DOE FY99 Appropriations: Conference Report

As reported in FYI #134 , the final version of the bill funding DOE civilian R&D programs for fiscal year 1999 was approved by the House on September 28 and the Senate on September 29. Accompanying the bill is a conference report (H. Report 105-749), which contains instructions from the appropriators on how the money should be used. While the report does not have the force of law, it is not usually wise for departments and agencies to ignore the appropriators’ wishes. Below are quotes from the conference report for selected physics-related programs:

HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS: The recommended amount “represents a $3,000,000 increase over the budget request for facilities operations and a $2,500,000 increase for research and technology.... The increase is provided for maximum use of university and laboratory-based user facilities.”

NUCLEAR PHYSICS: The recommended amount “represents a $2,500,000 increase over the amount requested by the Administration. The increase is provided for maximum use of university and laboratory-based user facilities.”

BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES: Funding for the Spallation Neutron Source is provided within Basic Energy Sciences (BES). The conferees recommend $130 million, approximately halfway between the Senate recommendation of $157 million (which was also the requested amount), and the House level of $100 million. “The conferees have provided $101,400,000 for line-item construction costs and $28,600,000, the amount of the budget request, for related research and development.”

Also within BES, the report provides $7,000,000 for an EPSCoR program, and $500,000 for environmental work to be done at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

FUSION ENERGY SCIENCES: “Funding for this program has been provided in the Science account as recommended by the Senate instead of the Energy Supply account as recommended by the House.” Of the total recommended level of $229,750,000, an amount of $223,300,000 is provided under the Fusion Energy Sciences program, and in addition, “the conferees have provided up to $6,450,000 for all program direction expenses related to the fusion program within the $49,800,000 provided in the Science account for program direction.” The conference report also contains language relating to the emphasis on tokamaks, ITER, and the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, as follows:

“The conferees note that the Department continues to emphasize tokamak development at the expense of other promising technologies. The conferees continue to be very supportive of the increased emphasis on innovative confinement concepts and university-based experiments. The conferees encourage the Secretary to provide sufficient resources for these efforts. In particular, special emphasis should be placed on funding operations, upgrades, and enhanced design work on both existing and proposed alternative concept experiments at the proof-of-principle level, including an increase for inertial confinement.” (Separately, $508 million is provided for Inertial Confinement Fusion within DOE’s Defense Programs.)

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)-- The conference report provides "$12,200,000 as directly related to completion of ITER-related activities, including funds to complete research and development in the base technology program and to provide for orderly ITER closeout costs.” The conference report notes that “For the past several years, Congress has been clear that the U.S. commitment to ITER extended only through fiscal year 1998. The Department is directed not to sign an extension of this agreement without the written consent of the authorizing and appropriations committees of the House and Senate.... The conferees note that the description of ITER and ITER-related activities in the budget request is not comparable to the classification of these activities in fiscal year 1998, but support the orderly completion of research and development of components that can be completed in fiscal year 1999.” DOE recently signed a unilateral one-year agreement which it said would extend its “support for international fusion collaboration” through ITER in order to complete R&D “of sophisticated technologies that could be used...should the partners decide to build in the future.” (See FYI #133 .)

Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR)-- “In fiscal year 1997, Congress terminated funding for the TFTR. The conferees note that TFTR has ceased operation and that many parts of the TFTR facility will be re-used for the new National Spherical Torus Experiment.” The report directs DOE, in consultation with the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, to “prepare a reasonable, timely and cost-effective decommissioning plan and to submit a plan to begin decommissioning in the fiscal year 2000 budget request.”