Friday, 22 January 1988
1.THE SUPERCOLLIDER SHORT LIST HAS BEEN APPROVED BY THE DOE.
In a Tuesday press conference, Secretary of Energy Herrington
announced that the recommendations of a National Academy site
selection panel (WN 1 Jan 88) have been
approved by the DOE's SSC
Site Task Force, headed by Wilmot Hess, who directs the Office of
High Energy and Nuclear Physics. This ended speculation that the
DOE might add or subtract from the list. Neither Herrington nor
the Task Force Report provided any specifics on why sites were
rejected. The Task Force did identify geology and tunneling and
regional resources as the principal discriminators. The list is
now down to seven with the withdrawal of New York's Rochester
proposal (WN 15 Jan 88). Commenting
on Governor Cuomo's request
that New York be permitted to submit an alternate proposal,
Herrington remarked that they were selecting sites, not states.
Additional geological and environmental information will now be
requested of the finalists and DOE will conduct confirmatory
investigations. The preferred site is to be designated by the
Energy System Acquisition Advisory Board in July.
2
.HOW TO PAY FOR LARGE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS,
under
the constraints imposed by the November Budget Summit agreement
between the White House and Congress, is a source of concern in
the budget committees. Major projects include the Supercollider,
mapping the human genome, the manned space station and the
University Research Facilities Revitalization Act, totaling
nearly $50B. Some congressmen have hinted that they might couple
support for large projects to a designated tax. That won't make
science popular and could produce a backlash.
3.THE REVOLVING DOOR -- PENTAGON DEPARTURES
are creating
vacancies that are not likely to be filled in the waning months
of the Reagan Administration: FRED IKLE, UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
FOR POLICY is leaving in
February. His departure takes on the look of a purge. Ikle's
deputy and ideological soulmate was Richard Perle, who left in
June to write a novel. When Carlucci became Secretary of Defense
in November, he immediately canned Perle's clone and replacement,
Frank Gaffney. Although his views were as extreme as Perle's or
Gaffney's, Ikle generally stayed in the background. RON KERBER,
DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH AND ADVANCED
TECHNOLOGY, is also leaving in February. He is joining
McDonnell-Douglas in St.Louis, a major defense contractor. LOUIS MARQUET,
DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR TECHNOLOGY AT SDIO, is
leaving to join another defense contractor, Atlantic Aerospace
Electric Corp. It was Marquet who was generally called on to
debate members of the APS Panel on Directed Energy Weapons. He
annoyed some hardliners when he gave the DEW report an "A."
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