The US Senators Dianne Feinstein and Ben Ray Luján call on the Senate leadership to invest in the national laboratory infrastructure

July 25, 2021 – Washington – Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Along with Senator Ben Ray Luján (DN.M.) and a group of her colleagues, call on the Senate leadership to Needs of the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories (DOE) in ongoing infrastructure efforts. The network of 17 national laboratories in the United States is funding critical missions for the department and additional investments in restoring and upgrading the national laboratory infrastructure will support scientific and economic competitiveness while creating thousands of new, well-paying jobs.

“As we turn to infrastructure, we respectfully ask that you invest in the country’s scientific infrastructure, including the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories (DOE). Funding the maintenance, repair and upgrading of the National Lab’s infrastructure will ensure the continued scientific and economic competitiveness of our country; Creating thousands of high quality, well paying construction jobs; and to recruit the best and brightest scientists for the national service. “ wrote the senators.

“Modern, reliable infrastructure at National Laboratories is critical to supporting world-class science, which provides a strong foundation for the country’s economic competitiveness, prosperity, and security.” continued the Senators. “Unfortunately, our National Lab network is suffering from a maintenance backlog due to decades of underfunding, which jeopardizes the successful and efficient implementation of this mission by the laboratories.”

In addition to Senators Feinstein and Luján, the letter was also written by Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), Maria. signed Cantwell (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Martin Heinrich (DN.M.) , Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) And Cory Booker (DN.J).

The full text of the letter can be found here and below:

Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell,

We appreciate your efforts to keep our country competitive, meet urgent infrastructure needs, boost the economy and get people back to work after the current COVID-19 pandemic. As we turn to infrastructure, we respectfully ask that you invest in the country’s scientific infrastructure, including the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories (DOE). Funding the maintenance, repair and upgrading of the National Lab’s infrastructure will ensure our country’s continued scientific and economic competitiveness; Creating thousands of high quality, well paying construction jobs; and to attract the best and brightest scientists to the national service. As part of the DOE National Laboratory’s modernization efforts, we urge you to fund the construction and modernization of DOE-approved, shovel-ready world-class scientific, advanced energy and national safety facilities in our National Labs.

The DOE maintains a network of 17 national laboratories that advance the ministry’s science, technology, energy, environmental and national security missions. Although the labs are managed by the DOE, they help find solutions to a wide variety of challenges of national importance, from using artificial intelligence to improve health services and outcomes for our country’s veterans, to advancing quantum information science to the next will lead generation communication networks and computers.

National Laboratories and Universities across the country have world-class research facilities, including particle accelerators, experimental reactors, isotope reactors, X-ray synchrotron and free-electron laser light sources, fusion and pulsed current devices, multi-axis X-ray machines that produce 3D images of high explosions Create density, top-class supercomputers and other high-precision instruments. Modern infrastructure is also required to support advanced nuclear demonstration projects; the modernization of the electricity network, including energy storage; and non-proliferation, proliferation and counter-terrorism missions.

More than 40,000 researchers from academia, industry and other federal agencies use these unique, world-leading facilities to support their scientific endeavors. During the COVID-19 crisis, our National Labs provided their expertise and facilities to help meet the COVID-19 challenge, including using the DOE’s supercomputers to search for treatments and vaccine therapies, X-ray light sources to that Understanding Virus and identifying potential vulnerabilities, unique characterization methods to develop more effective N95 mask filter media, and advanced manufacturing expertise to address shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators.

Modern, reliable infrastructure at National Laboratories is critical to supporting world-class science, which provides a strong foundation for the country’s economic competitiveness, prosperity, and security. General purpose infrastructures such as offices, laboratories, storage rooms and utilities form the backbone of the National Laboratory and enable the DOE’s mission. Unfortunately, our National Lab network is suffering from a maintenance backlog due to decades of underfunding that is jeopardizing the labs’ successful and efficient delivery of this mission. The average age of the DOE facilities is currently 37 years and the average age of the systems that support these facilities (e.g. water, sewage, electricity, roads) is 40 years.

Shovel-ready infrastructure projects exist throughout the DOE National Laboratory complex – from utility modernization to new state-of-the-art research facilities – that could be accelerated dramatically with investments to stimulate the economy and restore critical infrastructure. For example, utility systems in multiple laboratories fail and require frequent, often costly, repairs. Many utility and utility buildings are classified as inferior or inadequate. When necessary maintenance work on a facility or utility system that is planned or should be carried out is postponed, this is called deferred maintenance. The backlog in delayed maintenance of DOE has continued to grow. A targeted, targeted investment would go a long way in recapitalizing and upgrading the National Lab infrastructure and would instantly support thousands of quality, well-paying jobs. Maintaining, repairing, upgrading and replacing multipurpose infrastructure would promote safe, efficient, reliable and environmentally sound operations; Strengthening the morale of the scientific and technical workforce in the National Laboratories; and demonstrate our country’s continued commitment to maintaining the best scientific infrastructure in the world.

Equally important, the US faces increasing competition from our counterparts in Europe and Asia as it struggles to build its own state-of-the-art facilities to attract the best and lead the world in science and technology. This poses not only an economic threat to the United States, but also a threat to national security. An infrastructure investment would accelerate the construction of world-class facilities and scientific instruments to stay ahead of this competition and ensure that the US remains the safest and most attractive country in the world for scientific discovery and innovation. Thank you for considering these important investments. We look forward to working with you to invest in our country’s competitiveness and get people back to work by meeting these critical infrastructure requirements.

Sincere,
Source: Senator Dianne Feinstein