Jefferson Lab to Lead DOE High Performance Data Facility
From left: Jefferson Lab Director Stuart Henderson, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Virginia Governor Glenn Younkin (R), and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) participate in an event celebrating the lab’s selection to lead development of the proposed High Performance Data Facility.
(Aileen Devlin / Jefferson Lab)
The Department of Energy Office of Science announced last week it has picked Jefferson Lab in Virginia to lead development of the proposed High Performance Data Facility, billed as “a new scientific user facility specializing in advanced infrastructure for data-intensive science.”
The facility will use a hub-and-spoke model to provide advanced computing resources to researchers across the country, with Jefferson Lab and Berkeley Lab hosting centralized computing resources connected to distributed infrastructure at other sites.
The need for such a facility was identified by DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee in 2013, and DOE formally approved the mission need in 2020. DOE estimates the project will cost between $300 million and $500 million, though it instructed labs to target the low end of that range.
DOE has provided about $4 million for preliminary project development so far, and it is seeking $8 million for fiscal year 2024.
