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Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (2023)

Chapter: 3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges

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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
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3

Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges

This chapter documents the poor physical condition and functionality of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) facilities and the impact of those conditions on the conduct of NIST’s research and the morale and productivity of its scientists and engineers. The chapter first looks at the facility condition index (FCI) for NIST facilities as calculated by the agency’s Office of Facilities and Property Management (OFPM). Next it summarizes information that the committee collected from its facility tours and meetings, including vignettes describing how facility problems adversely impact NIST research and research staff.

The issues with NIST facilities are recognized by NIST and the Department of Commerce (DOC). NIST’s Enterprise Risk Management Office ranks NIST’s poor and deteriorating facilities as the number one risk to NIST’s mission; it has been ranked the number one risk every year since the list was initiated in fiscal year (FY) 2017.1 In testimony during the House Appropriations Committee hearing, the Secretary of Commerce stated that the President’s FY 2022 budget includes an almost $500 million addition for NIST. During the testimony for the House Appropriations Committee, the committee questioned the Secretary of Commerce about the $500 million backlog of deferred maintenance at NIST and conditions where 86 percent of NIST staff are working in buildings considered in poor condition as recently observed by committee members and the Secretary of Commerce during a visit to the NIST Gaithersburg campus. The secretary stated that situation is “very much on our radar, and top priority” and the secretary reinforced this by stating that everyone at NIST “deserves to go to work in a place that is safe” and adding that “we need to also improve the capital facilities there.”2

FACILITIES OVERVIEW

The two campuses in Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, have a combined building space exceeding 4.6 million gross square feet (GSF),3 which is approximately two-thirds the size of the Pentagon building.4

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1 John Bollinger, OFPM NIST email to James Myska, study director on June 16, 2022.

2 Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Request for the Department of Commerce, May 6, 2021, before the Subcommittees of Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (117th Congress), https://appropriations.house.gov/subcommittees/commerce-justice-science-and-related-agencies-117th-congress, accessed July 5, 2022.

3 Gross square feet is the area of all floors on all levels of a building as determined using an industry standard such as ANSI/BOMA Z65.320096, Gross Area of a Building or IFMA/ASTM E1836-01, Standard Classification for Building Floor Area Measurements for Facility Management.

4 Robert Vaughn, NIST CFMO, and director, OFPM, email, OFPM’s Condition Assessment Report 4th Qtr. FY21, June 20, 2022.

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
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The Boulder, Colorado, campus is older than the Gaithersburg campus, with its construction starting in 1951. By square feet, Boulder is one-third of the size of the Gaithersburg campus; 11 of its 28 building are laboratory buildings, comprising 83 percent of the GSF.5 Only one of these 11 research buildings is capable of precision measurement science: Building 81, dedicated in 2012, which has air filtration systems and temperature, humidity, and vibration control.6 The remaining laboratories are housed in older buildings, two of which have undergone some renovation to meet new research requirements; the remainder of which have not been renovated to meet required performance standards. Non-research staff are housed in other buildings, many of which are original “temporary buildings” used as construction offices during the 1950s or recent trailers brought to the site to manage construction projects.

The Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus site was selected in 1956, with construction beginning in 1961, and is by far the larger of the two. The Gaithersburg campus houses researchers from all the engineering laboratories, the NIST user facilities, and headquarters functions including the NIST director’s offices, main offices for the management resources staff, and the entire innovation and industries services enterprise. Like Boulder, the research buildings are about 80 percent of the campus facilities. The campus consists of 62 buildings and structures totaling almost 3.7 million GSF. There are currently 26 original buildings that were built between 1962 and 1966. Nearly 798,000 GSF of new facilities were built in the last 20 years (almost 22 percent of the campus GSF).

OFPM provided the committee with its calculations of the FCI for NIST facilities. NIST’s FCI is the same calculation as the Federal Real Property Portfolio condition index (CI).

Federal agencies report “Repair Needs” to “Replacement Value” (RV) for inclusion in the Federal Real Property Portfolio, which calculates the CI.7,8 “Repair Needs” is defined as “the non-recurring costs that reflect the amount necessary to ensure that a constructed asset is restored to a condition substantially equivalent to the originally intended and designed capacity, efficiency, or capability” (GSA 2021, p. 22). “Replacement Value (RV)” is defined as “the cost required to design, acquire, and construct an asset to replace an existing asset of the same functionality, size, and in the same location using current costs, building codes, and standards. Neither the current condition of the asset nor the future need for the asset is a factor in the replacement value estimate” (GSA 2021, p. 21). The Federal Real Property Portfolio calculates as CI = 1 (Repair Needs) / (Replacement Value) and reports the number out as a percentage where a higher value indicates facilities in better condition.

DOC “has set an acceptable building conditions goal of 90 percent for Mission Critical facilities and eighty percent for Mission Dependent, Not Critical facilities, and a process for evaluating progress toward the goals.” DOC uses the following definitions:

  • “Mission Critical: without the constructed asset or parcel of land, the mission would be compromised
  • Mission Dependent, Not Critical: Does not fit into Mission Critical or Not Mission Dependent categories
  • Not Mission Dependent: Mission unaffected” (DOC 2014, p. 38)

By this definition, NIST’s research facilities are Mission Critical and have an acceptable building FCI/CI goal of 90 percent, and the other NIST facilities have a goal of 80 percent for FCI/CI.

To assist with the visualization of OFPM’s FCI data, the following FCI graphs have been color-coded using the green-yellow-red scale. A facility would be considered in excellent condition if it scores in the 90s (green), very good to good (yellow), and fair (amber), to poor condition (red) as it works down the scale. To be considered acceptable, research facilities need to be scored in the darker green shade, and other facilities need to be scored at or above the light green shade.

Figure 3-1 indicates the portion of research and other facilities in the different condition groups on the Boulder campus. It is notable that there is a lack of facilities in the upper mid-range of condition (89-70). This is because

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5 Robert Vaughn, NIST CFMO, and director, OFPM, email, OFPM’s Condition Assessment Report 4th Qtr. FY21, June 20, 2022.

6 “Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology,” presentation by Robert Vaughn, NIST CFMO, and director of OFPM, to the committee on February 15 and 16, 2022.

7 The Federal Real Property Council’s term Replacement Value (RV) has the same meaning as this report’s glossary term CRV (Current Replacement Value) (the Glossary is in Appendix E).

