UC Hopes to Keep Lawrence Livermore Lab

A University of California governing body voted yesterday to move forward on a bid to retain its long-standing management of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. (see GSN, July 18).

The university’s full board of regents is expected to approve the recommendation today, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The university has managed Livermore and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico for decades, but recent questions over safety and poor management at the nuclear weapons labs prompted Congress and the U.S. Energy Department to open up future management for bids.

Last year, the university partnered with the engineering firm Bechtel to retain control of the Los Alamos lab, beating out a team from Lockheed Martin and the University of Texas.

In one recent incident at Livermore, employees were contaminated with plutonium (see GSN, Feb. 27).  In February, Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees all the nuclear labs, said it “casts significant doubt on the laboratory’s ability to effectively analyze and correct performance problems.”

Competitors for the Livermore management contract have until Oct. 12 to submit proposals to the government.  A winner is expect to be named in March (Keay Davidson/ San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 21)

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