Pacific Northwest Site Office: Creating collaboration with campus modernization

As we transition to a new administration, the federal staff at the Pacific Northwest Site Office is working with Battelle to ensure that the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) continues to operate smoothly and efficiently. Advancing the many endeavors that PNNL has initiated over the last few years, our efforts remain focused on preparing to meet the needs of the future, ensuring an enduring legacy of this national asset.

Thoughtful and thorough planning is a key factor in the campus strategy, which consists of identifying gaps, ensuring optimal utilization of laboratory space and understanding current and emergent infrastructure and facility needs. Providing essential capabilities, a collaborative environment and an integrative facility configuration that drives and accelerates scientific discovery in the DOE Basic Energy Science, Biological and Environmental Research and Advanced Scientific Computing Research Programs, are the objectives of a new capital acquisition being conceived at PNNL. The Energy Sciences Capability (ESC) would elevate the impact of chemical conversion, energy conversion and holistic multi-scale system studies. This effort and outcomes are significant, and could be the largest investment in the campus in more than a decade.

Due to the larger scale of the project, there are a number of critical decisions the proposals will go through including reviews by the department headquarters. The last project of this scale to be completed on the PNNL campus was the Physical Sciences Facilities complex in 2007, which totaled approximately $180 million. While the ESC project won’t need that level of funding, the proposed request will be in the range of $10 million to $100 million. Over the past several years, including 2016, the lab has initiated development on four new facilities under $10 million each, including the Systems Engineering Laboratory, General Purpose Chemistry Laboratory, an office building and Collaboration Center, which is currently underway. Each new facility thoughtfully addresses mission needs and includes efforts to modernize capabilities ensuring scientists, engineers and researchers are supported by the equipment and technology needed to encourage innovation. With existing infrastructure and aging facilities on the south end of campus, the bulk of the revitalization efforts have been focused at the north end of campus and are part of a comprehensive campus master plan guiding the long-term vision for PNNL.

Larger projects require more stringent planning and oversight to ensure the projects address the specific needs and leverage taxpayer support to the fullest. As the critical decision process on the ESC continues, determination on the siting is anticipated for late summer. The potential siting of ESC and other future facilities will be considered in an ongoing NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) analysis. Although the majority of campus is in the city, PNNL continues to utilize four facilities in the 300 area of the Hanford Site and anticipates continuing occupancy beyond 2045. With modernization efforts and a campus strategy focused on preparing for the future, planning efforts remain concentrated on ensuring lab capabilities and staff are prepared to tackle the challenges and missions of the future. As details and strategies remain uncertain, the importance of maintaining, updating and expanding the capabilities of our national assets remains. As stewards of a national asset, we work tirelessly to ensure taxpayers’ funds are used efficiently and thoughtfully in order to ensure PNNL remains a premier national asset and member of the national lab complex.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Pacific Northwest Site Office: Creating collaboration with campus modernization."