42 U.S.C. § 18641 — Basic energy sciences

(a) Program — As part of the activities authorized under section 7139 of this title, the Director must carry out a research and development program in basic energy sciences. This covers materials sciences and engineering, chemical sciences, physical biosciences, geosciences, and other disciplines. The goal is to understand, model, and control matter and energy at the electronic, atomic, and molecular levels, to build the foundation for new energy technologies, address big scientific challenges, and support the Department's energy, environmental, and national security missions. (b) Sustainable chemistry — When carrying out chemistry-related research under this section, the Director must prioritize sustainable chemistry — clean, safe, and economical alternatives to traditional chemical products and processes. (c) Energy Frontier Research Centers (1) In general — The Director must run a competitive, merit-reviewed award program for multi-institutional collaborations, or other appropriate entities, to conduct fundamental and use-inspired energy research that speeds up scientific breakthroughs. (2) Collaborations — A collaboration receiving an award may include multiple types of institutions and private-sector entities. (3) Selection and duration — (A) A collaboration is selected for a period of 4 years. (B) An Energy Frontier Research Center already in existence and supported by the Director on September 28, 2018, may keep receiving support for 4 years starting from the date it was established. (C) After that period ends, a recipient may reapply for selection on the same competitive, merit-reviewed basis. (D) The Director may terminate an underperforming center for cause during its performance period. (4) No funding for construction — No funding under this subsection may be used to construct new buildings or facilities. (d) Basic energy sciences user facilities (1) In general — The Director must carry out a program for developing, constructing, operating, and maintaining national user facilities. (2) Requirements — To the maximum extent practicable, these national user facilities must serve the needs of the Department, industry, the academic community, and other relevant entities, to create and examine materials and chemical processes in ways that improve U.S. competitiveness. (3) Included facilities — These national user facilities must include: (A) x-ray light sources; (B) neutron sources; (C) nanoscale science research centers; (D) facilities for autonomous chemistry and materials synthesis and characterization that use artificial intelligence; and (E) any other facilities the Director considers appropriate, consistent with section 7139. (4) Advanced Photon Source upgrade — (A) Definitions: "flux" means the rate photons flow; "hard x-ray" means a photon with energy greater than 20 kiloelectron volts. (B) The Secretary must provide for the upgrade to the Advanced Photon Source described in the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee's June 9, 2016 "Report on Facility Upgrades," including building a multibend achromat lattice to produce a high flux of coherent hard x-rays, plus a matching suite of beamlines. (C) Subject to available appropriations, the Secretary must ensure the upgrade is fully operating before March 31, 2026. (D) Out of the funds authorized under subsection (j), Congress authorizes $14,200,000 for fiscal year 2023 for this upgrade. (5) Spallation Neutron Source proton power upgrade — (A) The Secretary must provide for a proton power upgrade to the Spallation Neutron Source. (B) This "proton power upgrade" is the one described in three named Office of Science publications from 2003, 2007, and 2016. (C) Subject to available appropriations, the Secretary must ensure it is fully operating before July 30, 2028, with the option for early operation in 2025. (D) Out of the funds authorized under subsection (j), Congress authorizes: $17,000,000 for fiscal year 2023; $14,202,000 for fiscal year 2024; and $1,567,000 for fiscal year 2025. (6) Spallation Neutron Source second target station — (A) The Secretary must provide for a second target station for the Spallation Neutron Source. (B) This "second target station" is described in the same three named publications listed above. (C) Subject to available appropriations, it must be fully operating before December 31, 2033, with the option for early operation in 2029. (D) Out of the funds authorized under subsection (j), Congress authorizes, including for construction: $127,000,000 for fiscal year 2023; $205,000,000 for fiscal year 2024; $279,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; $300,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; and $281,000,000 for fiscal year 2027. (7) Advanced Light Source upgrade — (A) Definitions: "flux" again means the rate photons flow; "soft x-ray" means a photon with energy between 50 and 2,000 electron volts. (B) The Secretary must provide for the upgrade to the Advanced Light Source described in the same 2016 report, including building a multibend achromat lattice to produce a high flux of coherent soft x-rays. (C) Subject to available appropriations, it must be fully operating before September 30, 2029. (D) Out of the funds authorized under subsection (j), Congress authorizes: $135,000,000 for fiscal year 2023; $102,500,000 for fiscal year 2024; $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; and $1,400,000 for fiscal year 2026. (8) Linac Coherent Light Source II high energy upgrade — (A) Definitions: "high energy" x-ray means one with energy between 5 and 13 kiloelectron volts; "high repetition rate" means delivering up to 1,000,000 x-ray pulses per second; "ultra-short pulse" means bursts lasting less than 100 femtoseconds. (B) The Secretary must (i) provide for the upgrade to the Linac Coherent Light Source II described in the 2016 report, including building experimental capabilities for high-energy x-rays to enable new scientific discoveries, and (ii) ensure the upgrade lets the facility produce and