New $22B Los Alamos management contract awarded
By
Ross Wilkers
The Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration makes its long-awaited $22 billion award of the next Los Alamos lab management contract.
The Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration has made its long-awaited selection of the next manager of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Joint venture Triad National Security has clinched the potential 10-year, $22.5 billion contract for the management and operation of the Los Alamos lab, NNSA said Friday. The contract has a five-year base period with up to five individual option years.
The award comes three years after NNSA announced that the current contractor in charge of the site – Los Alamos National Security LLC – would lose the work after successive poor ratings in their performance evaluation, specifically related to safety.
Currently set to expire on Sept. 30, the agency plans to extend the current contract for an additional four months to cover a transition period.
Los Alamos National Laboratory was opened during World War II to support the development of the atomic bomb and is one of three designated national labs with responsibilities for health and state of nuclear weapons. This is only the second time NNSA has sought a new contractor to manage the lab.
Primary members of the Triad Group include Battelle Memorial Institute, the Regents of the University of California, and the Regents of Texas A&M University.
Fluor Corp., Huntington Ingalls Industries’ SN3 business, Longenecker & Associates, TechSource, Strategic Management Solutions and Merrick & Company will support Triad on the contract.
Huntington Ingalls has been on a run of successful business pursuits with the Energy Department, a primary focus of growth for the shipbuilder’s government services segment.
SN3 is one of seven businesses HII integrated from across its shipbuilding segments to form the standalone services segment it calls “Technical Solutions.”
SN3 – short for Stoller Newport News Nuclear -- is a partner in a joint venture with BWXT Technologies that won a separate $1.4 billion contract in December of last year for environmental cleanup work at the Los Alamos site.
In addition, SN3 is involved in a separate venture that won the $5 billion Nevada National Security Site management contract in August of last year. That venture also includes Honeywell and Jacobs Engineering Group.