Contract awarded for nonproliferation building

Contact: David Lyons, (505) 665 9198 (00-032)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 14, 2000 -- The Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory has awarded a fixed-price contract to Austin, Texas-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. to design and construct the Nonproliferation and International Security Center.

"Los Alamos is increasingly involved in the fight against international weapons proliferation and terrorism," said Don Cobb, associate Laboratory director for threat reduction. "The NIS Center will give us the focus and facilities needed for this important work. I am extremely pleased that both DOE and the Congress support the urgent need for NISC."

The $63 million, 163,375-square-foot secure facility will be built in Technical Area 3 adjacent to the 267,000-square-foot Strategic Computing Complex currently under construction. The building will consist of four floors, plus a basement.

Hensel Phelps, which also is the design-build contractor for the SCC, is scheduled to complete the preliminary design of the NISC by early October, with a final design by mid-March 2001. Construction is slated to begin in August 2001-about the same time that the SCC is scheduled to be done. Completion is estimated for April 2003.

Hensel Phelps plans to use the same subcontractor companies currently involved with the SCC to help with the NISC: Dallas-based Carter and Burgess is the designer; Tucson-based ER and HDR Architecture, Inc., is responsible for architecture design and programming; and Bohannan-Huston in Albuquerque is responsible for civil engineering functions.

The NISC will house most of the arms control, treaty verification, nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation functions performed by Los Alamos' Nonproliferation and International Security Division, along with about 465 of its employees. NIS's other functions, such as space research and instrument development, will remain in their current locations.

The facility will include technical and administrative offices; laboratories for physics, electronics, optics, instrumentation development, training, computer, intelligence and other uses; and light manufacturing shops, among other things.

"The NISC will be pivotal in our nation's efforts to deal with the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction," said Terry Hawkins, director of the Nonproliferation and International Security Division. "The center will permit us to concentrate all the Laboratory's talents and capabilities to address these threats. The success of efforts carried out in the NISC could literally help secure the continued existence of the liberties and freedoms that our forebears gave to us."

NISC Project Director Bill Hamilton of Los Alamos' Project Management Division said consolidating these functions in one facility will increase communications and effectiveness among NIS programs.

"Currently, NIS groups reside in 50 trailers, transportables and buildings across several Laboratory technical areas, and many of those are substandard and inefficient by modern standards," said Hamilton. "This facility will greatly enhance our programs and value to the nation."

The NISC and SCC comprise part of Los Alamos' Infrastructure and Facilities Revitalization Project, a comprehensive sitewide plan to revitalize Los Alamos' facilities and infrastructure to meet current and future mission needs. More than $400 million in construction projects are planned in TA-3. The two buildings are the anchors for the project, said Hamilton. Other planned construction projects include a new administration building and a power grid to meet Los Alamos' future power needs, which are expected to double over the next several years.

Additional information on the NISC facility is available online at http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/nis/pdfs/niscsum000216pub.pdf (Adobe Acrobat required).

More news releases from the Nonproliferation and International Security (NIS) Division