The director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said prospective managers of the lab or its sister facility, Los Alamos National Laboratory, should be required to bid for the two labs under the same contract.
The UT System is considering a bid for Los Alamos, which oversees the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons, when the University of California System's contract with the U.S. Department of Energy expires in 2005. The UT System has not publicly announced any plans to bid on the Lawrence Livermore laboratory. The UC System has managed both labs since they were created in the 1940s.
Michael Anastasio, Lawrence Livermore director, made the recommendations as part of a meeting last week with the National Academies Commit-tee on Criteria for Management of Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore Nation Laboratories.
The committee will report its findings to the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, which will then submit a draft Request for Proposals to the DOE in May. The request is a list of standards the DOE will use to evaluate the capabilities of bidders for the labs.
"We really don't know what their [Request for Proposals] will say," said Lynda Seaver, a spokeswoman for Lawrence Livermore. "[Anastasio] was asked what he felt was best for the labs, and he responded."
In his report, Anastasio said he wanted the winning bidder to be a university that can "attract and retain top-caliber staff and visionary leaders," and to "foster program integration and technical competition with Los Alamos National Labs."
Randa Safady, UT System vice chancellor for external relations, said the DOE has publicly said it intends to offer separate contracts for each lab.
"This is all news to us," Safady said. "We're operating under the impression that the DOE will bid their labs separately."
If the DOE opens a bid for Los Alamos under a joint contract with Lawrence Livermore, the UT System would have to bid for both labs.
"[The University of California System] has managed the labs for a long time," Safady said. "That seems to be something they would recommend."
This is the UT System's second attempt in recent years to bid for management of a national laboratory focused on defense research. The DOE in December 2002 decided to extend Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company's contract with Sandia National Laboratories, blocking UT System efforts to bid on that lab.
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