Department of Energy (DOE) managers were hoping to choose a new contractor to run Brookhaven National Lab this month, but Congress has littered DOE's path with red tape that may postpone the award until next year. That, in turn, could delay a decision to restart the lab's High-Flux Beam Reactor (HFBR), a machine used by neutron researchers that remains closed due to a tritium leak.

DOE fired Brookhaven's longtime manager, Associated Universities Inc., in May due to the leak and other problems at the Upton, New York, facility. DOE wants another nonprofit with good academic ties to be the new operator. But buried in DOE's 1998 funding law is a provision requiring the agency, if it restricts the competition to nonprofits, to give Congress 60 days' notice before making an award, estimated at $400 million a year.

Energy Secretary Federico Peña complained to lawmakers in a 4 November letter that DOE could have made its mid-November target date for the award, adding that a contractor should be selected "as soon as possible" to tackle the lab's problems. DOE officials hope Congress will let them bypass the 60-day requirement.