LIVERMORE, CALIF.—The University of California will continue to run the nation’s two federal laboratories for designing nuclear weapons, with a new five-year contract that nearly doubles its management fee. Officials said that much of the extra money will be spent on commercializing research from the federal labs.
The regents voted 17-3, with one abstention, to maintain the university’s ties to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. The U.S. Energy Department owns both facilities, but lab workers are university employees.
The regents also voted to renew their contract for a third Energy Department facility, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. That lab focuses on basic re search and does no classified work. In return for operating the three labs—which together employ about 9,000 people and have a combined budget of $1.9 billion—the university will receive $62.5 million over ...
