Triad National Security appears set to take over the Los Alamos National Laboratory this fall, after no one protested the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) June 8 award of its potentially 10-year management contract.
Triad’s three main partners are Battelle Memorial Institute, the University of California, and Texas A&M University. The University of California managed Los Alamos solo for most of the facility’s roughly 70-year history, then was one of the lead partners on outgoing management prime Los Alamos National Security.
Under federal procurement rules, losing bidders — there were three, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) — had 10 days from the day the agency formally debriefed them about their losing proposals to protest the award. As of Friday, two weeks since the NNSA said it completed the last of those debriefs, no one had lodged a protest with the Government Accountability Office.
On Friday, an NNSA spokesperson said there are “no protests” of the award, as far as the agency knows.
Companies and institutions besides Triad known to have bid are:
- Integrated Science and Nuclear Assurance, a partnership led by Bechtel National and Purdue University.
- The University of Texas with unidentified industry partners — the Austin American-Statesman reported Boeing [BA] was the main industry partner on this bid.
- Jacobs Engineering [JEC] and BWX Technologies [BWXT].
Spokespersons for the losing bidders did not reply to requests for comment.
Bechtel and BWXT are also members of the incumbent contractor. The final team member, AECOM [ACM], did not bid on the contract Triad recently locked down.
The NNSA has not publicly released the source-selection decision for the contract award: an official accounting of why Triad’s proposal was superior to the three other responsive bids the agency received in response to the October 2017 solicitation.
Likewise, Triad National Security has not disclosed its corporate structure or identified the senior personnel — including the new lab director — it will install at Los Alamos by Oct. 1, when the new partnership is slated to officially take over the lab after a roughly four-month contract transition that began June 8.
Triad National Security’s contract is worth about $20 billion over 10 years, including options. That excludes some $2 billion in funding from agencies besides the Department of Energy. The contract includes a five-year base period, valued at about $10 billion, and five one-year options. The NNSA has not disclosed Triad’s annual fee, but the agency’s final solicitation for the Los Alamos management pact capped fees at about $50 million a year.
Besides its three senior partners, Triad also includes industry teammates Fluor Federal Services [FLR], Huntington Ingalls Industries/Stoller Newport News Nuclear [HII], Longenecker & Associates, TechSource, Strategic Management Solutions, and Merrick & Co.