UC picks leader for Los Alamos bidding preparations

By: MICHELLE LOCKE - Associated Press | Tuesday, May 17, 2005 9:39 PM PDT ∞

BERKELEY -- University of California officials have picked one of their own to prepare for the race to run the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab.

UC and Bechtel National announced Tuesday that nuclear physicist Michael R. Anastasio will lead the team.

UC's governing Board of Regents hasn't decided whether to compete for the job and won't take a vote until the Energy Department issues final specifications for the job, expected to happen this month. However, they have instructed staff to proceed as though the 10-campus system will bid.

Anastasio has experience in the field; he is head of the other nuclear weapons lab run by UC, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California.

UC has run the Los Alamos lab in New Mexico for the government since the facility was founded to work on the atomic bomb in World War II. It has managed the Livermore lab since it was founded in 1952.

The university has consistently been praised for its science, but its role as national nuclear steward came under attack after a series of fiscal and security lapses at Los Alamos.

In April 2003, the Energy Department announced it would seek bids when the management contract expired this year.

Anastasio said he'll try to deliver a proposal that serves science and security.

"We're going to bring the best of science and technology and the best of management and safety and security together," Anastasio said. "You need to do both things. It's not one or the other."

Lockheed Martin Corp., which runs Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., and defense contractor Northrop Grumman have announced they will go after the contract. The University of Texas is also in the running.

UC is partnering with Bechtel National Inc., the division of the San Francisco-based engineering, construction and management company that deals with government contracts.

Bechtel will lead a team that includes Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies, Inc. and Washington Group International, based in Boise, Idaho.

"I absolutely believe it is in the best interest of the nation to have two strong weapons physics laboratories," said Anastasio. "This allows for a vigorous competition of technical ideas within a balanced, fully integrated program."

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