8 Guidance for Real Property Inventory Reporting, Federal Real Property Council, Version 1, May 20, 2021.

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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FIGURE 3-1 GSF of FCI for research buildings and other buildings on the Boulder campus.
SOURCE: Compiled from data in OFPM’s Condition Assessment Report 4th Qtr. FY 2021, sent by email from Robert Vaughn, NIST chief facilities management officer, and director, OFPM, June 20, 2022.

the buildings exceeding 90 on the FCI scale are the newly constructed Building 81 and a recently fully renovated laboratory building. Most of the other buildings were constructed over 50 years ago and have degraded to fair and poor condition. It is notable that when NIST’s Boulder facilities are compared to the acceptable FCI/CI standard established by DOC, most of the research facilities fall below the 90 percent standard, and virtually all other facilities fall below the 80 percent standard.

Examining Figure 3-2, it seems that the Gaithersburg campus’s reported FCI indicates that its facilities are in better condition than those on the Boulder campus. However, when compared to the DOC established acceptable FCI/CI standards, more than 64 percent of the research facilities and 66 percent of the other NIST facilities fall short of the standard at the Gaithersburg campus.

When the Gaithersburg and Boulder campuses are considered together, 63 percent of the research facilities and 69 percent of the non-research facilities fail to meet the DOC established FCI/CI standard for acceptable building condition.

Finding 3-1: Using the metrics and standards established by DOC in its Real Property Manual, the majority of NIST facilities including its mission critical laboratories fail to meet establish the acceptable building condition goal.

Given the age differences between the Boulder and Gaithersburg campuses, it is predicable that Gaithersburg will experience a similar degradation in condition to the Boulder campus without adequate investment in the maintenance and recapitalization of the aging facilities. However, the potential decline in condition is not the complete story because OFPM’s FCI does not fully capture the inadequacies of the suitability of the facilities for the purpose for which they are being used. Further explanation is required to understand those challenges, many of which are associated with facilities infrastructure and building systems.

A redacted version of the NIST Research Facilities Strategic Plan, Volume 2 Appendices, dated December 2014, was provided to the committee; this study was limited to the Gaithersburg campus. It gives a detailed assessment of what the documented performance deficiencies are and why they need to be addressed. The Executive Summary states:

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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FIGURE 3-2 GSF of FCI for research buildings and other buildings on the Gaithersburg campus.
SOURCE: Compiled from data in OFPM’s Condition Assessment Report 4th Qtr. FY 2021, sent by email from Robert Vaughn, NIST chief facilities management officer, and director, OFPM, June 20, 2022.

An assessment of NIST laboratory facilities was conducted through site surveys and analysis of design and upgrades documentation. In our opinion, laboratory facilities constructed over the last two decades conform to most contemporary design criteria and are largely providing the desired operational performance. However, a substantial number of older facilities, mostly constructed in the 1960s have been found deficient in many respects. The latter group of facilities, the General Purpose Laboratories (GPLs) as well as many of the special purpose laboratory buildings, account for some 55 percent of the laboratory stock that is in need of modernization. (NIST 2014b, p. B-3)

Among numerous findings, the NIST Research Facilities Strategic Plan (2014) found that the original mechanical systems could not meet the environmental requirements for the laboratories, the electrical systems were inadequate in quality and capacity for laboratory needs and building systems did not meet current codes including in areas of life safety. The findings were so extensive that the NIST Research Facilities Strategic Plan recommended a “gut-renovation” of the general purpose laboratories (GPLs) to enable the level of renovation necessary to effectively address the deficiencies. The plan further stated that architectural and structural limitations of the existing building would “preclude transforming existing facilities into true state-of-the-art laboratories, even after modernization” (NIST 2014b, p. B-4).

CURRENT FACILITIES, ISSUES, AND IMPACTS

Precision measurement—the core of NIST’s unique mission—focuses on characterizing a specific property (the measurand) while minimizing the noise and fluctuations that increase the uncertainty of the measurement. Obtaining the lowest uncertainties, thereby improving the precision and accuracy of measurement, requires a high degree of stability of the instrumentation and all the external environmental variables that may influence the measurement. In general, quality measurements require environmental stability so that the measurand of interest can be isolated and characterized without the influence of other factors.

This section summarizes information that the committee gained through presentations, tours, and question- and-response engagements with NIST staff. Unfortunately, the plan described above was not implemented, and most laboratories lack the temperature control, humidity control, air cleanliness, and utility support required for

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

world-class9 metrology. As a result, the committee observed that the older unrenovated laboratories continue to pose a host of challenges for measurement science researchers. The committee attempted to quantify the impact of the deficiencies but found that the researchers are hesitant to extrapolate the impact of their work on American commerce, scientific advancements, and the economy. The committee’s observations from site visits at NIST’s Boulder and Gaithersburg campuses are provided in Appendixes C and D with several of these examples highlighted in the next section.

Emblematic of the ongoing problems with the NIST facilities, NIST management has come to accept the conditions. The problems are not limited to laboratory buildings. The NIST Headquarters Building’s (Building 101) hot water heating risers are in a severe state of corrosion as shown in Figure 3-3. The committee was told by OFPM staff that for the past several years there had been at least a couple of floods each year; since 2021 through the time of the committee’s March visit, they had already had 6 flooding incidents. The most recent example was on the 11th floor where the leak impacted all but 3 floors in the tower below it causing extensive remediation. While almost all staff were on maximum telework, the damage to the spaces still needs to be addressed and the damage to their files and equipment remained to be quantified. In addition, leaks from the 101 mechanical floor floods the human resources department located beneath once or twice per year.

Laboratory Facilities

The committee’s site visits and interaction with laboratory personnel at the sites indicate that many research facilities are not suitable to the measurement science research that is the essence of what NIST does. The laboratory facilities that have not been renovated suffer from a wide range of issues that include unreliable power, instrument

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FIGURE 3-3 Photo of corroded fitting hot water heating riser in Building 101.
SOURCE: Public Affairs Office, NIST.

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9 This report uses “world-class” in the sense of being among the best in the world.

