NNSA preps to compete potential $36B Los Alamos lab management contract
By
Ross Wilkers
The National Nuclear Security Administration puts out a draft solicitation ahead of the upcoming potential $36.6 billion competition to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The National Nuclear Security Administration is getting ready to compete an estimated $36.6 billion contract in search of a new manager of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
NNSA posted a draft request for proposals July 12 with a response deadline of July 26. Deltek data indicates an anticipated solicitation release date of September this year with an award to follow in June 2018 and the current contract expires three months later.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of three designated national laboratories in the U.S. that holds responsibility over the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile’s state and health.
Joint venture Los Alamos National Security LLC has held the incumbent contract since 2006 but is losing the work after successive poor ratings on their performance evaluation, the Albuquerque Journal reported in September 2015. This is the second time the contract is being competed since LANL’s creation during World War II to create the atomic bomb.
LANS members are Babcock and Wilcox, Bechtel, URS Corp. and the University of California. NNSA has spent approximately $26 billion on the contract since its December 2005 award date at close to $2 billion per year not including fees for performance.
A selected vendor for the recompete will be responsible for all aspects of the laboratory’s management and operations and work to help LANL carry out its leadership role over the country’s nuclear weapons complex supply chain, the draft RFP says.
The new draft RFP comes nearly two months after a Honeywell subsidiary took over the management and operations of Sandia National Laboratories. National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia beat out Lockheed Martin's Sandia Corp. subsidiary for the potential 10-year, $12.7 billion SNL management contract in December 2016.
SNL is responsible for the development, engineering and testing of non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the third national lab that falls under NNSA's management. The contractor team responsible for that facility is a joint venture of Babcock and Wilcox, Battelle, Bechtel, URS Corp. and the University of California.