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WYWCUTtXfmSUMMARr 



IVlore than S2 billion worth of facilities at the National Institute 

 of Standards and Technology (NIST) are deteriorating at an 

 accelerating pace. Built in Gaithersburg, Md., and Boulder, Colo., 

 between 25 and 40 years ago, the sites feature 45 specialized 

 laboratory buildings used to conduct a wide range of advanced 

 research in areas such as semiconductor electronics, 

 biotechnology, manufacturing engineering, atomic-scale physics, 

 computer science, and advanced materials. (Site maps appear on 

 pages 38 and 39.) 



As the only federal laboratory explicitly charged with helping U.S. 

 industry improve its competitiveness, NIST plays a critical role in 

 the nation's long-term economic health. The decaying sute of the 

 Institute's facilities already has made it impossible to provide 

 some U.S. manufacturers with essential services, such as 

 siate-of-thc-art calibrations urgently needed to maintain production 

 line quality controls on a par with Japanese and European 

 competitors. 



NIST proposes implementation of two separate 10-year plans to 

 upgrade its facilities to the first-rate condition necessary to carry 

 out its mission. The first plan addresses technical obsolescence of 

 environmental systems controls and reliability of power supplies at 

 NIST's research buildings that limits its ability to provide the 

 exacting measurements required of a national reference laboratory. 

 At a total cost of $540 million, the plan includes construction of 

 new advanced technology laboratory space, as well as major 

 renovation of seven existing buildings located at the two sites. The 

 full cost of this plan has yet to be approved by the Administration. 

 Design of the new facilities will be flexible in that, if insufficient 

 funds are available, NIST would still be able to achieve a portion 

 of its facilities objectives. 



The second plan addresses urgently needed improvements to 

 remedy major safety and systems capacity problems. These repairs 

 and modernization projects cannot be delayed any longer without 

 endangering employees and NIST visitors or risking failures of 

 major building systems with potentially disastrous results. The 

 10-year systems and capacity plan was begun in FY 1991 with a 

 $1 million appropriation and a S3 million appropriation in FV 



