Friday, 11 December 1987 Washington, DC
1.
BIPARTISAN AGREEMENT ON THE FUTURE OF SDI
was reached by the
Senate Appropriations Committee on the eve of the INF summit. An
amendment to the defense appropriations bill calls for SDI to
concentrate on "long-term research into new technologies such as
directed energy," and states that SDI budgets must reflect
"realistic projections of available resources...and must not
undercut other important Department of Defense programs."
Translation: bag the stuff about early deployment of a kinetic-kill
missile defense, knock-off the strapped-down-chicken
demonstrations and get back to real research. The amendment
achieved its objective of demonstrating unity prior to the
summit. It was offered by Bennett Johnston (D-LA) and Ted
Stevens (R-AK), which is roughly equivalent to Larry Flint and
Jerry Falwell agreeing on a definition of pornography.
2
. THE ACCURACY OF STAR WARS ADVICE TO THE PRESIDENT
was still
being questioned as the summit began. Roy Woodruff, the
Livermore physicist who first blew the
whistle (WN 23 Oct 87),
has just been promoted to head of the laboratory's treaty
verification program, which takes on new significance with the
signing of the INF treaty.
3. THE SUPERCOLLIDER SITE SELECTION SHORT LIST
is not due to be
released until 4 Jan 88, but a preliminary list is reported to
include Illinois, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and North
Carolina, with some versions giving Arizona, California and
Mississippi honorable mention. A panel headed by Ed Frieman,
Director of Scripps Institute, was convened by the National
Academies to cull a list of 36 proposed sites (WN 18 Sep 87).
Rumors of a nascent short list were circulating last week among
the state development officers and concrete contractors assembled
in Denver for the National SSC Symposium (WN 4 Dec 87). This
week, reports appeared in the Chicago Tribune and several other
papers. The National Academy released a statement declaring that
the committee has not completed preparation of a list and that
the press accounts are not accurate. The selection of a "best
site" from the short list will be made by the DOE's Energy
Systems Acquisition Advisory Board sometime in the summer.
4. THE FIRST US/USSR BILATERAL EXCHANGE CONFERENCE SINCE 1978,
when the US backed out in protest over the sentencing of Yuri
Orlov, was held in Santa Barbara this week. The meeting was
largely devoted to superconductivity theory. It took place
amidst grumbling over clumsy government efforts to shield the
Soviet delegates from information about high-temperature
superconductors during visits to industrial laboratories in New
Jersey, and, although theory has thus far played no role in the
development of the new superconductors, the organizers eliminated
a reference to superconductivity in the title of the conference
to satisfy the gumshoes from the State Department.
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