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

and laboratory damage from plumbing leaks, lack of chilled water to support laboratory and instrument cooling, climate control issues, and leaking roofs. As a result, NIST researchers are left to mitigate these limitations through rework or workarounds, efforts that various researchers report reduces productivity by 10-40 percent (depending on the mismatch between laboratory condition and technical program needs). In addition to these inefficiencies, some research programs have been delayed by months or years, including areas of critical national importance, such as quantum science, semiconductors, healthcare, national security, and communications._

Even if refurbished to meet original performance specifications, the demands on laboratory requirements for metrology have dramatically increased since NIST’s facilities were originally constructed. As a result, most buildings housing NIST laboratories are no longer suitable for enabling NIST’s world-class researchers to do the 21st century science required by their mission. Numerous examples of productivity loss and inefficiency were observed and are discussed in more detail in Appendixes C and D. A few examples of NIST programs impaired by facilities deterioration, or facilities unable to support increasing technical demands, or both, are described below.

Facilities Impacts on Measurement Science Research and Development

The committee observed numerous research projects that were delayed, degraded, or abandoned because the laboratory facilities could not support the research. In some cases, space that was once functional continued to deteriorate, creating more obstacles over time. In many cases, the advancing technical requirements of the research surpassed the performance capabilities of the facilities. In all cases, technical staff were devoting increasing efforts toward workarounds and do-it-yourself repairs and accepting increasingly frequent—and frustrating—setbacks and delays to their research. This is causing funds appropriated for research to be diverted to addressing facility issues as researchers expend time and effort mitigating facility problems rather than doing their primary work.

Delays in National Security Deliverables

In Boulder, NIST’s quantum sensor laboratory, located in Building 1, has developed unique superconducting X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers and bolometers with applications in materials analysis and telescope arrays. These sensors also have important security applications in nuclear materials identification and accounting, and NIST provides these devices to U.S. government agencies charged with security missions. While the sensor arrays are fabricated in a clean room, wiring and packaging occurs in an unrenovated laboratory space in a 1950s building that provides no humidity or dust control. Recent deliveries to the Idaho National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory were repeatedly delayed because devices failed after packaging. These failures were traced to low humidity during the Colorado winter, which increases electrostatic charge that damaged the devices despite grounding precautions during handling. After losing 3 months to unsuccessful packaging, the laboratory was outfitted with home humidifiers and the devices were finally delivered. Radiation sensors critical to homeland security were delivered months late because a NIST laboratory could not control its humidity.

Delayed Breakthrough in Quantum Science

As an example of the world-class research performed in Boulder’s recently renovated Building 1, Wing 3, a demonstration of quantum entanglement of microresonators was awarded the Physics World 2021 Breakthrough of the Year prize. The researchers assert that this demonstration could never have been done in their original laboratory in the unrenovated Wing 1 and that, if their efforts had begun in a laboratory renovated to Wing 3 building standards, they would have achieved this groundbreaking result 18 months earlier. This 18-month delay in a critical advance in quantum science and engineering, a national priority since 2010, is directly attributed to poor facility condition and functionality and is indicative of the challenges NIST researchers face in a global race for scientific superiority.

Delays in Characterization of COVID Spike Proteins Supporting Diagnostics and Therapeutics

In Gaithersburg, the mass spectroscopy laboratory, located in a GPL in Building 221, provides the reference data that supports commercial mass spectrometers, an analysis tool critical to measurements in chemical, biological,

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

and pharmaceutical settings. Responding to the pandemic, NIST undertook the characterization of COVID spike proteins that has required around-the-clock measurement to meet this urgent need. Unfortunately, the laboratory temperature control systems from 1966 cannot support the resulting heat load, and the overheated laboratory causes calibration errors, requiring recalibration that consumes about 10 percent of staff effort. As a result of facility limitations, a critical measurement related to COVID research, diagnosis, and treatment is operated at less than 90 percent of capacity during a pandemic crisis. A lack of adequate facilities can hamper NIST’s ability to quickly respond to national crises.

Inability to Perform Critical Measurements to Advance the Emerging Bioeconomy

Synthetic and engineering biology technologies provide promising new processes for producing things as diverse as antibody therapies and biofuels. In Gaithersburg, NIST’s first biofoundry, located in the 1999 Advanced Chemical Sciences Laboratory (Building 227), provides measurement tools and data to support this emerging bioeconomy. The highly automated system combines biological materials, dispensing precise quantities from 100 nL (nanoliter) to 10 µL (millionth liter). Temperature and humidity variation affect fluid density, viscosity, and evaporation rate, leading to variations in droplet formation and errors in dispensed volume. In addition, the biofoundry initiates reactions with sensitive activation temperatures. Over the course of the year, temperatures vary between 20° to 25°C, and relative humidity varies from 20-70 percent. NIST staff estimates that research is progressing about four times slower than expected because of challenges related to uncertainties arising from these temperature and humidity fluctuations.

Loss of a State-of-the-Art Quantum Science Program

Quantum information science is a national priority and an area of NIST expertise. A Gaithersburg program in quantum bioimaging is tasked with developing extraordinarily difficult measurements that operate at the edge of technology, where noise or fluctuations can swamp the desired effect and slow the learning curve by producing confusing results. A lack of room temperature stability completely prevented this project from moving forward, losing an opportunity in advancing a strategic technology of national importance. In addition to the temperature variation, dust and particulates routinely foul precision laser optics; one researcher noted they could always tell when the lawn was being mowed by the pollen and dust settling on the optics. This frustration from the inadequacies of the 1966 Polymer Building GPL (Building 224) system’s inability to support research led to departures of two early career researchers, one of whom left scientific research entirely.

Frustrated Efforts to Diagnose Civil Infrastructure Safety

Many reports highlight concerns of aging infrastructure in the United States,10 and non-destructive, stand-off imaging techniques would be valuable in assessing structural condition and triaging mitigation. The terahertz imaging laboratory in Boulder is developing non-destructive imaging technology useful for assessing civil infrastructure in the field. This Boulder laboratory is in a section of Building 1 that has been minimally renovated since construction in the 1950s. Windows are original construction with gaps between the windows and the frames that allow dust into the laboratory. The researcher states that the laboratory operates at only 60 percent effectiveness, with 40 percent of staff effort directed toward mitigating the lack of cleanliness, temperature control, and power stability.

$2.5 Million in Lost Equipment Causing Delays in Research Supporting Semiconductor Fabrication

The semiconductor industry is of critical importance to the United States, and NIST has a long history of supporting industry needs. The nanoscale reliability laboratory in Boulder performs research to understand, mitigate, and ideally eliminate defects that undermine the reliability of semiconductor devices, additive manufacturing parts, and structural materials by using electron microscopes capable of the nanoscale resolutions required for such

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10 See, for example, Are Our Bridges Safe?, https://www.nae.edu/183130/Are-Our-Bridges-Safe.

