A Glimpse into the Department of Energy National Laboratories – Argonne National Laboratory

While the Department of Energy laboratories (Figure 1) are most often associated with energy research and development, scientists and researchers also study the environmental impact of their efforts.

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently observed bumblebees thriving on rehabilitated agricultural land between two solar facilities. During the past five years, the two laboratories studied the impact of the photovoltaic solar arrays on vegetation and insect communities and found the insect population had tripled. In a recent Argonne press release, Lee Walston, ANL landscape ecologist and environmental scientist said, “This research highlights the relatively rapid insect community responses to habitat restoration at solar energy sites. It demonstrates that, if properly sited, habitat-friendly solar energy can be a feasible way to safeguard insect populations and can improve the pollination services in adjacent agricultural fields.”.” (Source: Argonne National Lab)

The laboratory encompasses a 1,500-acre site in Argonne, IL. The campus includes 99 buildings and has 3,402 employees and 812 students. Created 75 years ago, ANL was originally called the “Metallurgical Lab” and was the nation’s first national laboratory. It originated from the Manhattan Project as part of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, now known as the Department of Energy.

Operations began in 1942 underneath the University of Chicago’s Stagg Field football stadium, where physicists built the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1). There, physicist Enrico Fermi and his team created the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction. Because of the hazardous nature of the CP-1 experiments, the government moved operations to land near the Palo Hills and the surrounding Argonne forests. The DOE formally chartered the facility as the Argonne National Laboratory on July 1, 1946. Since then, the lab’s significant scientific breakthroughs include:

• Producing the first ultrasound image of the human body
• Producing the first nuclear-generated electricity
• Designing and developing the first nuclear-powered submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus
• Studying the effects of neutron radiation on biological life
• Analyzing the moon’s surface using alpha radiation for NASA
• Laying the groundwork for most of today’s electric power generation commercial reactors
• Conducting research used to manufacture electromagnets used in MRI machines.

In the early 2000s, the lab began transitioning away from nuclear energy while diversifying into other branches of energy types and storage. In 2005, the ANL western campus, Argonne-West, became the Idaho National Laboratory. Today, ANL’s primary mission is to provide breakthrough science and technology in Basic Energy Sciences, Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Energy and Computation Sciences. The lab accomplishes this through the following divisions:

• Biosciences Division - conducts multidisciplinary research on fundamental biological processes focusing on environmental microbiology, microbial evolution, and synthetic biology.
• Computational Science (CPS) Division - uses advanced modeling and simulation techniques toward building “lab-wide cross-cutting simulation application capabilities integrating with mathematics, computer science, domain science, and advanced computing architectures and facilities.”
• Data Science and Learning Division - addresses advanced scientific problems where data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) are key problem-solving strategies using data-intensive computing and machine learning.
• Environmental Science Division - studies climate research, atmospheric processes and measurement, terrestrial ecology, land and renewable resources, surface, and subsurface hydrology, coupled ecosystem processes, radiation and chemical risk management, and environmental restoration to better understand their environmental impact.
• Math and Computer Science - develops technology, tools, and software for some of the world’s fastest and most powerful computer systems.

UChicago Argonne, LLC manages and operates ANL under a 20-year, $14.6B Cost-Plus Award Fee contract. The Argonne Site Office (ASO) (Figure 2) administers this contract. Roger Snyder is the Acting Site Office Manager and Jennifer Stricker is the Director of the ASO Business Division.

An anticipated recompete of this contract is about two years away. However, subcontracting and funding opportunities remain available. Deltek’s GovWin Opportunity 110110 provides information on a potential recompete. Subcontracting opportunities posted by the Department of Energy on behalf of the prime contractor are also available in Deltek’s GovWin product

Note: If the government recompetes this work as a Research and Development effort, information may be released under NAICS Code 541715, which is the successor to 541710 under which the incumbent contract was awarded.

Figure 1: DOE National Laboratories. 

Source: DOE Website

 

Figure 2. Argonne Site Office Organizational Chart.

Source: Argonne Site Office Website.