"Labs Wait for Funding to Be Ratified - Billions of Dollars in Future Laboratory Construction Remain in Limbo", (c) Bruce Buckley, McGraw Hill Construction, May 2008

National laboratories are losing funds in real dollars and could face as much as a 20% drop in research activities because small, incremental budget increases in recent years have fallen short of inflation.

As Congress and the Bush administration lock in disagreement over budget issues, the outlook on development plans at numerous federally funded national laboratories has become an experiment in patience.

With billions of dollars in construction work hanging in the balance, discussions in Washington offer hope that dozens of national laboratories across the country could move ahead with megaprojects and ongoing capital improvement plans.

But political divisions run deep.

 American Competitiveness Initiative, which promotes the advancement of

In 2006 the science community was given a big boost by the passage of the

 research to keep the nation at the forefront of innovation. Among the goals was a doubling of the Department of Energy’s budget for the Office of Science, which oversees 21 major labs.

Nearly two years later, the department’s budget remains essentially flat as a result of political sparring between the Republican administration and Democrat-controlled Congress. Between 2007 and 2008, the Office of Science budget increased by only 3.5%, from $3.84 billion to $3.97 billion.

“This decade has been rough for everyone in the science community,” says Kei Koizumi, director of the R&D budget and policy program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. “There’s been a lot of excitement about the American Competitiveness Initiative to focus on the DOE Office of Science, but that excitement has been dampened because of the [level of] appropriations for 2007 and 2008.”

Optimism-Impaired The cautious optimism extends into discussions for fiscal year 2009. On paper, the proposed Bush budget is good news for the national labs. The 2009 budget request calls for $4.7 billion for the Office of Science, an 18.8% increase over 2008 funding. Science laboratories’ infrastructure, including construction and renovation, would be one of the big winners under the plan, with a proposed 65% increase in funds.

But with the presidential election heating up, some analysts doubt the issues will be resolved in the near term. Mike Lubell, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society in Washington, D.C., says any budget is unlikely to pass this year as Congress awaits the outcome of the November elections. In the meantime, program funding will remain based on 2008 budgets.

“No matter what party takes control, the odds are that nothing will get done until January or February of 2009,” Lubell adds.

He warns that could mean near-term concerns for many labs. Small incremental increases in recent years have fallen short of inflation, meaning that labs are losing funds in real dollars and, as a result, are facing a 20% drop in research activities, Lubell says.

Some labs, such as Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Menlo Park, Calif., are facing hundreds of layoffs this year, he says. As activity slows, so could demand for facilities work.

“There are a number of activities that if we have to wait 12 months to recover from these reductions, some of this stuff will just disappear,” he says. “A company that is relying on national lab research for a new product can’t put that product on indefinite hold. They’ll go elsewhere and that’s business that won’t come back to the labs.”

Winds of Change A political change in Washington could signal a change of direction for years to come at the labs. Lubell says that Democrats have tended to support increases in science as long as they don’t come at the expense of domestic social programs. Republicans are also supportive, but often with more conservative budgets, he says.

In the case of energy research, the two parties are taking differing stands. The Bush administration has pushed for long-term research into areas such as nuclear power, carbon sequestration, hydrogen and other initiatives that demand decades of work. Democrats have favored quickly deploying existing technology in alternative energy, such as solar, wind and ethanol, rather than devoting funds to long-term research goals.

“We’re facing a serous problem in energy security, the costs of imported oil and climate change,” Lubell says. “We have to move aggressively, but the near-term initiatives don’t solve the problem. The long-term solution will require major scientific advances.”

While future funding is in limbo, current capital plans continue. Reductions in staff and consolidation of national lab facilities are leading to work through the National Nuclear Security Administration—a semi-autonomous agency within DOE. The NNSA’s nuclear weapons complex transformation initiative calls for closing or vacating nearly 600 buildings by 2010, thereby reducing total square footage from 35 million sq ft to 26 million sq ft.

John Broehm, spokesperson at NNSA, says the program will call for a mix of new and renovated structures that are more efficient and appropriately sized for staffing demands.

