Three Groups Bid to Run Livermore Nuclear Lab

The U.S. Energy Department has received three bids to manage the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after the University of California’s current contract expires in September 2007, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, Sept. 21).

Two of the bidding groups consist of mainstream defense contractors, while the third is led by nuclear laboratory watchdog groups that pledged in their bid to end nuclear weapons research at the laboratory.

The Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration is expected to select the winner by March 31, 2007.

“I expect that NNSA will be reluctant to consider genuine change,” said Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, one of the watchdog organizations leading the Livermore Lab Green bidding group.  “However, in our view, that is exactly what is required.”

The group was the only one of the three to release details of its bid.

The two other bidders currently operate other Energy Department facilities.

The University of California-Bechtel group last year won the contract to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (see GSN, June 1), and earlier this year the Northrop Grumman-led group was awarded the contract to operate the Nevada Test Site (see GSN, March 30; Scott Lindlaw, Associated Press/San Jose Mercury News, Oct. 28).

The UC-Bechtel group is expected to promote itself as the experienced contractor capable of improving itself and ensuring good cooperation with the Los Alamos sister laboratory, Inside Bay Area reported Saturday.  The Northrop Grumman group would probably sell itself as an innovative industry leader that can manage a leaner, more efficient nuclear research operation, according to Inside Bay Area (Ian Hoffman, Inside Bay Area, Oct. 28).

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