Bythis time, the AEC had met all Department ofDefense requirements for nuclear weapons production and had created a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons. Accordingly, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to reduce nuclear materials production and presented it as a disarmament measure in his 1964 Stateofthe Union address. As a result, over the next seven.years, the AEC shut down all but one ofthe Hanford production reactors. .Because the Hanford area was a one industry town, the AEC also took steps to keep the area economically viable by aimingto bring new industry and contractors into the area. It grouped these efforts into its Hanford’ diversification program. In 1964 General Electric decided to withdraw from Hanford and the AEC committed to use multiple contractors at the site. In the first major moveofits Hanford diversification program, the AEC selected Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio to take over operation of the Hanford Laboratories, which were now renamed the Pacific NorthwestLaboratory (PNL). At its inception PNL had staff of about 1,800 and a budget of approximately $20 million. Under Battelle management the laboratory began to grow. From single gray barracks in downtown Richland in 1965, PNL,in ten years, had grown to include new buildings and equipment valued at $50 million. For example, in 1967 PNL began operation of a 120 square mile Arid Lands Ecology Reserve for the AEC. It established a Marine Research Laboratory on Washington's Olympic Peninsula and a research center near the University ofWashington's Seattle campus. It built a Richland Research Complex which included a Research Operations Building, a Physical Sciences Laboratory, a 300 seat auditorium, a Mathematics Building, an Engineering Development Laboratory, and a Life Sciences Laboratory. In 1967 an observatory with the -largest optical telescope in the Northwest was established near Richland. The AEC, meanwhile, had decided to build the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) at Richland as part of its Hanford diversification efforts. The FFTF was an advanced nuclear reactor which would be used to test fuels and materials which could be used in advanced nuclear breeder reactors. PNL was given the job of designing the FFTF and selecting engineering and constructionfirms to build it. At the same time PNL was diversifying its research programs. The laboratory expanded its efforts into additional biomedical, nonnuclear energy, environmental, national security, and human affairs research. In 1969 PNL was chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to analyze lunar samples collected by the Apollo program and in 1972 PNL received lunar samples from the Apollo 15 and 17 space missions for research. In 1972 the laboratory wona prestigious award for developing a porous substance that could develop a "living union" between bone and prosthetic devices by bone ingrowth. By 1975 PNL's work force totaled about 1142 and its annual operating budget was little over $25 million. By this time the AEC had been replaced by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA). Within two years ERDA had been replaced by the Department of Energy (DOE). PNL becamefirst an ERDAfacility in 1975 and then a DOEfacility in 1977.