Site Selected For Lab Expansion

A Richmond, Calif., site 6 miles north of Berkeley has been selected for a new branch of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The 152-acre site will consolidate the biosciences research facilities and programs of the national lab, which are now spread around the area east of San Francisco Bay. The lab’s biosciences division will include both teaching and research at the location. The University of California operates the lab for the Department of Energy and owns the Richmond site. Originally UC had considered some 20 sites and pared the list to six. The university expects to open the site in 2016. The existing main lab employs about 4,200 and is located in hills overlooking the UC Berkeley campus. The new Richmond site is expected to employ 800.