Friday, 17 July 1992 Washington, DC

1. INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORTS ON SUPERCOLLIDER CONSTRUCTION COSTS.
Energy Secretary James Watkins used the release of an audit of conventional construction costs to reinforce his contention that the SSC is on schedule and within budget. The report concluded that contracting and management practices would lead to major overruns, but a cover memo from the IG commends SSC Management for having already taken corrective action. In a letter to Sen. Johnston, Chair of the Energy Committee, Watkins claims that any cost overrun will be under $50M--less than 6% of contingency. Past practices, Watkins crows, are indicative of why SSC project management was restructured in a major way two years ago.

2. INADEQUATE FEDERAL OVERSIGHT OF FEDERALLY FUNDED R&D CENTERS
was blamed for waste of millions of dollars in a report issued by a Senate subcommittee last week. It was only a matter of time before congressional disclosures of abuses in overhead charges at major research universities spread to the FFRDCs. The three DOE national labs operated by the University of California--Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos--were repeatedly singled out for having the most lax accounting and auditing controls. The disclosures come as California is renegotiating its operating contracts for the three labs. Abuses cited include severance payments to LLNL scientists who were then rehired as consultants. My favorite: a $595,000 charge for "personal mementos" for top LLNL scientists. When DOE refused to pay this expense, UC sued for reimbursement.

3. BUSH ORDERS HALT TO PLUTONIUM PRODUCTION--WHICH ENDED IN 1988.
It's not clear where we would make plutonium anyway. The Hanford plutonium production facility released more contaminated water into the Columbia River than previously believed, according to a report issued this week. The President also stopped production of weapons grade uranium, which we haven't been making for nearly 30 years. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that 75 of the 100 metric tons of the plutonium on hand, along with 500 metric tons of enriched uranium, are surplus. In yet another bold move, the President announced that nuclear tests would be limited to six per year-- the number currently scheduled.

4. FOREIGN ACCESS TO RESEARCH RESULTS PRIOR TO PUBLICATION
would be banned by legislation Sen. Richard Shelby (D-AL) plans to introduce next week. The ban would apply to university research conducted with federal funds and is aimed at universities with industrial liaison programs. Earlier this year, GAO identified 24 universities with such programsa (WN 29 May 92). For a fee, industrial members get special access to research results. Many Japanese companies have joined, outraging congressional Japan bashers. Advance access to research does raise concerns about conflict of interest involving U.S. as well as foreign firms. Shelby's biggest problem may be to define "foreign." Last week, for example, IBM announced an alliance with Siemens and Toshiba.



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.