This is a source-attributed discovery row. It can help you find a place and its citations; it is not a DataCenterData finding that the facility is distinct or currently operating.
Facility snapshot
- Operator as published
- Battelle Memorial Institute (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
- Address and locality
- Richland · Benton County · Washington
- Lifecycle status
- reported proposed
- Facility type
- data center
- Reported capacity
- Planned: 2 MW (source-reported; boundary not independently verified)
- Source freshness
- 10 September 2026
- Location precision
- approximate
- Source confidence
- reported
- Stable directory ID
dcd-dir-001123
What the source record says
Battelle, which operates PNNL for the Department of Energy, issued a request for information for an on-premises next-generation AI compute data center to train and operationalize large language models for scientific and national government missions. Roughly 2 MW at a possible 2028 launch, with potential future expansion to about 40 MW. This would be DOE-funded and DOE-operated, not a private operator building on federal land. No construction decision has been made — this is an RFI-stage proposal only. Coordinates are an approximate geocode of the PNNL campus in Richland. Public-reception check (2026-09-10): Checked The Spokesman-Review's coverage (2026-09-10) of this DOE Genesis Mission-linked project; it covers technical specs and funding, with no resident, community-group, or elected-official reaction documented.
Any MW value is reproduced as source-reported context. Its measurement boundary is not established consistently enough for comparison. Unknown is not zero.
Status history supplied by the source
- 2026-04-26 · reported proposed
PNNL confirmed it is 'considering the possibility of a small data center due to increased focus on AI at PNNL'; the RFI response window had closed.
Sources and attribution
- AI data center with a different mission being considered in Tri-Cities · The Spokesman-Review
- DOE eyes PNNL to 'power the AI revolution' · Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business
- What to know about 4 major data center proposals for Tri-Cities area · Tri-City Herald (via Yahoo News)
Adapted from Compute Atlas by Edward Kubiak, edition 1.33.0, under CC BY 4.0. Upstream ID pnnl-ai-data-center-richland-wa. Filtered to data-center records in the 50 U.S. states; selected fields normalized for search and display; DataCenterData directory IDs added.
This does not mean the row is wrong. It means DataCenterData has not promoted it through the independent evidence workflow.