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The wait is almost over for thousands of Los Alamos National Laboratory employees eager to learn who their next manager will be.
Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman is scheduled to announce the winner of the seven-year contract— worth up to $79 million dollars— today in Washington, D.C. The current lab manager, the University of California, has teamed up with engineering firm Bechtel National and other industrial partners in its bid to continue operating the lab. That team is competing against another academic-industrial alliance, led by defense contractor Lockheed Martin and the University of Texas.
"Certainly the employees of the lab are anxious to know (the winner)," said UC/Bechtel spokesman Jeff Berger. "And it will be very good for them, I think, to have closure and to know how this process ends."
The process began in 2003 on the heels of a series of well-publicized security and management scandals. That's when former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced that LANL's operating contract would be put up for bid for the first time in the lab's 63-year history.
Who will come away with the contract remained a well-guarded secret Tuesday, with spokesmen for both bidding teams and members of New Mexico's congressional delegation saying they had not yet been briefed. Gov. Bill Richardson, a former energy secretary who has publicly said he supports UC's bid, also said Monday he was unaware of which team the Department of Energy would name.
Details of the bidders' proposals have been kept under wraps since they were submitted in July. The confidential nature of the competition sparked months of speculation and uncertainty among lab employees, anxious to learn how their benefits will be affected by the management change.