University of Texas regents meet today on whether to seek UC's long- held contract to manage the birthplace of the atomic bomb, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

"I'd say it's highly likely," said Austin Van Zant, a member of UT Watch, a University of Texas student group opposed to the university's bid.

University of Texas spokesman Anthony de Bruyn said he couldn't comment before the regents meet.

The 9,600-employee lab is the nation's leading nuclear-weapons design site and also performs a wide range of other research.

UC has managed the lab since its beginning, as well as federal labs in Livermore and Berkeley, but UC oversight was called into question last year after a series of security lapses at Los Alamos and Livermore. Congress ordered last year that the UC contracts be opened to competition.

UC continues to prepare for competing, spokesman Chris Harrington said. UC regents have not decided whether to bid on the new contract. UC receives nearly $4 billion in federal funds for managing the three federal labs.

Greg Mello, director of the pro-disarmament Los Alamos Study Group, cited reports of ties between the University of Texas and the Bush administration and expressed concern that giving the Los Alamos contract to Texas could "grease the skids for nuclear testing" in line with Bush administration ideas for new lower-yield nuclear weapons.

Professor Sheldon Landsberger, coordinator for nuclear and radiation engineering at UT Austin, said politics would be unlikely to play a role given the high security stakes in the post-Sept. 11 world. He said other grants for nuclear programs under the Bush administration have been viewed by his colleagues as being awarded on merit.

But Landsberger, who favors UT management, added, "Anyone I've spoken with said if there's really a strong bid from UC, it will probably stay there. "

A UT task force began working on a possible Los Alamos bid in 2002, the same year that UT unsuccessfully sought the contract for Los Alamos' sister lab, Sandia National Laboratories.

Other potential bidders include the Battelle Corp., which operates four Energy Department labs; Lockheed Martin, which manages the Sandia lab; and San Francisco's Bechtel, a partner in operating the Pantex nuclear-weapons factory near Amarillo, Texas.