Friday, 27 December 1991 Washington, DC
1. PRIME MINISTER MIYAZAWA IS READY TO OFFER SUPPORT FOR THE
SSC!
Science magazine last week quoted Japanese officials as
rejecting Watkins' partnership offer, although "some
contribution" might be made. But as Allan Bromley commented
after his October visit to Japan, "decisions on projects of this
magnitude can only be made at the highest levels" (WN 8 Nov 91). A Japanese news service now
reports that Miyazawa is committed to the SSC, with the amount to
be discussed during President Bush's January visit. Miyazawa may
find it easier--and certainly cheaper--than opening the Japanese
market to American cars. Clearly, the White House would have
preferred that any announcement await President Bush's visit, but
an Associated Press story last week quoted Rep. Barton (R-TX),
whose district includes Waxahachie, as saying that only the size
of the contribution is undecided. A sizeable contribution from
Japan would quiet much of the congressional criticism of the SSC.
2. AND THE FY 93 ENERGY RESEARCH BUDGET IS LOOKING A TAD
BETTER!
An appeal to OMB from Secretary of Energy Watkins
has apparently spared the Office of Energy Research from the 10%
cut that caused such anguish on the Townes Task Force only a few
weeks earlier. OMB also restored $100M it had cut from DOE's
$638M request for the SSC and put the Femilab upgrade back in the
budget. This will inevitably raise suspicions that the threat of
deep cuts was an Administration ploy to make us all grateful for
a flat budget.
3. EVEN AS IT RESTARTS THE K-REACTOR, DOE EXAMINES
ALTERNATIVES.
They don't dare operate it at more than 30%
capacity, there were coolant leaks in the first week of operation
and we will soon be awash in tritium from dismantled weapons, but
the aging Savannah River tritium production facility, which has
been comatose for three years, has been restarted at a cost of
over $1B. Betting is that the obsolete facility will be put in
mothballs after a few months of operation. Even as K-reactor
creaked back to life, Secretary Watkins directed his science
advisor, Will Happer, to re-examine proposals to produce tritium
with an accelerator.
4. RULE ON PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES IS
"RESERVED."
When the Office of Government Ethics publishes
its standards of conduct for federal employees, the section
headed "Participation in Professional Associations" will simply
say "reserved." The proposed section, which prohibited the use
of official time to conduct society affairs, was strongly
criticized by scientific societies, including the American
Physical Society (WN 25 Oct 91). A
revision of this section will be published in the Federal
Register as a separate proposed rule with a new comment period.
5. TWICE FORMER NASA ADMINISTRATOR JAMES FLETCHER DIED ON 22
DEC.
Fletcher was responsible for such space exploration
programs as Voyager and the Viking Mars landers. But he also sold
the Shuttle over the objections of scientists who urged
expendable rockets.
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