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Friday, January 14, 2005

UT Chancellor to Recommend University Not Pursue LANL Contract

By Adam Rankin and Mark Oswald
Of the Journal
    The chancellor of the University of Texas is recommending that the school not bid on the contract to operate Los Alamos National Laboratory.
    Michael Warden, a spokesman for the University of Texas system of campuses, confirmed Thursday night that UT chancellor Mark G. Yudof will announce his recommendation against a LANL bid today.
    Yudof's recommendation will go to the UT Board of Regents at a Feb. 18 meeting, Warden said.
    "The board will still have to approve it," Warden said. "However, I can say I think the regents will give great weight to the chancellor's recommendation."
    Warden said he couldn't say much about Yudof's reasons for coming down against seeking the $30-million-a-year contract to run the Los Alamos lab.
    "He said there are a number of factors that have resulted in him coming to that conclusion, and he will articulate those at the meeting on Feb. 18," Warden said.
    The federal Department of Energy has put the LANL operating contract out for bid for the first time ever following years of security and management problems at the nuclear weapons lab. The University of California has run LANL since it was created for the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. The current contract expires in September.
    The UT regents voted in February 2004 to spend up to $500,000 to prepare a possible bid for the LANL contract. There was speculation that the Texas school might have the inside track because of the influence of President Bush, a Texan and former Texas governor.
    But UT officials in August expressed reservations about pursuing the contract after Lockheed Martin Corp., a potential bidding partner with UT, announced it would not compete to take over LANL.
    Also, anti-nuclear and peace activists have urged UT to stay away from the New Mexico weapons lab.
    Texas A&M University, which also had expressed interest in the LANL bidding, already has dropped out of the competition.
    John Pruett of UT Watch, a group opposed to a bid by the University of Texas, had heard about Yudof's recommendation Thursday afternoon.
    "It's great news to us," said Pruett, a UT senior.
    "In general, the university shouldn't be involved in the development of nuclear weapons," Pruett said. "Our university's time and resources could be spent on better science than developing nuclear science."
    Asked for comment about the UT developments, Chris Harrington, a spokesman for the University of California, said, "UC has always said that we are going to continue to prepare as if we are going to compete regardless of what the competitive field looks like."
    The UC regents still haven't made a final decision on submitting a bid to continue operating LANL. Harrington said the UC regents will get an updated report on the California school's preparations for the contract competition next week.
    Other entities that have expressed interest in the LANL contract include Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc., Burns and Roe Enterprises, Computer Sciences Corp. and Titan Corp.