Secretary Energy Federico Peña yesterday said it will terminate the contract with the department the operator of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Associated Universities Inc. . (UAI). During a visit to Upton, New York, laboratory, Peña AUI accused of mismanagement in the long term of the facility, which has been plagued by a host of environmental and safety issues during the last decade - more recently leakage of tritium of a reactor.
Peña's decision marked the first time the Department of Energy (DOE) has canceled a major contract due lab. "The combination of confusion and mismanagement that has been occurring here over the years will end," he said at a meeting of Brookhaven employees. "It is unacceptable, inexcusable, and flat-out wrong . " This is not how AUI Chairman Paul Martin, Dean of Harvard University's engineering school, sees. The decision to Peña, he said Science NOW, is "hasty and probably unwise."
Brookhaven, which has more than 3,000 employees and an annual budget of $ 400 million, is home to several major DOE facilities, including the top Flux Beam Reactor - one of the first neutron scattering centers the nation - and two major synchrotrons that are used for a multitude of materials, biology and medical research experiments. The reactor is now closed while technicians examine the source of the leak of tritium, which is shed in a plume in the ground water under laboratory grounds. DOE officials now believe there was a leak continues for more than a decade, but they say it does not threaten drinking water Long Island. This and other environmental problems have angered community activists, who complain that the Brookhaven managers have induced in error over the years. Peña acknowledged yesterday that the laboratory has lost public confidence, and he also criticized the DOE for not acting on the problems in Brookhaven.
The AUI contract will not be completed until a new contractor is selected, which will probably take six months, said Martha Krebs, head of the DOE energy research. Meanwhile, "we will work aggressively to put Brookhaven on a course towards a new culture," promises Lyle Schwartz, who is both president and AUI interim laboratory director. He declined to say whether UIA plans to bid for the new contract.
0 Komentar