Battelle has received its first "outstanding" annual rating from the Department of Energy for its performance in operating Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the fiscal year 1998.

"We're all smiling here," said lab director Bill Madia on Monday afternoon.

Going strictly by the numbers, the Richland national laboratory scored at the top of the "excellent" range. Out of a possible high score of 5, it rated 4.3 - 0.2 from an "outstanding" rating.

But John Wagoner, manager of the DOE's Richland office, bumped the rating up a notch because of "Battelle's ongoing efforts to strengthen the partnership with DOE and extraordinary effort" in other key areas, Wagoner wrote in a letter to Madia.

Wagoner praised the lab's scientific research achievements. And he pointed out the success of the inaugural year of the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory and the Richland lab's progress in developing and using an integrated safety management system.

It was the first DOE lab to use the system, which considers all risks and allows workers to be involved in developing safety procedures for each project, then passing that information on to other workers.

This is the third year DOE has tracked the laboratory's performance based on scores in six areas. Scores for four areas were in the excellent range this year and two were in the outstanding range.

A quarter of the score is based on scientific excellence, for which Battelle received an excellent rating. The rating would have been higher, but the lab's number of publications in professional journals was down from previous years.

However, the impact of its scientific work was higher than the numerical score would indicate, officials decided. It was awarded 10 R&D 100 and Federal Laboratory Consortium awards. Wagoner cited its "outstanding peer reviews and excellent customer feedback from the scientific community." Madia said work on global climate change, stabilization of the Chernobyl reactor and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons were among the year's highlights.

"The work scientists did in grow ing research money in a tight market has been impressive," he said. The laboratory added 111 workers and continues to work to fill job openings, while elsewhere the scientific community has struggled.

The lab's outstanding rankings came in the areas of environmental technology and community relations.

The laboratory demonstrated 14 new environmental technologies and put 13 new environmental technologies into use, according to Wagoner. While pleased with that record, Wagoner said none of the technologies was deployed at Hanford, a concern that deserves further study.

The community relations ranking - which received a perfect score - was boosted by staff reports showing workers liked how the lab was being run, Madia said. A community survey also got good results, with only 5 percent of respondents thinking of anything negative to say about the lab.

The laboratory was instrumental in the formation of 12 new technology-based businesses, and 10 of the businesses started the year before still were operating at the end of fiscal year 1998. It also strengthened and added new partnerships to enhance science, mathematics and technology reform efforts in schools, even though there was less direct sponsorship by DOE.

Despite the laboratory's outstanding work, Battelle won't be rewarded with extra money. The laboratory will receive a $5.6 mil lion fixed fee for fiscal year 1998. In August, DOE reached an agreement on a five-year contract extension for Battelle to operate the lab from October 1997 through September 2002.

While negotiations for performance-based fees continued, a fixed fee was agreed upon for fiscal year 1998. For fiscal year 1999, Battelle can earn a potential $7.1 million in performance-based fees.

Madia said the outstanding rating for 1998 was an accomplishment each employee can be proud of.

It was accomplished "by 3,500 staff who come to work every morning and do work with excellence," he said.