Prepared by Fiat Pax

Background:

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a GOCO (Government Owned, Contractor Operated) facility owned by the Department of Energy and operated by the University of California.

The University of California has held the contract since 1943 when the laboratory was first established. The most recent contract renewal between the DOE and UC was signed in January of 2001, just before the Bush administration took office. The contract has been held by the UC for 61 years without competition.

According to the DOE’s report (McSlarrow & Brooks) security lapses in the late 1990’s were not adequately addressed by lab administrators. The corrective measures drawn out in Appendix O of the January, 2001 UC-DOE contract for LANL failed to solve the root problems of mismanagement because according to the DOE;

“The Federal oversight role was limited to a mechanistic review of performance as set forth in the contract when, in fact, a broader, more aggressive role was called for, particularly in light of problems that developed at Los Alamos in the late 1990s.”

Security lapses at LANL during this time period included the Wen Ho Lee case, multiple disappearances of keys, widespread theft and misuse of government credit cards, failures to repel mock terrorist attacks, among others.

DOE Secretary Abraham’s memo on opening the contract Upon reviewing the McSlarrow & Brooks report DOE Secretary Abraham wrote back to the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) on April 29th, 2003 saying that, “given [the] responsibility and the widespread nature of the problems uncovered at Los Alamos, I intend to open management of Los Alamos to full competition when the current contract expires.”

Abraham’s decision was made public on April 30, 2003 in a press release stating, “DOE intends to compete Los Alamos National Laboratory management and operations contract upon completion of current University of California contract in 2005.”

The timeframe and current details for lab competition is as follows:

UC’s contract to manage Los Alamos National Lab expires September 30, 2005. DOE’s competition schedule has thus far been set up so that in the event of UC losing the contract, the winning university, firm, or consortium will effectively move into place by September of 2005. DOE has urged the UC to compete for LANL’s contract, perhaps in partnership with an industrial firm.

UC’s contract to manage LLNL also expires on September 30, 2005, and the DOE’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Lab Contracts has urged that LLNL’s contract also be put up for competitive bidding. As UC President Dynes notes, however, “DOE has not yet decided on a competition schedule for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.” Because of this it is highly unlikely that LLNL will be bid out in time for its 2005 expiration, so a contract extension between UC and DOE will be very likely.

Requests for Proposals are expected to be released sometime during the summer or fall of 2004, although no timetable has yet been defined by the DOE for the process.

On January 15, 2004 the UC Regents approved a measure that gives a kind of fast track negotiating power to UC President Robert Dynes along with John J. Moores, Chairman of the UC Regents, and the Chairman of the Regent’s Committee of Laboratory Oversight, Peter Preuss. The powers granted to these three men allow for them to continue negotiating and working with the Department of Energy in expectation that UC will bid. This includes the ability to agree to contract extensions if the DOE offers such and option at any of the labs, to respond to requests by the DOE for an expression of interest and statement of qualifications on behalf of the UC, and the ability to hire professional services to help in drafting bid documents and materials.

So far the only contract extension that the UC and DOE have agreed to concerns the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, a DOE owned facility that is a highly improbable object of competitive bidding because of its proximity to UC Berkeley and its embedded relationship to Berkeley’s science departments and faculties. This contract extension will run through January 2005.

The University of California Office of Laboratory Management believes that the timelines for the UC run DOE nuclear weapons labs will be as follows:

1. Los Alamos National Lab:
May 2004 – Expression of Interests/Qualification
July 2004 – Draft Evaluation Criteria
August 2004 – Draft RFP (Request for Proposals)
October 2004 – Final RFP
January 2005 – Proposals Due
April 2005 – Contract Award
October 2005 – New Contract Starts

2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab:
June 2005 – Expression of Interests/Qualification
September 2005 – Draft RFP (Request for Proposals)
November 2005 – Final RFP
January 2006 – Proposals Due
May 2006 – Contract Award
October 2006 – New Contract Starts