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A new national biosafety laboratory opens in Kansas

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After more than a decade of controversy and delay, the country’s most secure biosafety laboratory for research into potentially deadly animal and plant diseases has opened in Manhattan, Kansas.

Though a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday, researchers at the $1.25 billion National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility are not expected to start working on biohazards for more than a year, officials said.

Currently, staff will conduct compliance and regulatory work, prepare protocols and operational procedures, and conduct training before working with pathogens, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

“They will check all systems according to international and national standards,” said NBAF director Alfonso Clavijo. “And it’s only when we have that approval that we can actually start work. We expect to be able to get this approval by the end of 2024.”

The cost, originally estimated at $451 million, more than doubled after the National Research Council released a 2010 report questioning the facility’s placement in the heart of cattle country that has experienced large, destructive tornadoes in the past gave.

Department of Homeland Security officials said the increased costs were partly due to changing the lab’s design to reduce the possibility of deadly pathogens being released.

The lab replaces an aging facility in Plum Island, New York. Officials there fought hard to keep the lab, and several other states applied to host the lab before Kansas was selected in 2009.

The laboratory was originally scheduled to open in 2016 was delayed several times by economic problems, security concerns and opposition from politicians who wanted the project in their states.

The northeast Kansas facility will be the country’s only large-animal Level 4 biosecurity laboratory, meaning it will be able to handle pathogens for which there are currently no treatments or countermeasures.

It’s unclear when pathogens used in research will be moved from Plum Island to Kansas, spokeswoman Katie Pawlosky said, and no animals or equipment will be transferred.

Around 280 people are currently working in the laboratory, which is expected to have more than 400 people when fully occupied.

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