“There will need to be a good deal of new construction,” he says. “It’s just not feasible to renovate these old buildings with our current demands.”

Indeed, the DOE is pushing for more energy-efficient buildings. Last year, the department forwarded its Transformational Energy Action Management initiative, a department-wide effort to maximize energy efficiency and renewable energy generation systemwide. In addition to creating more green buildings, DOE is constructing its own renewable energy plants that can be used to reduce carbon emissions.

In October, ground was broken at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., on a new Renewable Fuel Heating Plant that will use biomass to cut the lab’s future natural gas use by 75%.

Moving Forward Although budgets are tight, megaprojects at national labs have broken ground. At the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., work began in August on a $4.8-billion mixed-oxide fuel facility being built by Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC. The 600,000-sq-ft facility is expected to complete in 2016. Construction of a $2.4-billion pit disassembly and conversion facility at Savannah River site is scheduled to begin in 2010.

The $2.4-billion National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., which broke ground in 1999, is expected to complete next year. Jacobs Engineering Group of Pasadena is the construction manager of the 308,000-sq-ft complex.

Meanwhile, other megaprojects in early development remain on an uncertain path, including the $2.4-billion Next Generation Nuclear Plant at Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls. The current plans call for it to be operational by 2021.

Facility managers at various labs are also pushing to keep capital improvement budgets moving forward. When Battelle of Columbus, Ohio, partnered with the University of Tennessee to take on management of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in 2000, it created a master plan that has led to $300 million in new facilities—nearly 1 million sq ft since 2002.

Another $670 million in projects are planned for the next 10 years at Oak Ridge. Among the new projects is a $95-million lab that will break ground in 2009. Also planned is a power plant fueled by wood waste that would reduce the lab’s fossil fuel use by 80%. That $30-million project is in design and scheduled to be operational in 2011.

Herb Debban, director of ORNL facilities and operations, says part of the plan’s success is its mix of funding mechanisms. Nearly 60% of development has been privately funded, with 25% from DOE and 15% from the state. In many cases, the lab works with a private developer to build facilities, which the lab then leases.

“We can do things faster that way because we’ll have the money upfront,” Debban says.

Battelle uses a similar growth strategy at Idaho National Laboratory, which it has managed since 2005. Last year, a new 10-year plan was put into place that calls for the lab’s operations to be consolidated into three campuses. Currently, facilities are scattered among numerous sites near Idaho Falls. The plan will require 400,000 sq ft of new labs.

Robert Miklos, director of the project management office at INL, says the lab will use private developers as necessary to keep growing. INL’s Center for Advanced Energy Studies is a public/private partnership backed by the three Idaho public universities, private industry and INL.

INL is also expanding its project-delivery options. In February, it awarded a $5-million design-build contract for a new radiochemistry laboratory to Eagle Rock Timber of Idaho Falls. The project is one of the few INL facilities to be built using design-build.

“Many contractors aren’t used to that kind of contract for DOE work, but our strategy is to continue soliciting those types of contracts in the future,” Miklos says.

DOE’s NREL to Dramatically Increase Use of Clean, Renewable Energy

In October, ground was broken at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden on a new Research Support Facility that will house two major renewable power projects.

The Renewable Fuel Heating Plant will use biomass to cut the lab's future natural gas use by 75%, and the Mesa Top PV project-a new five-acre photovoltaic array and one of the largest solar power systems in Colorado-will help power the lab's main campus. Both projects are part of NREL's pledge to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2009.

The 210,000-sq-ft RSF is designed to be a model for sustainable, high-performance design and will provide DOE-owned workspace for administrative staff who currently occupy leased space.

NREL's Renewable Fuel Heating Plant will provide heat to the RSP and other research buildings on the laboratory's South Table Mountain campus by using biomass such as wood chips from forest thinning along Colorado's Front Range and operate in conjunction with an existing natural gas-fueled boiler system.

The Mesa Top PV Project will be located near the NREL Solar Radiation Research Laboratory and will produce an estimated 750 kw of renewable electric power that will be used onsite. The five-acre span of solar panels could provide up to 7% of the total electricity NREL uses.