion over 10 years, including options. The winner’s lab-management fees could be as high as $50 million a year, according to NNSA’s request for proposals.
The University of Texas System in September announced it would spend $4.5 million to evaluate DOE’s request for proposal. The Austin-based system said it planned to lead a bid, and was open to partnering with other academic institutions.
But last week, the Houston Chronicle reported the University of Texas System had ruled out a role for its in-state rival, A&M, alma mater of Energy Secretary and former Texas governor Rick Perry.
Evidently, the University of Texas communicated its decision through the press and not directly to Texas A&M.
“As a courtesy to the governor, we contacted UT to discuss a partnership,” M. Katherine Banks, the A&M System’s vice chancellor for engineering, wrote in a Tuesday email. “We did not receive a response from UT.”
That said, Banks all told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing A&M plans to get in on the action.
“We have been contacted by numerous private companies and academic institutions that have expressed interest in partnering with us in this competition,” Banks wrote. “We are confident that we will participate with strong partners.”
DOE is taking current prime Los Alamos National Security (LANS) off the job after several high-profile nuclear safety and management lapses at the lab. Its contract ends on Sept. 30, 2018.
LANS is led by the University of California and senior industry partner Bechtel, with industry teammates AECOM and BWX Technologies. The university managed the lab solo from World War II to the first decade of the new millennium and has all but confirmed it will bid on the follow-on contract.
