CHICAGO, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The University of Chicago has been awarded a five-year extension of its contract to operate the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.
Had it not won the extension from the U.S. Department of Energy, the university might have faced diminished stature as a world-class physics research operation, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday. Argonne National Laboratory was part of the Manhattan Project, which built the first atomic bomb.
The contract funding Argonne's operations at more than $500 million a year can be extended for up to 20 years if the university meets various performance targets, the newspaper said.
"The bidding process raised consciousness across the state of the value that Argonne brings to this region," said Robert Rosner, the lab's director. "It led us all to realize just how precious this facility is."
The Argonne National Laboratory, founded 60 years ago in Argonne, Ill., about 30 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, is the U.S. government's oldest and largest science and engineering national research facility. The university participated in creating ANL and was given control of the lab's operations until Congress passed a law requiring competitive bidding to determine the operators of national labs.
