Cornell workshops influence energy R&D One of the more popular parlor games in Washington nowadays, among those responsible for getting government grants and contracts for conducting energy research and development, is to smoke out insight and perspective on what's ahead in energy R&D from one's peers, from federal officials, or from government documents. The President's official fiscal 1975 budget proposal helps. Although it's a massive document chock full of Office of Management and Budget budgeteese, it does tell in moderately specific terms where nearly $2 billion in federal money for energy R&D will be going. The Ray Report—officially "The Nation's Energy Future"—prepared by a special task force headed by AEC chairman Dixy Lee Ray also helps. It, too, is a sizable document, but does spell out in considerable detail energy R&D programs the Government could fund through fiscal 1979 and makes some suggestions for the longer term effort—the year 2000 and beyond. And the President's energy R&D program for fiscal 1975 does follow the Ray Report's recommendations. Even with these important documents in hand, however, those scurrying about Washington—and elsewhere, for that matter—seeking further insight and perspective into what's ahead in energy R&D may be overlooking another enlightening document. It's the just published "Report of the Cornell Workshops on the Major Issues of a National Energy Research and Development Program." Organized and conducted by Cornell University, the workshops were held between Sept. 14 and Oct. 17, 1973, in Washington, D.C. A blue-ribbon group of 29 panelists from industry, government, and academia, and more than 50 briefers and observers was assembled. They were split into workshops on the fossil fuel option, chaired by Dr. William Grouse, Jr., director of Interior's Office of Research and Development; on the shortterm nuclear option, chaired by Dr. Alvin M. Weinberg, then director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, now R&D head at the Federal Energy Office; on advanced nuclear power, chaired by Dr. Hans Bethe, John Wendell Anderson Professor of Physics at Cornell University; and on energy R&D institutional patterns, chaired by former NASA administrator Thomas O. Paine, currently senior vice president, technology planning and development at General Electric. According to the summary overview of the workshops prepared by Cornell's Dr. Peter L. Auer, to the degree that achieving the President's target of energy self-sufficiency is feasible, it "will take the closest cooperation between Government and industry." In addition, "Society will have to acquiesce to
certain changes in life style. The role of R&D will be limited largely to improving the state of the art of existing technology. Six or seven years is far too short a time span for the introduction of major innovations in technology." Further, "There are potentially some serious limitations on how rapidly domestic energy supplies can be expanded," such as the rate at which additional drilling rigs can be assembled, the availability of critical material, and the availability of skilled labor. The substance of detailed reports of each of the workshops—which are also included in the report—is also incorporated in the "overview of an integrated national energy research and development program" prepared by Dr. Auer. A sampling of nontechnical comments on the fossil fuel option: • "A principal aim of our energy policy for the foreseeable future is to increase the role of coal in the economy. The principal constraint to using more coal at this time is the question of the environment. As a result, parts of coal's traditional markets have turned to gas and oil as substitutes and coal production has effectively leveled off. This trend must now be reversed as rapidly as possible. • "The art of stack gas cleanup is fairly well advanced, but its effectiveness and reliability remain to be demonstrated on a large scale. First generation schemes have certain undesirable features, among which waste disposal is a major item. We must continue to press R&D in order to develop more acceptable schemes which can produce elemental sulfur as the final disposable item. • "Of the various schemes considered for allowing direct combustion of coal in an environmentally acceptable manner and the one which may have the widest utility in the short term, the low-B.t.u. gasifier appears to be the likeliest candidate. . . . Relatively little effort has gone into developing a suitable low-B.t.u. gasification process, but once it is achieved, it should find wide use. . . . • "Lurgi process has been used commercially in various countries to produce a gas of medium heating value. . . . One may argue that a commercially acceptable state of the art is near existence for [producing] highB.t.u. gas. Unfortunately, the Lurgi process will not accommodate many types of coal abundant in the U.S." And so it goes. Judging both by the sort of programs endorsed by Dr. Ray in "The Nation's Energy Future" and the sort of energy R&D funded in the President's proposed fiscal 1975 budget, the Cornell workshops, funded by AEC, have had more than passing influence with Administration energy policy setters and OMB budgeteers. The 253-page report is published by the College of Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14850. Copies may be obtained from Cornell.
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