Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Lockheed gets contract worth up to $5 billion to manage Nevada National Security Site

Priscilla bomb

Sun Archives

The Priscilla nuclear bomb is detonated over Frenchman Flat on June 24, 1957. The test was one of a series of controversial nuclear tests codenamed Operation Plumbbob. The 37 kiloton bomb was detonated at 700 feet above the valley floor via hot air balloon. Operation Plumbbob sought to take advantage of the nuclear tests with training exercises, war games and lectures for military personnel on how the atom bomb would change the way wars would be fought, culminating in the actual explosions every 5 days during the late spring and summer of 1957.

A subsidiary of defense giant Lockheed Martin won a contract worth up to $5 billion Friday to manage the Nevada National Security Site, ending a bid process that drew interest from major firms like Bechtel and the current operator, National Security Technologies LLC, a joint venture with Northrop Grumman.

Once grounds for nuclear tests during the Cold War, the 1,360-square mile security site is now used for research related to national security, arms control and testing sensor technologies. The subsidiary of Lockheed Martin — Nevada Site Science Support and Technologies Corp. — will begin managing the site early next year, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The contract awarded Friday is for about $2.4 billion over five years, with the option of a five-year extension that would make it worth a total of $5 billion, according to the contract notice. Of five proposals, Lockheed Martin’s provided the best value, according to a statement from the NNSA.

Rep. Dina Titus released a statement Friday congratulating Lockheed Martin’s subsidiary, saying the site plays “a vital role in the state’s economy and our nation’s energy and defense developments.”

In the past year, state economic development officials had been watching the solicitation process for the site’s contract, an effort to boost interaction among the site, local businesses and Nevada’s higher education system. The Governor’s Office of Economic Development had reported that it helped add language to the solicitation encouraging potential contractors to consider collaboration with the state.

Last fall, GOED Director Steve Hill said that about 10 percent of the site’s subcontractors were Nevada companies. His goal was to raise that proportion to 30 percent within three years of the new contract.

“If you look at some of these national labs in other locations, the in-state interaction is a fair amount greater than it is in Nevada,” Hill told the Sun in November. “The NNSA also oversees Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.”

Hill did not respond to a request for comment about what provisions made it into the final contract. And the full text of the contract will not be released, due in part to the fact that it contains proprietary information, said a spokesperson for the NNSA, which falls under the U.S. Department of Energy.

In executing the contract, Lockheed Martin’s subsidiary plans to partner with a subsidiary of the Fluor Corp. — a global engineering and construction company — and Longenecker and Associates, a Las Vegas-based consulting firm that has worked with the Department of Energy.

Lockheed Martin is the current operator of the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, though a competitive bid process is underway to determine who will manage the research site after next year.

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