The Department of Energy renewed its contract with UChicago Argonne this week to continue to manage and operate its Argonne National Laboratory.
UChicago Argonne, which manages Argonne for DOE’s Office of Science, has a new five-year contract that will go into effect on Oct. 1. UChicago Argonne, a limited liability company formed by the University of Chicago, has been under contract with DOE since 2006, according to Argonne National Laboratory’s Tuesday press release.
The contract value was not listed in the release. According to DOE’s Office of Science website, the current contract value with UChicago Argonne is listed to be $13.6 billion with an annual operating budget exceeding $1 billion per year.
According to the release, under the contract with UChicago Argonne, Argonne National Laboratory has expanded and modernized six DOE user facilities, of which these facilities support 8,000 researchers annually.
Though involved with many scientific disciplines, such as supercomputing and artificial intelligence (AI), the laboratory provides a location for nuclear energy research and development. Argonne National Laboratory’s nuclear history traces back to the Manhattan Project during World War II.
Much of the laboratory’s current work with nuclear power focuses on advanced nuclear reactor technologies, advanced nuclear fuel development and nuclear fuel recycling. In 2023, Argonne worked with several nuclear companies, such as Oklo, TerraPower and X-Energy, to advance various reactor functions, nuclear fuels and recycling.
Argonne worked with several of the companies through DOE’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program, which grants the industry access to the agency’s national laboratories to advance nuclear research and development.
“Argonne’s mission has always been rooted in a simple but powerful idea: that the best science, pursued by exceptional people and guided by the public good, can change the world,” said Argonne National Laboratory Director Paul Kearns.
“The strong partnership between the Department of Energy, the University of Chicago, and Argonne has given our researchers the mandate and the resources to prove that idea right — in laboratories, in communities, in industry and in the technologies that power everyday American life,” Kearns concluded.
Argonne, based in Lemont, Ill., generates around $2.5 billion to the United States’ economy annually, according to the release. It also employs around 3,800 people, includes 21 research divisions and publishes nearly 1,700 peer-reviewed articles by researchers each year.