The &to=http://english.pravda.ru/usa/2002/08/08/34052.html' target=_blank>U.S. Department of Energy has opened a competition for managing Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the research and nuclear weapons lab run by the University of California for more than 50 years.
The department's National Nuclear Security Administration on Friday asked for bids to run the $1.9 billion (Ђ1.58 billion) lab. Livermore is one of the United States' three chief installations responsible for maintaining the &to=http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/15407_nuclear.html' target=_blank>U.S. nuclear arsenal.
UC has managed the 8,000-employee lab, located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of San Francisco, without having to bid for the job since it opened its doors in 1952. Its current contract is set to expire in September 2007.
Following a string of accounting, security and safety lapses at the Los Alamos and Livermore labs, the Energy Department decided in 2003 to seek new bids for UC's contracts to run those labs and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
UC has not officially decided whether it will compete for the Livermore contract.
"The regents have authorized the university to begin preparations for the competition, and we are doing so in earnest," UC president Robert Dynes said in a statement Friday. "Should we compete, we will do so vigorously and with the firm belief that excellence in science and technology is critical to the mission of the laboratory", reports AP.
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