Friday, 27 Nov 92 Washington, DC
1. MAJOR U.S. MAGNETIC FUSION LABORATORY COULD SHUT DOWN
TOKAMAK
experiments for nine years! In a report released last
month, the Fusion Energy Advisory Committee of the DOE gave highest
priority to two programs: full participation in the International
Thermo-nuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and completion of
deuterium-tritium experiments at Princeton's Tokamak Fusion Test
Reactor by the end of 1994. Princeton had once hoped to replace
TFTR with a Burning Plasma Experiment, but a Task Force on Energy
Research Priorities of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board,
headed by, Charles Townes, concluded that the BPX is just not
possible under foreseeable budgets, and called for a scaled down
facility called the Tokamak Physics Experiment. But TPX, which
must be built in the same shed as TFTR, may not be completed before
2003. To help
pay for TPX under a flat budget, FEAC decided that the Princeton
Plasma Physics Laboratory would also have to sacrifice PBX-M, a
moderate sixed tokamak. So let's see if we have this straight:
SEAB's TFERP told DOE to nix BPX (aka CIT). Then FEAC put ITER and
the TFTR D-T on top; they also OK'd TPX if PPPL stops PBX-M.
2. ONLY ONE VACANCY ON THE NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD UNTIL
1994.
President-elect Clinton will not be able to put his
stamp on the 24 member NSB for some time. Although members of the
Board are Presidential appointees, they have six year terms, as
does the NSF Director, who is an ex-officio member. Every two
years, eight members rotate off the Board. The list of nominees to
replace them is drawn up by the NSB itself, making it even more
difficult to alter the character of the Board. There is a single
vacancy in the class of '98 that President Bush never got around to
filling.
3. COMPANIES MAY DEFER RESEARCH IN ANTICIPATION OF R&d TAX
CREDIT
although he favored the R&D tax credit in principle,
President Bush vetoed a Democratic tax bill that would have
extended it. The tax credit technically expired in June. It is
expected that Clinton will move quickly to introduce some sort of
permanent R&D tax credit as part of an economic stimulus plan. But
the initial effect could be to slow things down; companies that
were already nervous about investing in research (WN 13 Nov 92) might decide to wait and see
what form a new tax credit bill will take.
4. A DEAD ISSUE: PROBLEM PREGNANCY BRINGS OUT ANTI-SCIENCE
BIAS.
In an attempt to preserve the life of a fetus, doctors
in Germany
sought to use the body of the brain-dead mother as an incubator.
The case aroused strong emotions and opposition from the Catholic
Church, which regarded the whole thing as "unnatural." It seemed
as if the controversy might be put to rest when the body suffered
a miscarriage. A few days later, however, the entire matter was
resurrected; the German Green Party issued an urgent demand for a
public discussion of the necessary ethical, political and legal
boundaries to "the scientific mania for experimentation." Alas,
"Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?. "Romans 7:24.
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