PNNL SELECTS FIRM TO DESIGN REPLACEMENT FACILITIES
12 August 2006 - DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The replacement buildings, which are estimated to cost $250 million, will house capabilities, equipment and staff that perform critical science and technology research and development, and which must be relocated to accommodate accelerated cleanup at Hanford. PNNL is proposing to build approximately 500,000 square feet of replacement facilities on federal land adjacent to its campus in north Richland, a few miles south of Hanford. The Department of Energy laboratory has until the end of 2009 to vacate about 20 buildings in the 300 Area, which is a Manhattan Project and Cold War era legacy on the south end of the Hanford Site comprised of aging facilities, mostly built in the 1950s.

About one-third of PNNL's research and development and support activities, including 45-percent of its experimental laboratory space, is located in the 300 Area. Nearly 1,000 of PNNL's 3,900 staff are supported by work conducted in these facilities.

CUH2A is the world's largest architecture engineering and planning firm solely dedicated to finding facility solutions for science and technology businesses. The company has designed laboratory facilities for the Washington State Public Health Laboratory in Shoreline, Wash., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.

Over the next few months, CUH2A will work with PNNL to determine the amount and type of space required, as well as the optimal configuration to support research requirements. By the end of February, CUH2A will have preliminary sketches of replacement laboratories with conceptual designs completed. A detailed design of the facilities could begin soon.

Building these replacement facilities is PNNL's top priority and is critical to the future of the lab," said Mike Lawrence, deputy director for campus development at PNNL. "If Congress continues to provide funding, we could begin construction of privately financed facilities and new federal facilities in early 2007."

PNNL scientists and engineers have most recently used the 300 Area facilities to develop methods for detecting the smuggling of nuclear materials across national borders, research impacts to salmon from hydroelectric dams, and create improved techniques for cleaning up the environment. Funding for this research comes primarily from the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security.

http://www.pnl.gov

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