AT&T; to Quit as Manager of Weapons Lab

In an unexpected development, American Telephone & Telegraph said Tuesday that it will withdraw as the management contractor for Sandia National Laboratory, a $1.4-billion weapons engineering facility that the telephone giant has operated for 43 years.

The move comes at an awkward time for the Albuquerque-based lab. Sandia has been trying to make its R&D; more relevant to civilian industry as the need for new weapons systems declines, and lab officials consider the corporate management style imparted by AT&T; to be a major asset in making that transition.

AT&T; provided little explanation for its decision. But the company has been transforming itself in recent years from a firm that operates on a public service ethic and spends heavily on basic research to one that’s focused on profitability and success in international markets.

Sandia is one of a number of government laboratories that are managed by independent contractors. Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, which design the weapons that are engineered at Sandia, are managed under contract by the University of California.

C. Paul Robinson, vice president for laboratory development at Sandia, said AT&T;’s decision was “clearly a surprise.”

He praised the company’s record in its long tenure as Sandia’s contractor and said the lab is hoping to get a new contractor that can combine AT&T;’s size and technical skills with a commitment to public service.

The new contractor will be chosen by the Department of Energy, which oversees the weapons labs. AT&T; will continue to operate the lab until the current contract expires in September, 1993.

AT&T; has run Sandia since 1949, when President Harry S. Truman asked the company to assume the operation as “an opportunity to render exceptional service in the national interest.”

The lab was run on a nonprofit basis, and AT&T; gained non-exclusive rights to technology developed there.

The contractor system was developed as a means of insulating the laboratories from government purchasing rules, salary scales and other regulations.

But the government has stepped up its direct oversight role in recent years in the wake of disastrous environmental and health problems at weapons production laboratories such as Rocky Flats and broader concerns that contractors were growing lax.

Robinson confirmed that one of the issues AT&T; was concerned about in operating Sandia was possible liability for accidents and pollution, which the Department of Energy has been pushing contractors to assume.

AT&T; cited the changes underway both within the company and Sandia as contributing to its decision, but a spokesman was unable to elaborate.

In addition to weapons engineering, Sandia has large programs in energy and environmental research.

Because much of its work is focused on applied engineering rather than basic science, Sandia is better positioned then some other laboratories to work with industry in developing civilian technologies.

But with a budget larger than any other government laboratory, it could also be vulnerable to cuts.