Last month, two nuclear “watchdog” organizations
formed a partnership to bid on the management contract for the Los
Alamos National Laboratory. The Santa Fe-based Nuclear Watch of New
Mexico and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive
Environment, based in Livermore, are the first to announce they
will compete for the contract, although other bidders are
expected.
Los Alamos has been managed for more than 60 years by the
University of California through a series of contracts that were
not open to competition. This year marks the first time the
lab’s management contract will be awarded through a
competitive bidding process.
Nuclear Watch and Tri-Valley CAREs are among the organizations
that advocated a competitive process, and our two groups believe
that their continuing participation can help ensure that the
decision-making process remains open and transparent.
Our groups are preparing a serious bid. The proposal will change
Los Alamos’ management to improve health and safety
provisions for workers and communities, strengthen whistleblower
protections, prioritize clean-up and environmental compliance,
expand civilian science, increase openness, and provide real
leadership by both example and technical means in the field of
global nonproliferation.
In contrast, the UC has a long and scandalous record of
mismanagement at the lab. Its prime features include repeated
security problems, nuclear safety violations, noncompliance with
federal environmental laws, workforce discrimination, whistleblower
retaliation and employee fraud.
Under present management, decades of airborne, waterborne and
soil contamination have been the norm. Mesas and canyons have been
polluted. Workers have been exposed to radioactive and toxic
materials on the job. Safety has taken the back seat, while weapons
programs have driven the bus.
Under the UC, nuclear weapons activities remain the overwhelming
focus of Los Alamos’ “science.” Currently, 79
percent of the lab’s Department of Energy funding is
specifically for core nuclear weapons research, testing and
production programs. There is no line-item funding for renewable
energy research and development.
Our groups’ bid will move to limit Los Alamos’
nuclear weapons activities to an appropriate curatorship role,
ensuring the safety and reliability of the existing arsenal, as it
awaits dismantlement. While curatorship is not in and of itself
disarmament, as called for by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is a
step in the right direction and will demonstrate a commitment to
halting the global proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of
mass destruction.
Further, our groups’ bid will feature an annual audit to
certify the lab’s compliance with the Non-Proliferation
Treaty and, where needed, to propose program changes. In so doing,
the groups’ bid will provide a marked contrast to the current
“stockpile stewardship” program, which runs counter to
the treaty by aggressively seeking to redesign every nuclear weapon
type in the U.S. arsenal. Making nuclear weapons “more
usable” is the wrong direction for the lab and will lead to a
more dangerous world.
Nuclear Watch and Tri-Valley CAREs will demonstrate how Los
Alamos’ science can become more than a code word for more
nuclear weapons. The groups’ bid will showcase ways in which
the lab’s science can truly benefit surrounding communities,
the nation and the world. Our groups’ proposal will influence
the bidding process and, ultimately, the management contract for
Los Alamos ““ whether we, or another bidder, are chosen for
the job.
Dorabji, a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, is the outreach
director at Tri-Valley CAREs in Livermore. Kovac is Nuclear Watch
of New Mexico’s operations director.