A&M, UT unite in bid to run nuclear lab

Universities would run New Mexico’s Sandia facility

The state’s two largest university systems want to run the national laboratory that helped develop the first nuclear weapons.

The state’s two largest university systems want to run the national laboratory in New Mexico that helped develop the first nuclear weapons.

Texas A&M University and the University of Texas systems have entered a joint bid with the University of New Mexico and private companies Boeing and Battelle to take over management of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, one of three U.S. Department of Energy laboratories responsible for the nation’s nuclear arsenal, the universities said Tuesday.

The universities would conduct research, provide workforce training and independent peer review of the work done at Sandia — rooted primarily in the realm of national security and nuclear science.

“In the Texas A&M and University of Texas systems, you have two of the largest, most prestigious university systems in the country with the expertise and resources necessary at Sandia, as you do with the University of New Mexico and its deep ties to Sandia, and I believe we bring an academic prowess that no one in this country can match,” A&M Chancellor John Sharp said during the announcement in New Mexico. “Together, with Battelle and Boeing, our nation’s defense will be in good hands.”

Officials declined to offer many details on how they would run the labs, should their bid be selected. A&M leaders said its faculty and students would have chances to collaborate with the researchers working at Sandia.

“These are very unique, stateof-the-art facilities,” A&M Engineering Dean Kathy Banks said. “Our students would have opportunities with this type of partnership that they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Those opportunities could include working in the labs where the first nuclear weapons were developed and where America’s nuclear arsenal remains. Sandia began in 1945 as Z Division, the design, testing and assembly arm of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which built the atomic bomb. It became Sandia Laboratory in 1949.

The effort to run the labs is as much about service to the country as it is research for the military-oriented A&M, Sharp said.

“Yes, joining the Together Sandia team will provide tremendous opportunities to create new partnerships and expand existing ones. Yes, it will increase our research and educational opportunities. Yes, we want to be at the forefront of preparing the scientific and engineering workforce of the future,” Sharp said. “But most of all, it is about service to our country — to ensuring that our nation’s defense is second to none.”

The laboratory is managed by the Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company that has run the lab for decades. The lab has an operating budget of $3 billion with 10,000 employees.

Competition to run it likely will be stiff.

The Energy Department issued a request for proposals to run the lab this month and is expected to pick the new manager by the end of the year.

Leaders from Battelle, which helps run six national laboratories already, and Boeing said they were confident in the team they’ve joined for the bid. A&M and UT, working in the bid as the Texas Research and Education Partnership, would sit on the board of directors for the lab should they win.

Running the lab would be an “unparalleled research opportunity” for the Texas universities, Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement.

“Together, Texas and New Mexico can bring unprecedented research opportunities to our great state universities and would be honored to be entrusted with the management of one of our nation’s premier national laboratories,” Abbott said.