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- Path: sparky!uunet!dtix!relay!nswc-wo.navy.mil!rsherme
- From: rsherme@nswc-wo.navy.mil (Russel Shermer)
- Newsgroups: sci.research
- Subject: FYI #96: FY 1993 ENERGY APPROPRIATIONS STATUS
- Message-ID: <1992Jul24.175616.17704@relay.nswc.navy.mil>
- Date: 24 Jul 92 17:56:16 GMT
- Sender: news@relay.nswc.navy.mil
- Organization: Naval Surface Warfare Center - White Oak
- Lines: 67
-
- Posted for:
- Public Information Division
- American Institute of Physics
- Contact: Audrey T. Leath
- (202) 332-9662
-
- Energy Funding Bill Gets Weighed Down in Senate; ITER Passes
- Milestone
-
- FYI No. 96, July 23, 1992
-
- FY 1993 ENERGY APPROPRIATIONS STATUS:
-
- On Tuesday, July 21, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on
- Energy and Water Development marked up their fiscal year 1993
- spending bill, with a twist. Subcommittee chairman J. Bennett
- Johnston (D-Louisiana) tacked onto the appropriations bill much of
- the texts of the House and Senate versions of a National Energy
- Strategy bill. Johnston, who is also the chair of the Energy and
- Natural Resources Committee, reportedly took the action to ensure
- that the controversial NES bills get to conference this year.
-
- The Senate bill includes $550 million for the SSC. While President
- Bush requested $650 million, the House last month voted to
- terminate funding for the project (see FYI #85.) The bill next
- goes to the full Senate Appropriations Committee. The addition of
- the NES bills will throw a monkey wrench into the process and could
- delay passage of the legislation until after the Congress's August
- recess.
-
- ITER AGREEMENT SIGNED:
-
- Also on Tuesday, Secretary of Energy James Watkins signed a 6-year
- agreement pledging the US to continue working with Russia, Japan
- and the European Community on ITER, the International Thermonuclear
- Experimental Reactor. Having completed three years of conceptual
- design, the four partners will now proceed with the engineering
- design for a magnetic fusion reactor test facility. With
- construction estimated at $5 billion, the project is considered too
- costly for any one country to undertake. The current phase is
- expected to cost $1.2 billion over the six years, to be divided
- equally among the participants.
-
- One of the difficulties with an international project such as ITER
- is balancing the geographic aspects: the project's director,
- located in San Diego, is from France. Three co-centers for
- coordinating the R&D are to be located in Germany, Japan and San
- Diego, while the seat of the oversight council is in Moscow. If
- ITER ever reaches its construction phase, bitter competition is
- expected over selection of a site.
-
- ITER, which is funded in the Energy and Water Development bill, is
- considered an important step in the US's magnetic fusion program,
- especially as reduced budgets have forced DOE to drop other
- programs in the field. ITER is also a component of the
- Administration's proposed National Energy Strategy. At the
- Washington, D.C., signing ceremony, Watkins hailed the agreement as
- "a milestone in the development of a safe, environmentally sound
- energy source for the next century."
-
-
- ###############
- Public Information Division
- American Institute of Physics
- Contact: Audrey T. Leath
- (202) 332-9662
- ##END##########
-