The State of the Laboratory -- 1986

This is an historic occasion.

I don't say that because this state of the laboratory report falls in the 40th anniversary year of our laboratory. This is a notable occasion more in the perspective of recent history. This is the first time since we started having these reports some six years ago that laboratory management can make the following prediction: "We have every confidence that our budget for the fiscal year we have just started will be higher than the fiscal year we just completed."

As always, we must accompany this prediction with warnings. Much of the funding that we expect to flow to this laboratory is not specifically designated in the congressional appropriations bills as Argonne's. The Department of Energy must still apportion the monies that Congress has appropriated. There could still be variations between what we've been told to expect and what finally comes down to us. Nevertheless, our best estimate indicates clearly that our budget for 1987 will be up over that of 1986. There could be changes in staffing levels from division to division. But our overall employment total for the current year should at least remain level.

Last year at this time, I described to you how our new initiatives had enabled us to avoid a 1,400-person employment cut and bring our funding about level with the previous year. At that time, we were estimating a fiscal 1986 budget of about $224 million. In the course of the year, total funding that came to the laboratory rose to $231 million.

A promising fiscal year

What accounts for this historic turnaround? Why, for the first time in six years, are we going to get enough money to offset inflation and perhaps some more that represents real program growth? The answer is hard work and dedication in every corner of the laboratory. Most important, we have successfully advanced our new initiatives so that they received increased funding, or increased recognition, or both. Let me explain what I mean.

IFR is "flagship of DOE program"

But the increase in recognition of the IFR exceeds even the increase in the appropriation. This Argonne concept is recognized within the nuclear community and increasingly in Congress as a leader in the competition for an advanced breeder reactor design for the nation. A nuclear official at DOE called it "the flagship of our program" on network TV.

The emergence of the IFR resulted largely from the publicity that was generated around two landmark tests carried out at Experimental Breeder Reactor II in April. While the reactor was running at full power, the accident prevention devices that normally protect it were blocked out and the cooling was deliberately cut off. Without human or mechanical intervention, the reactor shut itself down safely.

Three weeks later, the Russian reactor at Chernobyl provided a disastrous real life contrast to Argonne's experimental demonstration. Broad national press coverage thrust the IFR into the leadership role which the nuclear community had been waiting cautiously to have filled. Gerry Golden and Pete Planchon deserve the credit for leading this team effort on the EBR-II safety tests.

Of course we are not the only ones working on an advanced reactor concept. But even Rockwell International and General Electric, who have won government contracts to develop advanced reactor designs, have adopted Argonne's metallic fuel and the concept of pool cooling from EBR-II. We are doing work here for both firms on their advanced concepts.

Clearly, Argonne has reconfirmed its rank as the nation's preeminent reactor development laboratory.

Synchrotron light source

In fiscal 1986, we received about $2 million to do advanced work on the light source. In the 1987 budget, $3 million was designated to Argonne. Even more important than this 50 percent increase, the synchrotron light source has been publicly designated by DOE officials to be built at Argonne. We now have DOE backing. In fact, since this is an occasion to give personal credit for some of the accomplishments of this year, we ought to acknowledge the key role that Al Trivelpiece, DOE's director of energy research, is playing in supporting the Argonne light source as part of his master plan for much needed national research facilities.

The emergence of our laboratory as the chosen site for this big accelerator project is directly due to an energetic and expert blitz by a series of teams under Yang Cho and Gopal Shenoy. They gave Argonne the lead in competition with other laboratories. Then they quickly cleared a series of inspections and evaluations by DOE and the Office of Management and Budget, which traditionally have taken much longer to satisfy.

Now, unless there is a total reversal in DOE's approach to this project, the question is not if the light source will be built at Argonne, but when. Our current assignment is to accomplish the pre-construction R&D as quickly and efficiently as we can, and to be ready for a start of construction.

Meanwhile, a light source team is doing an excellent job in developing user support as evidenced by the 291 people who attended the first annual users meeting last week. We have demonstrated the competence within our own team. We have seen the enthusiasm of the users. And we have the approval of DOE. Clearly, Argonne's synchrotron light source represents a major victory contributing to a healthy state of the laboratory in fiscal 1987.

Chemistry of energy processes

Fostering that funding growth has been the high quality of science already conducted by this new center. Particularly significant has been research on how electron transfers are made to store solar energy through chemical bonds, and the chemical reactivity of extremely small clusters of metallic atoms. Leading the teams that conduct those studies are Jim Norris and Stephen Riley.

Funding for our advanced computing initiative totals about $1.5 million this year compared to $3 million last year. Actually, this constitutes about level operating budget. Last year we spent a great deal for equipment, specifically five new parallel computer systems with diverse architectures. They were installed in our Advanced Computing Research Facility, a unique users laboratory with a national clientele.

Argonne teams already have used this center to obtain a new algorithm for Eigenvalue computation, and the development of new techniques for measuring performance of parallel programs. Development of parallel logic programming has put Argonne at the center of an international effort to create a high performance parallel logic programming system. Among the leaders in those efforts are Jack Dongarra, Dan Sorensen, Ken Dritz, Ewing Lusk, and Ross Overbeek.

