LANL manager gets 1 more year
New contract will be awarded in interim
The federal government has granted the Bechtel-led private consortium that runs Los Alamos National Laboratory a one-year contract extension, through September 2018, and during the interim the more than $2 billion annual contract will be put out for competition.
LANL director Charlie McMillan announced the latest developments at an all-employee meeting at the lab Thursday, following up on his disclosure in December that Los Alamos National Security LLC was losing the contract but that some kind of interim extension would be worked out.
LANS — which along with Bechtel includes the University of California, Babcock & Wilcox, and URS Energy & Construction — has failed to get performance reviews good enough to be granted more years on its contract.
The worst evaluation was for the 2013-2014 fiscal year, or FY 2014, when a waste drum improperly packed with a combustible mix at LANL breached at the nation’s nuclear waste storage facility near Carlsbad.
The resulting radioactive contamination has kept the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant closed since the February 2014 leak, causing waste backups throughout the nation’s nuclear weapons complex sites.
The FY 2015 review — which still has not been released by the National Nuclear Safety Administration — was much better but still fell short of what was required to keep the LANS contract alive beyond September 2017 and some additional, transitional period, McMillan said in December.
A Thursday memo from McMillan obtained by the Journal included an “official communication” from NNSA. That statement said that although LANS didn’t earn more contract years, the extension for another
year through fiscal year 2018 “acknowledges the improvements made by LANS in mission performance during FY 2015.”
NNSA also said it is granting the LANS consortium another year “in order to facilitate environmental cleanup programmatic changes” and to provide for new contract competitions for LANL operations and cleanup.
McMillan said in the memo, “My primary goal and that of the senior management team remains for the Laboratory to be in the strongest possible position through contract transition and into the future.” LANS can compete for the new contract.
An NNSA spokeswoman on Thursday confirmed the contract extension for LANS through September 2018 and added that NNSA and LANS are committed to the success of the Los Alamos lab, “its essential and enduring mission, and its people. Together, we seek to ensure the long-term health and vitality of LANL as a world-class institution.”