Yes, indeed, "The rent at LANL is too damn high"! This even applies to bio-defense work. LANL has managed to price itself out of most research markets and even the DOE admits this fact. So much for the expected cost savings at the lab through privatization of the lab's management. The for-profit management system has only made out of control costs and bloat grow much worse: * Feds blast plans for bio-defense labs at LANL * Santa Fe New Mexican, Aug 11th .... “Despite LANL’s assertions, we found outside demand for a new ... facility to be less certain,” auditors reported. The audit noted that LANL’s reports ignored the prevalence of bio-security services throughout the country, and officials with federal agencies that LANL plans to rely on for business at the expanded labs told auditors they would be unlikely to use it because less expensive, equally secure options already exist. “In our judgment, NNSA needs to fully reassess its need for biological research facilities,”...