UC keeps control of national laboratory

WASHINGTON — The Energy Department on Wednesday announced it had selected a team led by the University of California and the engineering company Bechtel to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The decision caps a five-month review that pitted the university, which has run the lab for 63 years, against a consortium led by the University of Texas and Lockheed Martin. It was the first time the nuclear lab's management contract had been opened to competition, a move spurred by an angry Congress after a series of security and safety lapses at the storied facility in the New Mexico desert.

Los Alamos scientists built the first atomic bomb and today oversee the security and reliability of the nation's nuclear arsenal. While the technical expertise of its scientists and engineers is widely renowned, the lab made major missteps in recent years, ranging from industrial accidents to failures to keep track of sensitive data.

Acknowledging fears that the lab might lose some of the academic aura that has kept scientists happy there, but recognizing the need to remake itself, UC opted to bid with Bechtel, which will oversee business operations and security. The seven-year contract, worth up to $80 million a year, takes effect in June.

The win is a relief for Los Alamos' 8,000 University of California employees, who feared losing job security and pensions under new management. It also offers the Energy Department a relatively seamless transition.

"I look forward to a new era of invaluable, cutting-edge science at Los Alamos," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.

But Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, said: "What does it take for UC to suffer the consequences of screwing up?"