UC Gets Extension to Operate Berkeley Lab

The University of California has signed a one-year contract extension to run the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Energy Department while the department prepares to put the contract out for bid.

Berkeley, an energy research center, is one of three national labs -- including the Los Alamos and Livermore nuclear weapons facilities -- that UC has managed for the federal government for many years.

But after a series of problems, the Energy Department last year ordered the Los Alamos contract to be put up for bid, and Congress later decided that UC’s Livermore and Berkeley lab contracts be put up for bid as well.