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."



Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be.