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

studies. This laboratory was instrumental in analyzing steel recovered from the World Trade Center buildings, as part of the NIST study described in Chapter 2 that explained the causes of the structure’s collapse.

Work was interrupted by a leak in an over 20-year-old roof that poured water onto a transmission electron microscope and its control equipment. The instrument was out of commission for 6 months for repairs. The initial repairs to the transmission electron microscope appeared successful, but undetected corrosion subsequently caused a fire in the high-voltage (220 kV) drive circuitry, destroying the microscope. Research work focused on improving interconnect reliability in ever-shrinking semiconductor electronic devices continues to be delayed by this facility’s roof failure. The replacement cost for this electron microscope is estimated at $2.5 million, and the instrument has not been replaced. Other transmission electron microscope s are being used, but these instruments are not optimized for reliability measurements, so some key analyses continue to be unavailable.

Failed Fittings Cause Multiyear Delay in Research and $5 Million Loss in Equipment

Multimodal super-resolution techniques enable a wide range of optical processes (e.g., fluorescence lifetime imaging, second-harmonic generation imaging) that enable non-destructive measurement of a wide range of characteristics and measures of performance at nanoscale resolutions. For these complex techniques, temperature stability (to reduce laser, detector, and dimensional variations) and humidity stability (to reduce optical path fluctuations) are critical.

While the Advance Measurements Laboratory (AML) Instrument West (Building 217), built in 2004, adequately provides this required stability, the building’s recirculating hot water hydronic system fitting failed due to corrosion and resultant flooding resulted in the total loss of sophisticated laboratory instrumentation worth $5.2 million. Figure 3-4 shows the corrosion.

The lost research time, estimated to be seven full-time equivalents over 5 years, negatively impacted multiple government agencies (the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, and others linked to national security) and four interdisciplinary measurement projects that included milestone deliverables associated with various Cooperative Research and Development Agreements,11 including those with Dow Corning, SpaceX, Pfizer, and ExxonMobil. Two term employee post-doctoral fellows had their research delayed at least a year, resulting in a major career setback.

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FIGURE 3-4 Photo of corroded fitting from the AML hydronic system.
SOURCE: Public Affairs Office, NIST.

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11 A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) is a partnering tool allowing federal laboratories to work with U.S. industries, academia, and other organizations on cooperative research and development projects. CRADAs provide flexibility in structuring project contributions, intellectual property rights, and in protecting proprietary information and CRADA research results. (See https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/partnerships/crada-information.)

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
Underground Waterline Rupture Causing the Permanent Degradation of a World-Class Measurement Research Facility

A laboratory in the AML Metrology East Building (Building 219), built in 2003, houses the fourth-generation Kibble balance that has measured one of the best values in the world of the Planck constant and was instrumental in the redefinition of the unit of mass and the International System of Units (SI). To meet the needs of this extremely demanding measurement, the $10 million facility contained many specialized features: a 60-ton concrete block instrument pedestal that can be lifted using air springs to decouple the balance from external vibrations, a Faraday cage (shielding the room with steel) enveloping the entire room to block external electromagnetic fields, and high precision temperature and humidity control. In 2018, a failure of a main campus waterline, dating back to the 1960s, combined with a significant rain event, caused over a meter of water to build up behind the Faraday cage; the hydrostatic pressure grew strong enough to buckle the walls, destroying both the cage and the ability to isolate the concrete pedestal from ground vibration. This took the experiment off-line for over a year for repair and recalibration, with the resulting measurement uncertainty doubled due to the inability to repair the pedestal float mechanism. As a result, one of the world’s most precise measurement devices that enabled the 2019 redefinition of mass and the SI cannot be restored to the same level of performance due to a 1960s water distribution line that caused a subsurface wall failure. Figure 3-5 shows the balance post-incident.

Facilities Impacts on Measurement Services Delivery

Each year NIST sells 32,000 Standard Reference Materials, performs 13,000 calibrations and tests, and supports 800 accreditations of testing and calibration services. These activities provide the direct traceability path from NIST’s national measurement standards to customers in industry, government, and defense. NIST’s services are provided on a reimbursable basis, with customers paying the marginal cost of providing this activity (but not the core measure science research that underpins the activity, which is funded through base appropriations).

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FIGURE 3-5 Photo of Kibble Balance laboratory showing failed shielding wall pressing against balance isolation pad structure.
SOURCE: Public Affairs Office, NIST.
Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
Loss of Standard Reference Materials Preparation for Industrial Customers

The Gaithersburg food and natural products sample preparation laboratory prepares 15 percent of all NIST Standard Reference Material types, supporting measurements as diverse as the nutritional content of infant formula to vitamin D levels in clinical bloodwork. Most of these Standard Reference Materials are mixed based on mass, but air pressure variations, the resulting airflow fluctuations, and static charge from low humidity all affect the settling time of balances, sometimes requiring an hour to complete a mass measurement that should take minutes. Researchers the committee interviewed estimate that building systems problems in the Advanced Chemical Sciences Laboratory (Building 227), built in 1999, render the laboratory unusable 40-50 percent of the time and reduce productivity by more than 25 percent. Preparation of NIST Standard Reference Material 1869 “Fatty Acids in Adult/Infant Nutritional Formula” has been significantly delayed by inadequate facility physical condition and functionality to support sample preparation conditions and unable to meet typical demand of 1,000 units per year.

Inability to Support Industry’s Regulatory Needs to Meet Environmental Requirements

NIST provides Standard Reference Materials for gases that are subject to regulation, such as greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide and methane), emission gases (e.g., nitric oxide and sulfur dioxide) for the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as special needs for law enforcement (e.g., ethanol for breathalyzers). Gaithersburg researchers estimate that the environmental conditions of the Advanced Chemical Sciences Laboratory (Building 227) are out of specification 20-40 percent of the time, during which the nine-person research staff cannot make measurements. Most problematic, between October and March, low humidity creates static charge that renders a critical instrument inoperable. As a result, customers may be forced to wait up to 6 months for measurements and risk being out of compliance with Environmental Protection Agency standards unless they stockpile standards or procure them outside the United States (e.g., from the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom or VSL, the National Metrology Institute of the Netherlands). A 2002 economic analysis found that this activity yielded a benefit-cost ratio of 24, a return on investment now diminished by the facility’s deterioration (NIST 2014a).

