Battelle received its fifth consecutive outstanding rating Friday from the Department of Energy for operating Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, even though it lost points for financial management.

No other DOE lab under the Office of Science has received the highest ranking of outstanding five years in a row, according to PNNL.

Battelle's payment based on performance at the Richland lab will be $6.65 million of a maximum of $7 million.

"Overall, we're very happy with how they operate the lab," said Paul Kruger, associate manager for science and technology for DOE in Richland.

Sixty percent of the lab's score was based on the quality of science, which received a score of 3.79 out of a possible 4. That rates outstanding.

Every program office at DOE headquarters rated the science done at the lab as outstanding, Kruger said. That includes offices of science, environmental management, counterintelligence, national nuclear security, nuclear nonproliferation, fossil energy and energy efficiency.

The remaining 40 percent of the score is based on leadership and operation and management, and each received a score of 3.0. That rates excellent.

Those scores were reduced because of two financial management issues, although not enough to drop the overall score below the outstanding level.

In one case, the Richland lab was selected last January to lead a program to eliminate weapons-grade plutonium in two nuclear cities in the Siberian district of Russia. The plutonium is produced in reactors used for heat and electrical power, and Russia has no plans to use it.

At the time the program was being switched from the Department of Defense to the Department of Energy, and the Richland lab started work before the transfer of money was completed and the lab was fully authorized to begin work.

About $800,000 had been spent over five months by the time the problem was caught by DOE and the lab at about the same time, Kruger said.

"You would hope they didn't have the problem, and you would hope it was caught in the first 30 days before it built to a larger amount," he said.

Battelle paid back the $800,000 plus interest but still is likely to get the money once it's transferred from the defense department to DOE.

The DOE program office responsible for administering the program to eliminate weapons-grade plutonium was among those giving the lab an outstanding rating for its science work.

The second incident involved work paid for by DOE month to month. In several projects, small amounts of money were spent from the next month's allocation.

That should not occur without notification to DOE, Kruger said.

Although the amount of money was relatively small, "nevertheless, it exhibits a problem that needs to be corrected," he said.

Battelle has fixed both problems, according to the lab. DOE's concern is that the corrected systems are strong enough to prevent other problems.

"There are so many complex systems at the lab that sometimes we find things that need to be fixed," said Director Lura Powell. She's resigning from the lab at the end of the month, but the decision is not related to the financial management issue.

This is her third outstanding rating for the lab, and Kruger praised Battelle and her leadership.

"DOE's tough. But if they thought this was a superserious career buster type of thing, they would not have given an outstanding," Powell said. "There's a lot we're very proud of."

DOE has been pleased with the work the lab has done to begin use on its new $24.5 million supercomputer and the world's first 900-megahertz wide-bore nuclear resonance spectrometer, which allows scientists to see cells and molecules.

It also praised the lab's strategic partnerships in forming research partnerships with universities including Washington State University, Oregon Health and Sciences University, the University of Maryland and the University of Washington.

Battelle also received good ratings for its record of safe management and operations. It's by far the best safety record of any of the DOE science labs, Powell said.

"(PNNL) earned its outstanding rating," Kruger said. "Yes, there were issues in financial management, and we're working with the lab to make sure they're corrected in the future. But the community should be proud that we have such a quality collection of scientists making significant contributions to science."