7 softness in oil prices does not lull us into false complacency about the seriousness of the long-run problem. Let me now turn to our outreach activities. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER Argonne inventions are moving to market more quickly than in earlier years, because of enlightened Congressional legislation, new administrative procedures at the Department of Energy, new organizations at Argonne and much hard work by individuals now given appropriate opportunities and incentives. The two key organizations at Argonne are its Technology Transfer Center and an independently managed not-for-profit corporation called ARCH, founded jointly by Argonne and its operator, the University of Chicago. The University has dedicated income from part of its endowment to help support the operation of ARCH. In FY 1987 the Technology Transfer Center formally screened 102 Invention Reports submitted by Argonne researchers a record number. ARCH also entered into its first licensing agreements last year. One of the licenses was granted to Research and Manufacturing Corporation of Tucson, Arizona, which will manufacture a helium dilution refrigerator developed at Argonne that is capable of cooling materials nearly to absolute zero. In another licensing arrangement, a firm established by a former Argonne employee will manufacture and sell a toxic gas detector. An advanced fuel cell under development at Argonne is still some distance from commercialization, but its potential is so great that we have already concluded arrangements for joint research with Allied Signal and Combustion Engineering. This device could replace a conventional internal-combustion engine, achieving an 80 percent reduction in weight, much greater fuel efficiency, and the ability to use many different liquid and gaseous fuels. 8 Exploiting an important spin-off from our fission reactor program, Argonne engineers are preparing to adapt a powerful computer code called COMMIX for use as a design tool in the metal-casting industry. COMMIX had been developed to describe fluid flow and temperatures in the cooling systems of nuclear reactors. Lester B. Knight and Associates is working with Argonne to set up an industry consortium to fund further development of the code. I could give you many other examples of Argonne technologies being transferred to the private sector. However, the point I want to make is that the institutions we have painstakingly established during the past three years to expedite this transfer are beginning to prove their worth. I am very enthusiastic and encouraged by their early successes. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS Argonne's cooperation with academia is extensive and productive. These activities are so diverse that often their full extent and importance are not appreciated. The laboratory conducts many educational programs for undergraduates, pre-college students, and their teachers. Argonne staff collaborate on research with university faculty and their graduate students. Our research facilities serve many university faculty from across the nation. Altogether, such diverse programs bring to the laboratory each year more than 2,000 teachers, students, and researchers. The Laboratory's two largest accelerator-based facilities are the Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator System and the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source. Along with our Electron Microscopy Center and other facilities, they bring to Argonne each year over 400 users from academia. Users of our Advanced Computing Research Facility numbering over 300 - do not even have to visit us in person. They can link up remotely - to the Center's seven advanced parallel computers. 9 Several of our new programs with the university community would entail participation and support by the National Science Foundation. We are just now completing arrangements for an important initiative in reactor engineering. Under terms of the memorandum of understanding, NSF-supported faculty and students will conduct research at our fission-reactor facilities. In a major initiative in superconductivity research, Argonne has joined with several universities in our region the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, and The University of Chicago to propose a Science and Technology Research Center. The Center would bring together an extraordinary array of research talent and facilities for a coordinated attack on technical problems underlying development of the new superconductors. Recent studies have documented the decline in numbers of young U.S. students choosing careers in research. To help overcome this problem, the Department of Energy has developed an outreach program, the Science and Engineering Research Semester Program (an informative, if not a catchy title) to engage undergraduates in research at contractor facilities. Argonne has enrolled more students in this program than any other national laboratory. Madam Chairman, as you well appreciate, the national laboratory system is a priceless leaf in the nation's science and technology portfolio. The laboratories represent an investment which the nation has made, makes today, and, I trust, will continue to make in the future. The returns from this enterprise have been extraordinary. As director of one of these laboratories, and as a taxpayer, I urge the Members of the Subcommittee to continue their strong support. |