UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO SIGNALS INTEREST IN SANDIA CONTRACT

Cecchi said UNM President Bob Frank recently visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is jointly managed by Battelle Memorial Institute and the University of Tennessee, to get a sense of what kind of role a research university could play at a national laboratory. Frank and Cecchi have also met with acting NNSA Administrator Neile Miller about the lab’s plans. Cecchi confirmed that the university was in active talks with several companies eyeing the Sandia opportunity. Thus far, only two companies have publicly said they are bidding for the contract—incumbent Lockheed Martin and Fluor—but several other companies are believed to be pursuing the opportunity, including Bechtel, URS, Babcock & Wilcox, Northrop Grumman, Battelle, Jacobs Engineering, and SAIC. “We have talked to a number of parties,” Cecchi said. “We are continuing to do that. They have sought us out. I think it’s clear that they’ve started with the assumption we have things to contribute. I also think as we’ve had the conversations they’ve come to understand that’s more true than they thought. We have had some interesting discussions but we haven’t settled anything. We’ll continue with these discussions.”