Unreliable Access to Fiber Optics Calibrations Supporting Global Communications

Optical fiber power meter calibration is one of NIST’s more popular services, supporting the development and maintenance of the fiber optic systems through which all modern communications are transmitted, equipment that is essential to calibrating the telephone systems and banking security systems. This service is used by each of the U.S. military service’s calibration laboratories and by industrial laboratories around the world. The value of this activity was demonstrated by an economic assessment in 2000 that estimated a benefit-cost ratio of 9 (NIST 2014a). Since then the need has increased and near-daily calibrations are required to meet demand. Unfortunately, this unrenovated laboratory is in Boulder’s 1950s-era Building 1 where the building systems do not provide humidity control and offer only limited temperature control. Because calibrations can only be performed under specified laboratory temperature and humidity ranges, calibrations are cancelled about two times per month because the laboratory environment is out of range. As a result, this calibration service, which does 5 percent of all NIST calibrations, is off-line 10 percent of the time.

$1 Million in Transactional Uncertainty in Natural Gas Trade Due to Lack of Temperature Control

The Boulder laboratory that provides precise measurements of key properties for economically important liquids and gasses such as fuels (liquefied natural gas), process materials (semiconductor processing), and working fluids (refrigerants) is in Building 24. This building was built in 1967 and its building systems provide no humidity control and poor temperature control. This deficiency is further compounded by the varying heat load from laboratory instrumentation. The poor temperature control limits measurement uncertainty to 0.01 percent for density measurements, an uncertainty that researchers assert could be halved if measurements were made in a modern laboratory environment. This measurement uncertainty has significant economic ramifications. Using

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

liquefied natural gas as one example, about 2,400 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas are produced at a value of $24 billion at $10 per thousand cubic feet, which is near the latest price available to the committee at the time of writing this report (USEIA 2022). For this measurement alone, the higher measurement uncertainty arising from lack of laboratory temperature control results in $1.2 million in transaction ambiguity every year.

Loss of Capacity in an Export-Controlled Measurement for Semiconductors and Aerospace Due to Uncontrolled Humidity

The line scale calibration laboratory in Gaithersburg provides the link to the standard meter for ruler-like standards in the United States and is among the most accurate instruments in the world, providing an uncertainty of parts in 10,7 limited by variations in the refractive index of air. Because refractive index varies with temperature and humidity this laboratory is located on the only floor in this 1966-era Metrology Building GPL (Building 220) that provides 0.1-degree temperature stability, and the measurement apparatus is further contained within a temperature-controlled enclosure that improves the temperature stability by an additional factor of 100. Despite these extraordinary temperature controls, the lack of humidity control results in extended periods during which the measurement system cannot be used due to low humidity. Consumer grade humidifiers are used as needed but, despite these efforts, calibrations cannot be performed about 20 percent of the time because room humidity is out of specification.

This is unique measurement system has been declared export controlled by NIST, providing performance at levels in line with national security needs. Major customers include companies in the semiconductor industry and aerospace industry. The closest alternative measurement system is operated by PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Germany’s National Metrology Institute) that has built a modern apparatus at an estimated cost of approximately $10 million.

Loss of Research Capability to Support DOE and NASA Programs Due to Subsurface Laboratory Flooding

A Gaithersburg laboratory, located in the Metrology Building GPL (Building 220), built in 1966, performs precision measurement of quantized atomic energy level transitions. NIST publishes results in its online Atomic Spectra Database, and the data are widely used in research and measurement, directly support quantum computing and sensing research, and enable the identification of chemical species in deep space through astronomical observation. Supported by NIST, the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences of the Department of Energy, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, this measurement system is no longer operational due to repeated flooding from rainwater entering this basement laboratory with the laboratory showing signs of extensive damage. Despite repeated repairs, this flooding problem is persistent, and this measurement capability has been abandoned.

Finding 3-2: As the preceding discussion demonstrates, facility issues are hindering NIST from in achieving its mission.

Conclusion 3-1: NIST repeatedly demonstrates that, given adequate facilities, it can achieve world-class breakthroughs and deliver premier measurement services. It is unreasonable to expect that its history of accomplishment can be sustained without a dramatic improvement in facility performance.

Finding 3-3: Facility issues are causing equipment to become damaged and scientists to be diverted to doing maintenance and repair activities to ameliorate the situation. Facility issues are causing delays in research and measurement services for periods of time ranging from days to months to years, impacting productivity and endangering U.S. leadership in critical areas of research.

Conclusion 3-2: Facility issues and their impact on laboratory conditions, equipment, and the valuable time of researchers is causing a portion of the funds appropriated to NIST to be wasted.

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

Facilities Impacts on Scientific and Technical Staffing

Like many industrialized nations, the United States is in a global competition for talent. This competition is most acute for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workers, where demand outstrips supply of technical experts, and the extensive training necessary for these positions exacerbates the pipeline problem. This is especially acute for federal science agencies operating with pay scales that are out of sync with technology employers and that can only hire U.S. citizens. NIST is not immune to these pressures and may face a challenge in attracting and maintaining a world-class measurement science workforce.

Sustaining talent and professional metrology expertise is a strategical imperative to NIST. Yet NIST OFPM estimates that 86 percent of the technical staff (ZP and ZT12 and technical associates) are working in laboratory facilities that are in poor or critical condition.13 The NIST technical staff assigned to older spaces routinely find their attention drawn away from the measurement science mission and toward resolving deficiencies within their laboratories. These impediments include:

  • An inability to perform experiments because temperature, humidity, or cleanliness are outside acceptable ranges and cannot be mitigated by ad hoc measures
  • Deficient power quality including transients, voltage fluctuations, and outages, that damages equipment or impairs sensitive measurements
  • Damaged equipment due to roof leaks
  • Recalibration of instrumentation after power, temperature, or humidity excursions
  • Staff do-it-yourself mitigation measures such as tenting equipment with plastic tarps to protect from leaking roofs or building floor-to-ceiling enclosures with plastic sheathing and duct tape to prevent dust intrusion into experiments or to provide some humidity or temperature control
  • Noisy equipment (e.g., processing tools, vacuum pumps, and closed cycle refrigerators) housed in laboratories because there are no utility corridors, requiring researchers to wear hearing protection and causing vibrations that impair sensitive measurements
  • Facility failures that delay the progress of the next generation of post-doctoral researchers who cannot achieve research goals needed to attract their next job within the 2-year term appointment

