The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will receive $115.8 million from President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The funds are part of $1.2 billion announced by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu on 23 March from funding allocated under the Recovery Act to DOE's Office of Science.
Funds directed to Berkeley Lab are to be used to accelerate construction of a user support building for the Advanced Light Source, one of the nation's premier research sources of x-ray and ultraviolet light, and provide additional support for research in the fields of advanced materials, energy and biology.
Funds will also be provided for other projects including a laser-based accelerator facility called "BELLA," (Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator). With its ability to deliver enormous energy boosts to charged particles over extremely short distances, laser-based acceleration technology could be the future of high-energy physics.
Read the complete press release from the Berkeley Lab.