Subcommittee will hear details on this program from Dr. Bill Wiley, who is with us this afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to make this statement. Mr. BRUCE. Thank you, Mr. Morrison. Mr. Fawell, do you have an opening statement? Mr. FAWELL. No, I do not, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Mr. BRUCE. All right. With that, we will start with our witnesses. We are happy to have with us, Dr. James Decker, Acting Director of the Office of Energy Research, Department of Energy. He will be followed by Dr. Robert Sproull, Chairman of the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee and two panels composed of members of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Argonne; Pacific Northwest Laboratory; Brookhaven National Laboratory; Sandia National Laboratories; and Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. Dr. Decker, we are happy to have you with us this afternoon, and look forward to your testimony. STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES F. DECKER, ACTING DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF ENERGY RESEARCH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, WASHINGTON, DC; ACCOMPANIED BY DR. DONALD K. STEVENS, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES, AND DR. RICHARD E. STEPHENS, DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRY PROGRAMS Dr. DECKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee. I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak to you today about the Department's fiscal year 1989 budget request for Basic Energy Sciences, Energy Research Analysis, University Research Support, University Research Instrumentation, and Multi-Program Energy Laboratory Facilities Support. Accompanying me today are Dr. Donald K. Stevens, who is the Associate Director for Basic Energy Sciences and Dr. Richard E. Stephens, who is the Director of the Division of University and Industry Programs. First, I want to talk about the Basic Energy Sciences Program. This program supports long-range scientific research aimed at improvements in the efficiency, reliability and economy of our country's energy systems. Research results from this program contribute to the broader development of applied technologies. The Program supports about 1,200 separate research projects at over 200 institutions. The effort includes research in the physical, biological, and mathematical sciences. Basic Energy Sciences supported research also trains future scientists and engineers through the participation of students on research projects at universities and the National Laboratories. The national contribution of the BES program to the country's science infrastructure is that it provides unique user facilities for university and industrial researchers, as well as scientists from our National Laboratories. Examples of these facilities include synchrotron light sources, atomic resolution microscopes, research reactors and so forth. In the fiscal year 1989 budget request, we provide funds to continue our research programs and support for operating our user fa cilities. In fiscal year 1989 we are requesting the first construction funds, $6 million, for the 6/7 GeV Synchrotron Light Source to be built at the Argonne National Laboratory. This facility will provide the scientific and industrial community with a third-generation synchrotron radiation source in the hard xray region. This new, intense source will enable scientists to observe new phenomena and allow measurements of a more precise nature in many fields, including materials science, chemistry, biology and medicine. This facility has been given the highest priority by several prestigious studies of new facilities required for materials research. Next, I would like to turn to some of the accomplishments of this program in the last couple of years. Several accomplishments of the program have recently been recognized by prestigious awards; the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, as was mentioned by Mr. Morrison, was shared by Donald Cram of UCLA for his work under the sponsorship of this program. This developed new, energy-efficient chemical methods for recovering scarce metals and for purifying waste streams of toxic or radioactive wastes. The IR-100 Award was received by Dr. Suckewer of Princeton, for the development of the first x-ray laser. When fully developed, the x-ray laser may lead to microscopes that can look inside living cells. This program also sponsored research that has been in the forefront of high-temperature superconducting materials. This research area provides an excellent example of the interplay between researchers and our general-purpose user facilities. Reactors and pulse neutron sources have been used for neutron scattering studies to provide information about the atomic structure of these new materials. Synchrotron light sources have been used to study properties of electrons in high-temperature superconductors. Supercomputers have been used by theorists to model the properties of these materials and search for explanations for their superconductivity. We expect that this research will lead an understanding of why these materials are superconducting and to the ability to develop and improve materials with better electrical and mechanical properties for applications. As part of the present superconductivity initiative, three centers were established at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the Ames Laboratory, and the Argonne National Laboratory, to focus our superconductivity research efforts and to provide information to universities and industry. These centers are also contributing to the computer database that was established by the Departments Conservation Program at Oak Ridge. In addition, the Department has asked the Los Alamos National Laboratory to look into innovative ways to accelerate the transfer of this new technology to industry. Next, I wanted to briefly describe some of our activities in university research support. Over the last few years, the Department, under Secretary Herrington's leadership, has undertaken a number of initiatives to make its laboratories more available to students and teachers, or scientific research and education activities. These initiatives may be summarized as follows. First, we have a high school student honors program, where we get the best and brightest students from each State to participate in research at DOE laboratories. In this fiscal year we have added a new program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Environmental Science. In fiscal year 1989 we will be adding another program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Ecology. Laboratory science education centers establish year-round faculty for student teacher programs. We have that going at five laboratories. Initial emphasis is on semester research programs for undergraduate students. In fiscal year 1989, the request expands support for science education centers and also adds the Los Alamos National Laboratory to the list of centers. We have a new initiative for high school science teachers in fiscal year 1989. It will bring 200 high school science teachers to DOE laboratories for summer research. We are working very closely with the National Science Foundation on this and other pre-college science education activities. Our science education programs extend over all levels of education: pre-college, student and teacher programs at labs, undergraduate programs, and post-doctoral programs as well. In fiscal year 1989, the request will support the following numbers: 1,500 undergraduates; 550 high school science students; 200 high school science teachers; 300 graduate students; and 200 faculty, all spending part of the year carrying out research or science education projects at the DOE laboratories. All of these programs are national in scale. These efforts are important because they are aimed at tempering the projected shortfall of scientists and engineers in the 1990's. The general principle is to bring students or teachers to the laboratory where they can work one on one with scientists and engineers. This one on one approach seems to be very effective, not only to impart information but to show by personal example, the attractiveness of science careers. Follow-up studies on these students have shown that students who participate in these projects are much more likely to continue careers in science. I think these programs illustrate how the unique resources of the Department's National Laboratories can be used in many ways to meet the needs of the country. I thank you very much, and I would be pleased to answer any questions that you may have. [The prepared statement of Dr. Decker follows:] Statement of James F. Decker Acting Director Office of Energy Research Department of Energy before the Subcommittee on Energy Research and Development of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee March 23, 1988 Madam Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: Scientific and technological advances in medicine, the physical and mathematical sciences, and biology have contributed to better health and an improved quality of life for each of us and to economic health, national security and energy self-sufficiency for the Nation. The Office of Energy Research (ER) programs are an essential component of the scientific base that has made it possible to achieve these goals. To remain competitive and ensure our future, we must continue our commitment to the scientific research that continually replenishes that base of knowledge on which the technologies rest. The ER programs that I will discuss today make a major contribution to that base and to achieving our national goals. The total FY 1989 budget request for all ER programs is $2.4 billion (Table 1). The FY 1989 budget request for the programs that I will discuss today is $610.6 million which can be compared to $647.3 million in FY 1988. These programs include: Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Energy Research Analysis (ERA), University Research Support (URS), University Research Instrumentation (URI), Multiprogram Energy Laboratories-Facilities Support (MEL-FS), and supporting program direction. The FY 1989 request for BES falls under two appropriations: Energy Supply R&D and the new Basic Research User Facilities appropriation which I will discuss later in my statement. All of the other programs I will discuss today are under Energy Supply R&D. |