Through committee discussions with research staff during laboratory visits, frustration was apparent:

  • A NIST project leader stated, “In my long experience at NIST, I have found that having to advocate for basic environmental needs (power, temperature, water, or air) can be a distraction from research.”
  • A NIST senior researcher stated, in describing the time lost checking and recalibration instrumentation after a temperature excursion, “for what we do, proving correctness is central. We can’t publish a paper saying, ‘it MIGHT not have been affected by this problem.’”
  • Noting the burden this puts on collaboration, a NIST senior researcher stated, “Often, visiting researchers from industry have limited time at NIST to do their work, so these failures can make their time at NIST futile.”

The committee also heard of embarrassing encounters with visitors and guest researchers from outside the United States, with a senior researcher recounting that:

A European researcher visiting the laboratories stated, “Your buildings are very old; I am very surprised to see the actual laboratory conditions here given the high-quality papers the group has published—I can’t believe you don’t have running hot water to this laboratory!”

___________________

12 ZP and ZT refers to the alternative pay scale that NIST uses where ZP denotes “Scientific and Engineering Professionals” and ZT denotes “Scientific and Engineering Technicians.”

13 Information provided to the committee in response to their March 30, 2022, set of questions, sent to Jim Myska, study director, by email on June 16, 2022, by John Bollinger, OFPM, NIST.

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

A foreign scientist visiting a laboratory stated, “You guys doing good research only shows that the U.S. researchers care about science, but not that the U.S. government cares or prioritizes such good research. I would not choose to work out of a laboratory in this condition.”

The negative impact of poor facility condition and functionality is not limited to reduced staff effectiveness. Physical condition, appeal, and function of campus buildings and interior spaces are a significant factor in NIST’s ability to recruit and retain staff with in-demand expertise in critical areas. It was not uncommon for the committee to observe a variety of roof leak catchment systems in offices or laboratories which NIST had installed in buildings in Boulder and Gaithersburg. Figure 3-6 is an example of the ad hoc solution.

The laboratory visits also revealed a larger troubling trend. As noted above, the extent of the laboratory facilities problems continually diverts technical staff toward remediation activities to overcome laboratory deficiencies. Moreover, the decades-long duration of laboratory facilities problems has led to a widespread acceptance that little can be done by OFPM to resolve these challenges. The committee observed many staff-invented workarounds and fixes to improve temperature control, humidity control, cleanliness, and other laboratory defects. While innovative, this very inefficient and costly use of technical talent is now considered normal among NIST researchers.

Finding 3-4: NIST facilities are not world class and are therefore a growing impediment against attracting and retaining staff in a highly competitive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics environment. Moreover, the long-standing facilities problems have created a culture of workarounds by scientific staff that distracts from research and development efforts.

Conclusion 3-3: The impacts to NIST’s research and measurement science mission, which are documented in this chapter and Appendixes C and D, are largely due to the failure to address documented facility deficiencies and a long-delayed modernization program documented in the Plan. NIST cannot do 21st century science in 20th century facilities.

Image
FIGURE 3-6 Photos of rainfall collection system under roof leak in the office of NIST’s Boulder information technology staff.
SOURCE: Public Affairs Office, NIST.
Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

Recommendation 3-1: NIST should modernize laboratory facilities to provide the performance needed to meet the measurement science and mission-focused research and development challenges for today and the future, and to attract and retain the scientists and engineers required to solve these challenges. Current conditions and functionality are adversely impacting NIST’s current mission and modernization is well overdue and desperately needed.

Campus Infrastructure Issues

Campus infrastructure plays a critical role in NIST’s research. The infrastructure is essential to every element of the NIST mission. Reliable and consistent heating, cooling, and electricity from the underlying utility infrastructure are the foundation of a successful research environment. Reliable and precisely conditioned power is necessary for much of the research equipment. A central utility plant (CUP) is the heart and arteries of a campus operations providing the heating, cooling, and compressed air that NIST needs to maintain for research purposes as well as to maintain a healthy and comfortable environment.

Central Utility Plant and Distribution Lines

A CUP produces and distributes the steam, chilled water, and compressed air essential to the operations of the buildings. Each campus has emergency generators to ensure continued operations at the CUP, but OFPM does not provide backup generators for laboratory operations. OFPM stated that both campus CUPs are operating at capacity which means there is not sufficient back-up should equipment fail.

Boulder

A CUP was built in 2006 and expanded in 2011. As part of this project, a large underground tunnel was built that runs the length of the campus so that power, chilled water, and compressed air could be maintained and serviced in a controlled environment. The CUP facility and the tunnel are in excellent condition and well maintained.

The current concern is the CUP’s capacity limitations. The compressed air and chilled water used for building operations and maintenance are also useful in some laboratory environments, but the CUP cannot support the requirements of all the laboratories. For example, the CUP’s chilled water capacity is not adequate to provide chilled water for all campus laboratory equipment needs. Laboratory equipment that consumes a great deal of power (e.g., lasers and vacuum pumps) or thermally sensitive instrumentation, often requires localized cooling to operate or prevent equipment damage during operation. In the absence of closed-loop chilled water systems, the researchers continuously stream domestic water through heat exchangers to cool their equipment. This practice is not consistent with Executive Order 12902—Energy Efficiency and Water Conservation at Federal Facilities, which requires federal agencies to develop and implement a program for conservation of energy and water resources. It is particularly egregious in Colorado which is experiencing a water shortage.

Gaithersburg

The CUP was one of the first facilities built on Gaithersburg in the 1960s. Unlike Boulder, where distribution lines are located in a tunnel for ease of maintenance and inspection, the distribution lines in Gaithersburg are directly buried in the ground (direct-bury). The corrosion of the aging directly buried chilled water, potable water, and steam distribution lines has the systems in a continuous state of failure. Determining the source of the leaks is difficult and often a leak is only detected when other damage is noted such as road failure or water leaking into the lower levels of a building causing flooding or foundation failure.

