United States Senate
Washington, DC
Contact: Jessica Smith (Webb) (202)228-5185
Monday, March 23, 2009 Kevin Hall (Warner) (202)224-2425
WEBB & WARNER ANNOUNCE $75 MILLION IN STIMULUS FUNDS
FOR UPGRADE AT NEWPORT NEWS JEFFERSON LAB
~ Part of Energy Dept.’s $1.2 Billion in Science Stimulus Funding ~
Virginia' US Senators Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner today announced that the US Department of Energy has released $75 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for laboratory improvements at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News.
The Jefferson Lab, a world leading nuclear physics research laboratory, will receive approximately $65 million to accelerate construction of the 12 billion electron volt upgrade project at the facility. The project will create about 150 local jobs and provide an international community of physicists with a cutting edge facility for studying quarks -- the basic building blocks of the visible universe.
Earlier this month, Senator Webb secured $28.8 million for upgrades to double the energy of the lab’s electron beam from 6 billion electron volts (GeV) to 12 GeV. The funding was passed in the FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations bill and enacted into law on March 12, 2009.
The remaining $10 million in stimulus funds will be used for needed infrastructure improvements at the Virginia facility.
“This funding will help the Jefferson Lab facility in Newport News remain at the forefront of cutting-edge technology and support research throughout partner industries and universities,” said Senator Webb.
“These investments will create local construction jobs while also strengthening our nation’s overall scientific infrastructure,” Senator Warner said. “The doubling of the electron beam energy at JLab will open the opportunity for exciting new discoveries in the field of modern physics.”
The DOE’s Office of Science projects are among the first to meet the legislation’s criteria for Recovery Act spending: promoting rapid job creation, renewing local economies, improving and modernizing the nation’s infrastructure, accelerating research on renewable energy, and improving America’s competitiveness by strengthening American science. The nation’s leading sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences, the DOE Office of Science is the steward of ten of DOE’s 17 national laboratories, and also supports researchers at more than 300 colleges and universities nationwide.
