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.
|
