fabrication of radio-frequency cavities, cryounits, the central helium liquefier and transfer lines, and the linac and arc magnets. 22 The Construction request also includes $15.0 million to initiate construction of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The Department's Nuclear Science Advisory Committee and the National Research Council have both confirmed the importance of this facility which will provide unprecedented opportunities to produce and study ultradense matter. With a Total Estimated Cost of $397.0 million, RHIC will be a unique, world-class facility with colliding beams that provide collision energies of 100 GeV per nucleon for heavy ions as massive as gold nuclei. At these energies, scientists will be able to form a unique kind of matter called a quark-gluon plasma which will create conditions in the laboratory that are similar to those of the expanding universe moments after the Big Bang. In this plasma, quarks will be separated from their tightly knit clusters and will move independently through the interior of a nucleus. The accelerator will be built in the existing circular tunnel at BNL. FY 1991 construction funds will be used to purchase superconducting wire for fabrication of arc magnets. In other areas, systems engineering and design will be carried on during the first year of the project. The Construction request also includes $4.3 million for Accelerator Improvements and Modifications (AIM) and $4.2 million for General Plant Projects (GPP). AIM projects provide for improvements to research accelerators and related experimental facilities, while GPP projects address the need to upgrade general laboratory facilities. These projects are needed to maintain the scientific effectiveness, reliability and efficiency of Nuclear Physics facilities. GENERAL SCIENCE PROGRAM DIRECTION The FY 1991 budget request for General Science Program Direction is $3.9 million. The requested funds are required to provide for the salaries, benefits, travel, and other expenses associated with 46 full-time equivalent employees in the Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics and associated support staff required to administer these programs. BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES Basic research is the first link in the chain of events from scientific discovery to technological innovation. Results from research sponsored by the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program help form the information base that underpins the Nation's nuclear and non-nuclear energy technologies. While the principal focus of the BES program is directed toward supporting the Department's energy goals, a number of other important national goals are also supported, including U.S. leadership in science and technology, the stimulation of economic growth and national defense, and the training of tomorrow's scientists. Research in the BES program is grouped into six major subprogram areas: Materials Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Applied Mathematical Sciences, Engineering and Geosciences, Advanced Energy Projects and Energy Biosciences. 24 Research in each of these areas is primarily driven by the need for enhanced knowledge or understanding which currently limits existing technologies. The link between basic research and applications, however, is not generally confined to any single energy or technology problem. For example, a new or improved ceramic material may be applied to energy systems--whether they be fossil, nuclear, or automotive--or that material may provide an effective way to immobilize and store radioactive waste. Each of the BES subprograms supports research projects which have applications across a broad range of technologies. Whether the issue is how to burn fuel more efficiently or how to safely and cost-effectively dispose of waste materials, the solution to the problem depends on the results of basic research and the application of those results to the appropriate technology. In addition to supporting research over a wide range of technical areas, the BES program provides support for the operation of major user facilities such as synchrotron radiation sources, neutron sources, and the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore). These national facilities are maintained and operated for the benefit of all qualified researchers from Government laboratories, academia, and industrial laboratories. The seven major BES user facilities are critical to the success of the BES research program and are playing an increasingly important role in research carried out by the private sector. At the synchrotron light sources, for instance, the largest U.S. companies are doing research in such areas as catalysis and electronics; and major oil companies are investigating the porosity of geologic formations using the neutron sources. Advances in 25 materials, chemistry, biology, and the next generation of computer chips truly depend on these facilities. During the last year, the Department carried out an extensive review of its nuclear facilities. Based on this review, the Secretary decided to transfer management of all nuclear research reactors, including BES's High Flux Isotope Reactor and High Flux Beam Reactor, to the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. The respective program offices retain responsibility for funding and directing these scientific facilities. Approximately 60 percent of the BES-supported research is carried out at the national laboratories where all but one of the user facilities are located. Since these laboratories are also involved in many aspects of the applied energy programs, they are skilled at facilitating the transfer of scientific information and technology from experiment to application. The BES program also provides significant direct funding support to universities, in addition to providing them with research time at the various user facilities. Every year there are important results in each of the research areas supported by the BES program. Some of the most interesting recent results include: o Surprising research results discovered by Nobel Laureate Y. T. Lee at LBL. These results were obtained using molecular beams to study chemical reactions of energetic benzene molecules. Benzene is a minor but common constituent of many fuels and thought to be a major contributor to soot formation. Using laser radiation, Professor Lee is 26 able to cause individual benzene molecules to begin to degrade chemically, just as they would do in the environment characteristic of combustion. His experiments have demonstrated surprisingly extensive rearrangements of benzene's constituent hydrogen and carbon atoms much more extensive than would have been anticipated from conventional chemical wisdom. This research has potentially far-reaching implications for chemistry and, ultimately, for the design and control of optimum combustion systems. O Development at Ames Laboratory of a new, simple, and efficient way to synthesize silicon carbide. This new approach, which makes it possible to produce silicon carbide in the form of fibers, is likely to cut both the time and the cost of current commercial production of silicon carbide fibers. Materials containing these silicon carbide fibers are replacing metal in industrial and military applications due to their strength, low weight, high heat tolerance, and resistance to chemical breakdown. A patent application has been filed, and several industrial concerns have expressed serious interest in this new development. 0 Development by scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory of |