Friday, May 25, 2018
Is Purdue ready to run Los Alamos?
https://www.jconline.com/story/opinion/columnists/dave-bangert/2018/05/25/bangert-purdue-ready-run-los-alamos/646129002/
Mitch Daniels, Purdue trustees remain quiet about bid for a $22 billion contract to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory, birthplace of the atomic bomb. An answer could come soon
Daniels confirmed Purdue’s bid in April. He also confirmed that the university was collaborating with Bechtel, a San Francisco-based contractor, on a 10-year contract that would be worth roughly $22 billion – not including the potential for tens of millions of dollars more in annual bonuses and millions more in possible research money – to run one of the nation’s top research and nuclear weapons facilities.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
People should read this book to fully grasp why Bechtel will win the LANL bid:
The Profiteers: Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World – February 14, 2017
"Investigative journalist Denton offers an ambitious "empire biography" of the Bechtel family and the secretive, privately held construction company-turned-diversified international conglomerate that has been "inextricably enmeshed" in U.S. foreign policy for seven decades. In this incredible-seeming but deeply researched book, the author traces the phenomenal rise of the California-based corporation that became famous for building the Hoover Dam and went on to handle billion-dollar projects from the Channel Tunnel to the Big Dig.... Filled with stories of cronyism and influence peddling, Denton's riveting and revealing book will undoubtedly displease the so-called "boys from Bechtel."
– Kirkus
Want to know who wins the bid? Follow the money. It's simple, really.
This book is also highly relevant to the soon to be announced LANL bid:
Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story: The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the World – April 8, 1989
“Riveting . . . exemplifies how business works by exploiting personal connections.”—Businessweek
The Bechtel Group is a private company that shuns the limelight, yet it is one of the prime movers-and-shakers in the global economic arena. Founded by self-made millionaire Warren A. Bechtel as a risk-taking construction and engineering firm, the multibillion-dollar, multinational conglomerate is responsible for constructing the Hoover Dam, laying the Alaskan oil pipeline, and building half of the world’s nuclear power plants, for starters.
But Bechtel did not complete these ambitious projects on its own; it did so with the help of such “friends” as Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Dwight Eisenhower, and former employees George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger.
Bechtel’s access to high-ranking government officials is unparalleled in the private sector. And with that access comes the temptation to accept favors and influence policy. Business journalist Laton McCartney combines painstaking research and powerful reporting to tell here, for the first time, the explosive inside story of what really goes on at the company that changed the face of the globe.
Poorly qualified. NNSA will choose them.
Bohemian Grove. Don’t kid yourselves. Jacobs Engineering IS Bechtel Jacobs IS Bechtel IS evil incarnate.
Evil incarnate, huh.
Don't you think that's a tad over the top?
Don't you think that's a tad over the top?
May 26, 2018 at 2:37 PM
You should read about what Bechtel has done in Bolivia, pretty dam evil. Don't fool yourself Bechtel would see out the United States in second if they thought they could get away with and it would make money. I am not saying they are evil incarnate but a credible case can be made and has been made that they are on the dark side.
No, I don’t.
Bechtel is bad. But "evil incarnate" is silly--it writes you off as a serious critique of anything.
Back to the question, yes Purdue is ready to run LANL. Comparing them to the Texas university system and the tainted UC reputation Purdue is on top but they picked a bad partner. If they came in with Lockheed, Northrup, or Honeywell this would have been a slam dunk for the NNSA.
Yep, Purdue is just so amazing that Lockheed, Northrup and Honeywell were too stupid to realize they'd have the whole thing sewn up with Purdue at their side. NNSA was positively salivating over Purdue and was crushed to see that Purdue, too, was too stupid to know how amazing it is. Why else would it have shackled its sure fire winner status to Bechtel.
Geez, where do you people come from? Purdue is a fine university, and their team can't be ruled out, but they're hardly a slam dunk over UT or even a tainted UC.
Must be a Texas Fan, |^^|
Purdue is a much better university than anything in the Texas system.
The real question is how much is UC unrecoverable damaged goods in NNSA's eyes.
The flagship University of Texas at Austin is in the UT system. It's extremely rich and has deployed that leverage to develop academic programs that are highly regarded on a national basis. I've done R&D projects with both UT-Austin and Purdue and the idea that Purdue is "much better" is just silly.
12:26 AM is correct, with no disrespect to Purdue. Bechtel picked it for a reason--Purdue is a top school, too. But it's not some magic bullet compared to other top schools.
Post a Comment