Longtime friends of Defense Tech know I’m, uh, mildly interested in what goes on at Los Alamos National Laboratory. And it’s been driving me nuts that I’ve been too busy to dig into the battle for control of the lab — a battle which is about to reach its “climax,” notes the San Francisco Chronicle.
A decision [about] who runs the world’s most glamorous and controversial nuclear weapons lab and that also could end the University of California’s unchallenged six-decade domination of the U.S. weapons program… could come soon, perhaps even Friday.
The decision will wrap up a six-month competition to run scandal-shaken Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was tested in 1945. UC and its industrial partners, including San Francisco-based Bechtel National Inc., are competing for the contract against aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp. and its allies — the huge University of Texas system, several New Mexico universities and various industrial partners…
A Lockheed Martin takeover would be seen as an example of a growing trend toward the “privatization” of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex…
UC has run the lab since 1943 without having to compete for its Energy Department contracts. But in 2003, Los Alamos and its management by UC came under fire after a series of security, safety, financial and managerial scandals at the lab, and the Energy Department and Congress ordered that all future contracts be open to outside bidders.
Several lab staff members told The Chronicle this week that they thought the Lockheed-Texas team had the best shot at winning the contract after what some view as a ghastly parade of UC screw-ups.
“The morale here is abysmal,” said theoretical physicist Brad Lee Holian. [Check this blog and you’ll see what he means — ed.] “People’s lives have been wrenched apart by the political games that have been played. You can’t hold people’s careers by the heels out over the balcony without them feeling threatened and cheapened.”
“Climax” for Los Alamos Fight
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We’ve heard that the Lockheed-UT team will probably win. Not surprising at all. Although LM_UT’s victory is probably due more to UC’s screw-ups than anything else. I will also have to say that Lockheed and UT have been more open and willing to engage the Los Alamos community than the UC-Bechtel team.
When I worked there over the summer, most of the people I talked to wanted UC to win. Either way, the academic atmosphere is probably going to be completely changed when I go back at summer.
I worked on a project last year w/ a guy from Lockheed Martin. He seemed reasonably competent and there were no shenanigans like they had going on @ Boeing. (Only other company I have for comparison…) Is a Lockheed Martin takeover really so bad?
There were rumors that the contract winner was to have been announced yesterday, but that did not happen. December 1 is still the expected announcement date.
–Doug
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