Industrial initiatives

Last year, the steel initiative was funded at a level of $250,000. In the 1987 budget, $5.2 million has been designated for use over two years at Argonne. Working on an extremely tight budget, the Argonne researchers have, with their industrial counterparts, developed significant ideas for which patents have been applied, so we cannot discuss them in detail. Currently, the Department of Energy is trying to develop the system through which industry will contribute an additional $1.6 million. Similarly, an initiative in biotechnology has gone from the discussion and planning stage with no funding last year to $300,000 provided by the state of Illinois to Argonne this year.

Two areas of research that have been most threatened by cuts at the congressional level have been fossil and conservation. But this year, Argonne's programs were protected by specific congressional language that directed that funding for Argonne should be at a level equivalent to 1986. That is about $15.2 million for the two programs.

$51 million in work for others

There is always the temptation in reports like this one to focus on the new initiatives and the big projects. But it is important also to recognize that Argonne's growth depends on the high quality of research conducted in established programs -- some of them big, some of them little.

ATLAS accelerator

Intense Pulsed Neutron Source

Research excellence

Most Argonne people are not aware of the important work of the High Energy Physics Division in international collaboration at the CDF detector at Fermilab's collider, and the Zeus detector at the Hera collider in Hamburg, Germany.

Gian Felcher of the Materials Science Division recently won the DOE basic-energy-science/materials-science award for using polarized neutron reflection as a non-destructive technique to probe magnetism in the 20-500 atoms that form the surface of materials.

In September, a team of Argonne scientists headed by program manager Vassilios Stamoudis of the Environmental Research Division, successfully demonstrated a new portable detector weighing less than 20 pounds and operated by lantern batteries. It is designed to detect, identify and quantify 30 of the most common and hazardous chemicals.

A team that includes Carol Giometti, Doug Grahn and John Taylor from the Biological and Medical Research Division has demonstrated a powerful new tool for basic genetic research. Their work proved that two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, combined with computerized data analysis, can detect heritable mutations. This Argonne technique identifies changes in the protein composition of offspring of animals treated with chemicals or radiation.

Team work between Chemical Technology and Materials and Components Technology led by John Ackerman and Darrell Fee achieved actual operation of the first Argonne monolithic fuel cell for about 800 hours at a high power density. In separate experiments they generated the highest current densities -- which is the amount of current per surface area -- ever achieved in any fuel cell.

Support excellence

In our support operations, for example, our program of cost control and productivity enhancement has been praised by DOE and emulated by other laboratories. At the same time, we are putting in place a support system that will contribute directly to more effective scientific and technical efforts.

As any driver or pedestrian in the inner circle can testify, we are digging the trenches and conducting the other construction involved in our own private business exchange for voice and data communications. Under the guidance of Larry Amiot, the new system will switch over next fall. And we enjoyed really impressive savings in the negotiations to purchase this new state-of-the-art technology.

The laboratory's computer capability will be increased five fold with the installation of a high-performance computer, which is now in the bidding process. Overall, the laboratory has about $40 million of construction work in progress. We completed and occupied the new security building and the electronics/motion picture/graphic arts building, along with the new Visitors' Reception Center and main entrance for the laboratory.

Stronger communication channels

The Division of Educational Programs has fostered several hundred collaborative research projects involving about 1,000 staff and university faculty members. New collaborations developed during last year include a joint program that enables the University of Wisconsin to offer a special program in accelerator physics. A similar collaboration is being developed in nuclear engineering at Iowa State. DEP expects to sponsor the first annual Argonne Science Bowl for competing high school teams in science and mathematics.

Communications and marketing

I am not talking about "hard sell." Argonne people have simply become better at seeing the world in the terms of other people's needs, and presenting what we do or want to do in terms of those needs. That is one reason we are enjoying increased support. Our support is also enhanced by the help we get from our friends -- the University of Chicago, the various governing boards over Argonne, the congressional delegation -- especially from Illinois and from Idaho -- and even from our neighboring communities, who have organized into an organization called the Argonne Regional Consortium.

If I sound proud of these achievements, I will have to say I am. All of us should be proud of them. But if I sound satisfied, I certainly am not. None of us can afford to be.

Deliverance from the wilderness

When we score a success, we need to follow it up with another success as we have with ATLAS and with IPNS. That is why in 1987 we will be adding a sophisticated new $2 million 300-KeV high-spatial-resolution analytical electron microscope to our evolving microscopy center in the Materials Science Division, which already includes the High Voltage Electron Microscope.

Anticipating needs and initiatives

So in addressing our future, we have to ask ourselves what are the new areas of national need and the ones that will emerge over the next few years? Clearly one of those areas is toxic waste. That is an area that deserves and is getting our attention. In the future, we also have to keep examining our own organization and programs. That is why we re-organized to create a separate Associate Laboratory Director's post for head of the synchrotron light source. That is why we combined Components Technology and Materials Technology.

This year we must face up to a major organizational problem. We have a cluster of about 70 small programs in fossil and conservation. Harvey Drucker and his associates are working to consolidate them into five or six programs, each of which will have a critical mass, will have an identity that we can establish in Washington, and have a size that we can sustain through specific funding.

Finally and above all, we need to keep encouraging top performance.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes my report on the state of the laboratory. It has been a pleasure -- both because of the achievements of the laboratory and because for the first time in a long time, the hard work that all of you put in over recent years is being rewarded with greater security in funding for the new year.