use high-energy, ultra-short-pulse x-rays delivered at a high repetition rate. (C) Subject to available appropriations, it must be fully operating before December 31, 2026. (D) Out of the funds authorized under subsection (j), Congress authorizes: $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2023; $130,000,000 for fiscal year 2024; $135,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; and $99,343,000 for fiscal year 2026. (9) Cryomodule repair and maintenance facility — (A) The Secretary must provide for building a cryomodule repair and maintenance facility to service the Linac Coherent Light Source II and later upgrades. (B) The Secretary must consult with the private sector, institutions of higher education, National Laboratories, and relevant federal agencies to make sure the facility can maintain, repair, and test superconducting radio-frequency accelerator components. (C) Out of the funds authorized under subsection (j), Congress authorizes: $29,300,000 for fiscal year 2023; $24,000,000 for fiscal year 2024; $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; and $15,700,000 for fiscal year 2026. (10) Nanoscale Science Research Center recapitalization project — (A) The Secretary must provide for recapitalizing the Nanoscale Science Research Centers, including upgrading equipment at each Center the Office of Science supported as of August 9, 2022, to speed up progress in nanoscience, materials, chemistry, biology, and quantum information science. (B) Out of the funds authorized under subsection (j), Congress authorizes $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2023 and $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2024. (11) National Synchrotron Light Source II beamline buildout — (A) The Secretary must provide for developing and building experimental stations that add beamline and instrument capacity, complement existing beamlines, and complete the buildout of the National Synchrotron Light Source II. (B) Subject to available appropriations, the Secretary (i) must begin this work by September 30, 2036, and (ii) may begin it earlier, either in calendar year 2033 or once construction of individual beamlines is complete. (e) Accelerator research and development — The Director must carry out research and development on advanced accelerator and storage ring technologies relevant to basic energy sciences user facilities, consulting with the Office of Science's High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics programs. (f) Omitted (g) Omitted (h) Computational materials and chemical sciences (1) In general — The Director must support a program of research and development applying advanced computing to foundational and emerging problems in chemistry and materials science, including: (A) chemical catalysis research and development; (B) using large data sets to model materials, including through advanced characterization, synthesis, processing, and creative use of experimental and theoretical data; (C) codesigning chemistry and materials modeling software together with advanced computing systems and hardware; and (D) modeling chemical processes, assemblies, and reactions — like molecular dynamics and quantum chemistry — including through new computing methods. (2) Computational materials and chemical sciences centers — (A) The Director must select and set up up to 6 centers to (i) develop open-source, tested, user-friendly software — combined with creative use of experimental and theoretical data — to help design, discover, and develop new materials and chemical systems, and (ii) focus on getting the most benefit from exascale and other high-performance computing built on accelerated node technologies. (B) The Director selects centers on a competitive, merit-reviewed basis, considering applications from National Laboratories, institutions of higher education, multi-institutional collaborations, and other appropriate entities. (C) Duration — (i) A newly selected center receives support for up to 5 years starting from when it is established, subject to available appropriations. (ii) A center already in existence on August 9, 2022, may keep receiving support for up to 5 years starting from when it was established. (D) When a center's support period ends, the Director may renew it, on a merit-reviewed basis, for up to another 5 years. (i) Materials research database (1) In general — The Director must support building a web-based platform giving access to a database of computed information on known and predicted materials properties, plus computational tools to speed up discovering and designing new materials. (2) Program — The Director must: (A) conduct cooperative research among National Laboratories, industry, academia, and other research institutions to advance understanding, prediction, and manipulation of materials and help design novel ones; (B) develop and maintain data infrastructure at user facilities that generate data, to collect, analyze, label, and prepare it for the database; (C) use existing high-performance computing systems to run high-throughput calculations, and develop algorithms to predict material properties; (D) strengthen the foundation for new technologies and advanced manufacturing; and (E) drive development of advanced materials for uses across the Department's energy, environment, and national security missions. (3) Coordination — The Director must leverage programs and activities across the Department, including the computational materials and chemical sciences centers established under subsection (h). (4) Funding — Out of the funds authorized under subsection (j), Congress authorizes $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027. (j) Authorization of appropriations — Out of the funds authorized for the Office of Science in a fiscal year, Congress authorizes the Secretary to carry out this section's activities: $2,685,414,000 for fiscal year 2023; $2,866,890,840 for fiscal year 2024; $2,987,727,170 for fiscal year 2025; $3,062,732,781 for fiscal year 2026; and $3,080,067,167 for fiscal year 2027.