Contract awarded to manage nuclear lab

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Overseeing a top nuclear weapons laboratory that has had security and safety problems will be the responsibility of a new management team that includes two universities and a research firm that does work around the world, the U.S. government announced Friday.

The National Nuclear Security Administration chose Triad National Security LLC as the winning bidder to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb. Comprised of Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Institute, Texas A&M University and the University of California, the team will begin taking over later this year.

The contract — worth an estimated $2.5 billion a year — marks a big step as federal officials look to get the lab back on track after safety lapses and missed goals.

The lab in recent years has mishandled plutonium and mistakenly shipped nuclear material to other federal facilities via a commercial cargo plane. It also inappropriately packaged waste that led to a radiation release and a nearly three-year closure of the nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository.

Criticism of the lab’s safety record has intensified as the federal government pushes to restart production of plutonium cores for the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

Following serious concerns about management more than a decade ago, the University of California formed a consortium with Bechtel and other private companies to become Los Alamos National Security LLC.

Problems persisted, however, and federal officials announced in 2015 that the contract wouldn’t be renewed due to missed performance goals.

The National Nuclear Security Administration followed up in 2017 with a request for proposals that called for the would-be contractor to foster a “security conscious culture,” something watchdog groups have said has been missing at the lab.