Purdue bidding to run Los Alamos nuclear labs, Mitch Daniels confirms

Purdue’s name and interest in the work at the lab in New Mexico had been floated in industry trade publications recently. But Friday was the first confirmation of the fact from Daniels.

Daniels confirmed that Purdue’s bid is a partnership with Bechtel National, a firm that has been part of a private consortium that includes the University of California that has run the Los Alamos National Laboratory since 2006.

“We’ve submitted a bid. And that’s all I know and really all I can say,” Daniels said Friday, when asked during a break in a Purdue Trustees meeting held at the Purdue Northwest campus in Westville.

“We’re proud to compete for things like this,” Daniels said. “I do believe this is the sort of level Purdue should be playing at, let me put it that way.”

Bechtel officials declined to confirm or deny the bid previously when asked by the Albuquerque Journal.