Mitch Daniels, Purdue thinking big after losing Los Alamos bid

“I’ve been told we were right there,” Daniels said Friday, after a Purdue trustees meeting that touched on a National Nuclear Security Administration decision announced June 8.

Daniels confirmed to the J&C in April that Purdue had teamed with Bechtel, a San Francisco-based contractor that had been part of the Los Alamos management since 2006, to bid on a 10-year contract to run the 35-square-mile nuclear facility in New Mexico. (“I do believe this is the sort of level Purdue should be playing at,” Daniels said at the time.) Outside of that, Daniels and trustees had been mum.

The contract went to a team that included the University of California – a school that has been part of Los Alamos since 1943 – Texas A&M and Battelle Memorial Institute. The University of Texas also bid unsuccessfully on the contract.

On Friday, if Purdue trustees were still stinging, they didn’t show signs of moping.

Instead, the trustees’ first public discussion on the bid was about silver linings just for being in the running.