Heads-Up: FY 1997 DOE’s Energy Research Request Gets Wary Reaction

It took only an hour, but today’s hearing before the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee provided ample evidence that the physics community has some work in front of it.

This hearing’s sole witness was DOE’s Director of the Office of Energy Research, Dr. Martha Krebs. Leading the questioning were Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Ranking Minority Member J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA). Both are friends of DOE’s science program, Domenici describing himself last week as “a sucker for science.”

Nevertheless, three proposed large physics facilities were the subject of pointed questions. Johnston began by asking about the Large Hadron Collider, unfavorably comparing it to the more powerful Superconducting Super Collider that he strongly supported. Saying the “power isn’t going to work...[it] won’t get the Higgs boson,” Johnston declared he was “highly skeptical, highly skeptical” about investing in a “foreign machine.” Chairman Domenici voiced similar concerns.

Johnston was also uncertain about the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Krebs sketching the outlines of a reduced American role in ITER, saying the U.S. is “moving forward as a very minor partner.” She spoke of a U.S. funding level of around $50 million per year, adding that she is uncertain it would be even that much at this point in time. To which Johnston replied, “I’m afraid you’re going to end up wasting” money when it later might be found that the U.S. cannot participate in the actual construction. He warned, “we’re never going to get there at the rate we are going.” Johnston complained that he has sought a presidential decision about U.S. involvement without success. Domenici stated the U.S. decision to participate in ITER design activities was not a commitment to further participation, saying that he would put language to that effect in the FY 1997 DOE appropriations.

A final set of questions involved DOE’s advanced spallation source project. Krebs described various options, ranging from building a roughly $1 billion facility to less expensive upgrades of other DOE facilities. Domenici seemed comfortable with Krebs’s intention to submit recommendations to DOE Secretary O’Leary, asking for assurance that this would “get us through a gap.”

At the end of the hearing, Domenici seemed quite surprised by the relatively large audience this hearing had attracted, saying it was “great to have such great interest” in DOE’s energy research program. His remarks, and those of his colleague, J. Bennett Johnston, indicate this interest must continue over the coming months.