Taking steam line failures as an example, these were the impacts of various failures:

  • Safety: A 4-inch steam line strainer failed catastrophically in the summer of 2020. This resulted in an explosion, causing extensive damage to the localized area. Luckily there was no loss of life as no one was nearby at the time. The loss of steam controls affected environmental controls adversely impacting
Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
  • deliverables to the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and others. OFPM’s investigation of this incident revealed that the failure was due to a combination of factors that appear to include the age of the steam piping, a lack of tensile strength, the high porosity of the cast iron, poor original welds, and corrosion.14
  • Environmental: In a troubling situation that was ongoing during the period of the drafting of this report, OFPM stated that the steam system is losing 50,000-70,000 gallons of water per day. The steam system is chemically treated and the leaks have infiltrated the storm water runoff into a local water source. OFPM reports that the State of Maryland will issue a Notice of Violation for chemical and temperature issues in this surface water stream.15
  • Mission Impact: On June 8, 2022, NIST notified the Gaithersburg staff that the steam system would be shut down for several weeks because of leaks. Due to unpredictable changes in laboratory temperature and humidity during the outage, researchers with experiments sensitive to temperature and humidity were advised to take steps necessary to minimize the impact of this situation. Depending on weather conditions, staff were informed that floors may become wet and slippery due to the loss of humidity control, posing a safety hazard.16

The combination of the single point of failure of utilities, such as the steam system failures discussed above, and the directly buried distribution lines have greatly impeded OFPM’s ability to maintain and repair these systems, making future failures that directly impact laboratories, other facilities, and staff more likely. The existing utility situation has resulted in catastrophic failures both at the utility locations (e.g., buried steam line), and in buildings (e.g., flood from broken pipes). The leaks have washed away materials beneath roads, parking lots, and sidewalks shutting down sections of the campus transportation system for up to a year. The failures have caused millions of dollars of equipment damage as demonstrated by the leak in the Advanced Measurements Laboratory (one of the newest buildings on the Gaithersburg campus), discussed above, and serious impacts to experiments in numerous buildings.

Overall, the physical condition and functionality of the Gaithersburg utility infrastructure is poor, and it is reaching the end of its useful life.

Finding 3-5: The current capacities of the Gaithersburg and Boulder CUPs provide no additional tolerances or backup capability.

Finding 3-6: The lack of chilled water for research purposes has led to practice of streaming domestic water through a heat exchanger and down a drain to cool equipment, a practice which is not consistent with Executive Order 12902—Energy Efficiency and Water Conservation at Federal Facilities.

Finding 3-7: The Gaithersburg CUP distribution are leaking causing road failures, leaks through foundations into laboratories, foundation failures, and even an anticipated Notice of Violation being issued by the State of Maryland because of NIST’s violation of environmental laws related to chemical and temperature changes in surface stream due to steam system leaks flowing into the water source.

Conclusion 3-4: The inadequacies of the CUPs and the utility and service distribution on the campus has led to delays and failures in meeting the NIST research mission, non-compliance with environmental regulations, and national priorities.

___________________

14 Robert Vaughn, NIST chief facilities management officer, and director of OFPM, “Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology,” presentation to the committee on February 15 and 16, 2022.

15 Email from Robert Vaughn, NIST chief facilities management officer, and director of OFPM, to Jim Myska, study director, on May 6, 2022.

16 Email from Robert Vaughn, NIST chief facilities management officer, and director of OFPM to Jim Myska, study director, on June 10, 2022.

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

Electrical Power

The quality and continuity of power is essential to laboratory activities. Critical measurements may run for hours, days, and in many cases weeks, to acquire the data necessary for measurement with desired precision and accuracy. These data are lost during power interruptions, wasting time and productivity. The emergency power capacity across the campus is insufficient for protecting many of the power-sensitive research activities, resulting in a patchwork of solutions, from small backup generators to uninterruptible power supply systems, funded by research budgets.

Boulder

The Boulder campus laboratories are plagued by intermittent power outages and glitches that reportedly occur about 12 times per year, causing delays and damage well beyond the few minutes of power interruption. In addition to lost data, power glitches often require a substantial effort to restart equipment, restore the necessary experimental conditions, and reset the experiment; researchers in the NIST spintronics group reported wasting 15 percent of its staff time each year to these issues. The quantum computing group reports that resetting the experiment after one power glitch required two weeks of work, leading staff to spend the night in the laboratory in hopes of managing a more graceful shut down when inclement weather raises the probability of a power issue. Moreover, power instabilities damage equipment. Several groups reported that vacuum pumps fail to recover, requiring repair or replacement. Boulder’s state-of-the-art microfabrication and nanofabrication facility, which supports over a third of the projects on the campus loses one instrument, on average, with each power outage. Because both microfabrication and nanofabrication require a process flow that uses a series of fabrication tools, many research projects can be delayed while awaiting repair or replacement of damaged instruments. OFPM stated that the Boulder campus experienced 20 power outages or surges between August 2019 and April 2020 due to issues with the local utility provider’s incoming service. The disruptions described above were estimated by OPFM to have resulted in an estimated cost of $9 million and the loss of 47,000 researcher hours. The issues have continued and are yet to be resolved.17

Gaithersburg

In consultation with OFPM, the committee was informed that the GPL’s lack of steady, transient-free electric power documented by the NIST Research Facilities Strategic Plan (NIST 2014b) had not been addressed. During the tour of the Gaithersburg campus, OFPM staff informed the committee that the original switchgear installed in the GPLs are unsafe and electrical systems cannot be worked on without securing power in the building which means shutting down laboratories. Annual outages scheduled to maintain operation take operations off-line for 1 month, affecting all researchers. An example of impact is that all biometric technology evaluation work is halted (including critical facial recognition vendor testing and contactless fingerprint research) and this creates significant delays in updating reported results that are used by law enforcement. The first GPL electrical system replacement project was recently completed having been prioritized as a life safety issue; the cost of the project was $7 million. There are more GPLs whose systems need to be replaced. Unfortunately, this project will be phased across multiple years, which means that because these critical issues will remain in service during the phasing period. The committee is concerned that there is a probability that the equipment in the various buildings will no longer be compatible across the buildings as the acquisition of these systems is stretched over years.

Finding 3-8: The current electrical distribution and building systems on each campus are not meeting the needs of laboratories for continuity and quality of power.

Conclusion 3-5: The failure of the current electrical distribution and electrical building systems to meet researcher requirements results in an adverse impact on the science mission.

