University of California officials announced Monday that the Richmond Field Station has been chosen as the preferred site for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s second campus.
According to a lab press release, the site presents the “best opportunity to solve the Lab’s pressing space problems while allowing for long-term growth.” The university will now begin the process of studying the environmental impact of the new lab and garnering approval for the new site from the U.S. Department of Energy, the release states.
“Each city, community, and their developer partners presented extremely thoughtful and well-formulated proposals for us to consider, for which we are deeply grateful,” said Berkeley Lab Director Paul Alivisatos in a statement. “The enthusiasm is wonderful affirmation of the desire of the entire East Bay to be part of developing scientific solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing our society.”
The lab received more than 20 responses when it initially opened the search for a site and narrowed its options down to six sites in May 2011, including the Berkeley Aquatic Park in West Berkeley and the field station, which is already owned by the university.
The lab originally planned to announce the new location in late November 2011 but pushed back the announcement in order to further evaluate its options, Alivisatos said in November.
Alisha Azevedo is the assistant university news editor.
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It would have been great to have it in Albany, but it was still too safe a location for nutty activists, who won’t DARE show their asses in Richmond. Good for Richmond, though. They’ll benefit tremendously from the development of a world class laboratory and they deserve to.
Disappointing–it should have been in Albany.
hopefully, the left over toxic waste was cleaned up, before it was approved