Battelle contract renewed to operate Pacific Northwest laboratory

The Department of Energy has granted the Battelle Memorial Institute another five years to manage the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Battelle, the world’s largest nonprofit research and development organization, has operated the facility in Richland, Washington, since 1965.

The current contract, which was to expire in September 2017, will now run through 2022, DOE announced on 16 August.

US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announces the Battelle contract extension at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on 16 August. Credit: Courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The extension was based on several factors, including Battelle’s annual performance record and its science output, operations, and relationship with the local community, DOE said in a press release. The maximum annual award fee will be unchanged at $12.5 million, but evaluations will place new emphasis on strengthening partnerships with universities in the Northwest, including the University of Washington and Washington State University. The Battelle-run lab is also being asked to increase the diversity of its leadership and its research staff. The lab isn’t lacking diversity per se, a DOE spokesperson said, but diversity is a priority for Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

SLAC, which has been operated by Stanford University since its inception in 1962, and PNNL are the only major DOE-owned laboratories whose incumbent contractors have never had to face a competitive process to retain management.

Battelle comanages five other DOE facilities—Brookhaven, Idaho, Lawrence Livermore, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. PNNL is the sole facility that Battelle manages without a university partner. The nonprofit is also part of a consortium that is bidding to manage Sandia National Laboratories when the current contract held by Lockheed Martin expires in April 2017.

Although PNNL is administered by DOE’s Office of Science, 30% of the laboratory’s nearly $1 billion budget is funded by the nonproliferation program of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said PNNL director Steven Ashby in a December 2015 interview . Counting work funded by other agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense and the intelligence agencies, about half the lab’s budget is related to national security.