___________________

17 Robert Vaughn, NIST CFMO, and director of OFPM, “Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology,” presentation to the committee on February 15 and 16, 2022.

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×

Recommendation 3-2: NIST should address the underlying deficiencies with campus infrastructure including the CUPs, distribution systems, and electrical power quality and continuity to ensure that the modernization plan investment is effective. If not developed in conjunction with laboratory modernization, the requirements of the new laboratories will continue to not be met.

NIST FACILITIES AND UTILITIES INFRASTRUCTURE IN GREATEST NEED OF RECAPITALIZATION OR REPAIR

The committee’s statement of task calls for it to identify “NIST facilities and utilities infrastructure in greatest need of recapitalization of repair and of those most impacting the research mission’s implementation.” A detailed assessment of all of NIST’s facilities was well beyond the scope of the committee’s work and its available time and resources. However, as is discussed in more detail in Chapters 4 and 5, OFPM has identified its most pressing needs for recapitalization based on impacts to NIST’s mission. The committee agrees with OFPM’s prioritizations. Table 3-1 summarizes these priorities. Please see Chapters 4 and 5 for a more complete discussion.

CONCLUSION

Overall, the committee observed adverse, and in some cases ruinous, impacts on NIST mission execution that are a consequence of outmoded or dilapidated NIST facilities. These include:

  • Substantive delays in key national security deliverables due to inadequate facility performance;
  • Substantive delays in national technology priorities—such as quantum science, engineering biology, and advanced manufacturing—due to inadequate facility performance or facility failures;
  • Inability to advance research related to national technology priorities due to limitations imposed by inadequate facilities performance;
  • Material delays in NIST measurement service provision to U.S. industry customers due to inadequate facility performance or facility failures; and
  • Serious damage, or complete destruction, of highly specialized and costly equipment due to periodic catastrophic facility failures.
  • Substantial erosion of technical staff productivity—estimated as high as 40 percent by the NIST research staff interviewed by the committee during laboratory visits. NIST research staff attributed this erosion as due to rework, repair, and workarounds by researchers resulting from consistent facility underperformance or regular facility failures.

TABLE 3-1 Summary OFPM’s Recapitalization Priorities

Priority Rank Project Description
1 Gaithersburg Bldg. 245 Modernization
2 Boulder Bldg. 3 addition
3 Boulder Bldg. 1 Renovation: West spine option
4 Gaithersburg Bldg. 222 (GPL) Renovation and Addition
5 Gaithersburg Bldg. 101 Lower Levels and Addition
6 Gaithersburg Research Bldg. 1 and Building 228 (new construction)
7 Boulder Research Bldg. B to replace Bldgs. 2, 24, and 2A (new construction)
8 Gaithersburg Parking Garage with Data Center (new construction)
9 Gaithersburg Research Bldgs. II, II, and IV (new construction)
Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
Priority Rank Project Description
10 Boulder Research Bldg. A and Parking Garage to replace Bldg. 2, 24, and 2A parking lots (new construction)
No prioritization. Work will be based on the workflow on each campus. Gaithersburg Gates A and F Visitor Center and Security Improvements
Gaithersburg underground utilities and Central Utility Plant renovation and expansion and new electrical substation
Gaithersburg fire, wind, and emissions building (new construction)
Gaithersburg SRMa building (new construction)
Gaithersburg Building 221 renovation and addition
Gaithersburg Building 220 renovation
Boulder Child Care Center – replacement
Boulder Building 24: Campus center (remove or renovate Building 24)
Building 223 renovation
Gaithersburg Building 224 renovation
Gaithersburg Building 225 renovation
Gaithersburg Building 226 renovation
Gaithersburg Building 202 renovation
Gaithersburg Building 230 renovation
Gaithersburg Building 231 renovation
Gaithersburg Building 233 renovation
Gaithersburg Strong floor facility (new building)
Gaithersburg stormwater and site improvements
Boulder Building 1 renovation: East spine, Wings 1 and 2, Head house
Boulder Building 51 addition and site improvements
Boulder Management Resources Building (new building)

a Standard Reference Material

SOURCE: NIST OFPM.

REFERENCES

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GSA (General Services Administration). 2020. “Federal Real Property Council 2020 Guidance for Real Property Inventory Reporting.” Version 2. https://www.gsa.gov/cdnstatic/FY_2020_FRPP_DATA_DICTIONARY_v2_final2.pdf.

GSA. 2021. “Federal Real Property Council 2021 Guidance for Real Property Inventory Reporting.” Version 1. file:///C:/Users/JWade/Downloads/FY%202021%20FRPP%20DATA%20DICTIONARY%20(3).pdf.

NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). 1997. “Economic Evaluation of Radiopharmaceutical Research at NIST, Planning Report 97-2.” https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2017/05/09/report97-2.pdf.

NIST. 2000. “Economic Impact Assessment: NIST-EEEL Laser and Fiberoptic Power and Energy Calibration Services, Planning Report 00-3.” https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/tpo/No-14-PR-00-3-Fiberoptic.pdf.

NIST. 2002. “The Economic Impact of the Gas-Mixture NIST-Traceable Reference Materials Program, Planning Report 02-4.” https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/tpo/No-04-PR-02-4-Gas-Mixture.pdf.

NIST. 2014a. “NIST Economic Impact Studies Table.” Updated February 10, 2020. https://www.nist.gov/tpo/nist-economic-impact-studies-table.

NIST. 2014b. “Volume 2: Appendices” in Research Facilities Strategic Plan. Gaithersburg, MD. December.

USEIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration). 2022. “Natural Gas.” https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9133us3m.htm.

Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
Page 41
Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Existing Facilities at Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Campuses and Their Current Challenges." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26684.
×
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Next: 4 Practices for Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization of NIST'S Existing Facilities »
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides critical impact to the nation through standards development and cutting-edge research, with a mission to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve quality of life. NIST supports innovative manufacturing that impacts the U.S. economy and national security. The NIST mission is accomplished primarily at its campuses in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Boulder, Colorado.

At the request of NIST, Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology assesses the comprehensive capital needs of the NIST campuses. This report evaluates current strategies and tools for capital facilities assessment, and methods for determining annual funding levels for sustainment, restoration, and modernization. The report makes recommendations for facility management strategies that will provide the functionality needed by world-class scientists on vital assignments of national consequence.

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