Study: Energy Dept Lab Generates $271 Million for State

(Investor.gov)

An economic study estimates that the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, a U.S. Department of Energy nuclear physics research laboratory in Newport News, Virginia, generates more than $271 million in economic output and 2,200 jobs in Virginia. The study for Jefferson Science Associates LLC, the contract operators of the lab, was conducted by The Wessex Group Ltd. of Williamsburg, Virginia.

The Jefferson Lab employs more than 700 full-time employees and is used by more than 1,300 scientists worldwide to conduct nuclear physics research. Since the last economic study of the lab in 2008, the number of Virginia jobs increased by 29 percent, from 1,701 to 2,200. Economic output also increased by 80 percent from $150.6 million to $271 million.

Nationally, the lab generates $679 million in economic impact and 4,422 jobs. In the surrounding Hampton Roads region (southeast Virginia), the lab contributes $217.6 million and 1,968 jobs. All calculations cover the 2010 federal fiscal year that ended 30 September 2010.

According to The Wessex Group, economic impact is calculated from direct spending by the lab, combined with estimates of indirect economic effects resulting from direct spending by the lab. The computations take into account the lab’s direct expenditures, as well as indirect and induced spending by contractors, the user community, and visitors — including some 10,500 person-nights booked in local hotels.

The estimates do not include value derived from commercialization of the lab’s research, nor does it factor in intellectual benefits for regional and national research and educational institutions that obtain access to the lab’s facilities and discoveries. The report says that more than one-third of the Ph.D.s in nuclear physics awarded in the U.S. are based at least in part on Jefferson Lab research.

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