Pacific Northwest Site Office: Prioritizing campus planning to support important research

Right here in our own backyard the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) continues to produce technological advancements and discovery in a variety of scientific fields.

Year after year, PNNL is scored as one of the highest rated among all 17 DOE national labs and because of its diverse work portfolio, this means a broader impact on DOE’s mission and the national challenges it addresses. At the DOE’s Pacific Northwest Site Office (PNSO,) executive branch staff from Office of Science continue to support and enable these successes through thorough planning and partnership with a variety of stakeholders.

PNNL is a laboratory that tackles some of the most pressing challenges that face our nation, including national security efforts such as limiting the spread of nuclear weapons and materials (nonproliferation), to addressing an aging infrastructure, including our national power grid, through research and development.

At PNSO, our staff of 31 federal employees supports those efforts by ensuring the 4,500 PNNL scientists, engineers, and support staff have up-to-date facilities, cutting edge capabilities and equipment they need to be successful.

Our staff works with the contractor and various stakeholders to conduct thorough planning efforts. The result of this planning is development and execution of a Campus Master Plan, which helps us navigate uncertain times, shifts in science priority, and fluctuations in funding.

Through this process, over the last several years, we have been able to continue to expand the campus, adding new facilities, and modernizing capabilities in a way that positions us for the future and be ready to address unseen challenges. This year we are completing construction of a major modern facility, the Discovery Hall.

Discovery Hall is a state-of-the-art facility that will function as the gateway to our campus. Housing the welcome center, badging office, and orientation center, Discovery Hall will enable visiting dignitaries, scientists, and engineers from across the world to connect and collaborate like never before. Flexible meeting spaces within the facility will allow scientific workshops and conferences while encouraging impromptu conversation and connection with its open atmosphere and collegial climate.

The campus will also see the removal of an outdated set of facilities known as the RTL (the Research Technologies Laboratory) complex. The demolition activities to take down the series of facilities are already well underway.

Constructed in the mid 1960s, the facility no longer fits the needs of the mission and is so antiquated a renovation to modern standards would be too costly to taxpayers. Removing the facility opens the southern portion of campus to future development more suitable to our current endeavors and ultimately is more favorable to the public.

To continue to prepare for the future, we are working toward a consolidated campus, ensuring our policies and procedures are consistent with existing state and federal requirements while remaining as open and welcoming as possible. This is an ever evolving process that requires constant engagement and continuous effort from our staff and our contactor counterparts.

With these continuous efforts and a strong partnership with local and headquarters stakeholders, our federal staff help ensure the Laboratory is well positioned to tackle the challenges that face our nation and execute the vision defined by strong leadership set on delivering continuously advancing scientific discovery and supporting our country.

This story was originally published April 1, 2018 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Pacific Northwest Site Office: Prioritizing campus planning to support important research."