The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Virginia Tech and the Southeastern Universities Research Association to operate the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News.
The Jefferson Lab is one of the nation’s leading nuclear physics research facilities and draws over a thousand scientists from around the world each year. For decades, Virginia Tech has been involved at the lab, and now the university will be an official operator.
The current contractor, Southeastern Universities Research Association, or SURA, merged with Virginia Tech to form a new company, called SURATech.
“Every person that is currently at Jefferson Lab will get a new contract at SURATech,” the lab’s director, Jens Dilling, told reporters at a virtual press briefing Tuesday. About 7% of the workforce was either laid off earlier this year or agreed to a voluntary resignation. The lab currently has 840 full time employees.
The Department of Energy awarded SURATech a five-year contract to manage the lab. This comes after the DOE canceled the bidding process last year, saying the lab did not align with the agency’s priorities.
Dilling said as part of the new contract, they are shifting their focus to add data and quantum computing science to the research they do. They’re also studying ways to make nuclear energy production more efficient and help connect this research to workforce development.
“Nuclear science is also the field that is responsible for producing energy. So we want to pivot into the applied space,” Dilling said. “And we see enormous opportunities where we can bring to bear all the capabilities that we already have for more value for the nation.”
Eight other universities across Virginia will also be involved at research at the lab.
Virginia Tech is also expanding its Corporate Research Center located near the Jefferson Lab in Newport News. A new center there focuses on developing energy technologies.
