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Plan would have universities tracking foreign students The Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) has proposed a new policy that would have institutions of higher education collect a fee to pay for a system to track nonimmigrant foreign students and their dependents. Under the plan, students could lose their visa status if schools they are attending do not properly collect the fee and track their movements. INS published its plan for an electronic reporting system, called the Coordinated Interagency Partnership Regulating International Students (CIPRIS), in the Dec. 21, 1999, issue of the Federal Register, page 71323. It does not give a clear timetable for system development, but it clearly states that an institution's "failure to collect and remit the fee as required will result in the nonimmigrant's loss of status." Comments on the proposed rule must be received by INS on or before Feb. 22 (http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/ graphics/services/cipris/index.htm# anchor32886). Under the proposal, schools are responsible for informing students about the $95 fee, collecting and remitting the fee, and verifying that the student is registered in CIPRIS and the fee has been paid. Schools that do not comply with this arrangement will be billed for fees not remitted and may be made ineligible to accept foreign students. National Science Foundation data show that 18% of all science and engineering graduate students in the U.S. come from foreign countries. Foreign students make up approximately 30% of the population of chemistry graduate students (C&EN, Oct. 25,1999, page 72). The higher education community is greatly concerned about the "unprecedented" burden of tracking students and collecting the fees. As the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of State Colleges & Universities (AASCU) points out, "Aside from the confusion of transfers and moves to different schools or programs (authorized or unauthorized), there will be departures that the schools and sponsors may not know about." "We do not object to CIPRIS itself," says the American Council on Education (ACE), Washington, D.C., in a letter to its members. "Our central concerns are with the precedent that would 12
JANUARY 17, 2000 C&EN
be established by having colleges collect the fee, the inefficiency of the proposed system, the enormous—and unrecognized—paperwork burden imposed on colleges, and the fact that fee collection will begin years before CIPRIS is operational." "The most troubling aspect of the proposed regulation is that colleges and universities will be required to collect a fee from students who are registered in the INS database and to remit this fee to the federal government," says AASCU in a letter to its members. "For the first time, colleges and universities will be-
come bill collectors for the federal government. This is an ominous precedent. 'The proposed system increases the workload of foreign student and scholar advisers, international admissions officers, registrars, and business officers," the AASCU letter continues. "All of the groups representing these individuals oppose the proposed fee-collection system. Financial aid administrators are concerned that the collection system will set a precedent that the Department of Education and other agencies will move to adopt." William Schulz
Despite problems, panel okays fusion facility A Department of Energy advisory panel says a project to build the world's biggest laser facility has severe management problems, faces technical difficulties that could stall (if not block) full operation, and has cost and schedule overruns that may exceed even recently extended estimates. However, the eightmember independent panel also says it sees nothing to stop the show and recommends that DOE continue construction of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California. With 50 times more energy than existing laser facilities, NIF's 192 laser beams are intended to produce a self-sustained McTague fusion burn, leading to a greater understanding of nuclear fusion, both for weapons and energy research. Although the fusion research facility has been discussed for years, ground was not broken until 1997. NIF's basic structure is 70% complete, according to DOE, and the facility was expected to be operational in 2003. But late last summer, an internal DOE review found the $1.2 billion project to be $300 million over budget, two years behind schedule, and suffering from technical shortcomings. Shortly thereafter, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson withheld $2 million in fees from the University of California, which manages LLNL, and called for several reforms and reviews, including this one by a Secretary of Energy Advisory Board panel chaired by John McTague, retired vice president of tech-
I nical affairs at Ford Motor Co. (C&EN, Sept. 13,1999, page 8). In an interim report, the panel says, "No one gets a passing grade on NIF management." The report charges that LLNL, University of California, and DOE I officials failed to provide adequate management and oversight of the project, which it says is "vital" to the lab's future. Speaking to reporters, McTague noted that NIF construction management has been spread throughout DOE, the lab, and the university and does not even report directly to C. Bruce Tarter, LLNL's director. The report urges Tarter to take "ownership" of NIF. The report also identifies a host of technical problems that have not I been addressed. Among them are inadequate clean-construction processes, expected damage to optics during operation, and difficulties in procuring laser glass and in growing certain crystals. However, the report concludes that such problems, although troublesome, are not insurmountable. Because of the experimental nature of the project, the report recommends that construction be conducted in two phases: First, 96 laser beams would be completed in 2004 and operated for two years to gain experience; and second, the other set of 96 lasers would be installed. Although this schedule would delay full operation until 2008 and cost more up front, McTague says, it would be cost effective in the long run and I more apt to lead to full operation.
At half operation, ignition and sus tained fusion would not occur, he notes, but fundamental physics and weapons work could still be done. The task force did not evaluate NIF's costs, and McTague says the panel awaits other reviews aimed at sorting out spending. Jeff'Johnson polylactide, and the Blair unit's capacity will be sold out by the time it's running. So, as soon as the Blair unit is operational, Cargill Dow will begin building a unit in Europe. The company in tends to open other plants every 18 to 24 The first commercial-scale production months after that. It plans to have a global unit for polylactide—a polymer derived capacity of about 1 billion lb by 2006. completely from annually renewable The Blair unit will extract dextrose feedstocks—has been announced by from about 40,000 bushels of corn each Cargill Dow Polymers, the two day. Under a patented process, Cargill year-old 50-50 joint venture be Dow will ferment the dex tween Minnetonka, Minn.trose, making lactic acid. based Cargill and Dow The lactic acid is convert Chemical. ed into lactide ring inter mediates. Then a metal Cargill Dow is optimis catalyst is employed in tic about the polymer, breaking open the rings to not only because of its form the polylactide poly environmental benefits, mer. Future plants will but also because of its materi be able to use various pri al properties. "It has cost-per mary feedstocks—such as wheat, formance advantages even rice, or agricultural waste—depending though it is derived from carbo hydrates rather than hydrocarbons," says on what is most economical in a given William S. Stavropoulos, Dow's president geographic area. and chief executive officer. Alex Tullo "Until now, no one has been able to make polylactide a viable commercial offering," points out Jim Stoppert, 2 Cargill Dow Polymers' president and CEO, noting that companies have tried to develop plastics out of lactic acid for more than a century. Disproving conventional wisdom, re Cargill Dow is targeting fibers and searchers have shown that Pu0 2 is not packaging applications for polylactide. the most stable binary plutonium oxide. Either blended with other fibers or on A nonstoichiometric compound, Pu02+x, its own, polylactide is suitable for appar which forms slowly as Pu0 2 reacts with el. Carpet makers may find it attractive moist air, turns out to be the thermodybecause both the face fiber and backing namically favored oxide [Science, 2 8 7 , can be made of polylactide, facilitating 285 (2000)]. The study explains several recycling. Primary packaging applica puzzling observations in plutonium tions include films, thermoformed food chemistry and has implications for civil and beverage containers, and coated pa ian and military applications. per and board. The investigation was conducted by a Cargill Dow says it will build a 300 mil- group of staff scientists at Los Alamos Na lion-lb-per-year plant at Cargill's complex tional Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, in Blair, Neb. The plant is scheduled to N.M., including John M. Haschke (now a private consultant in Waco, Texas), Thom come onstream toward the end of 2001. With the polylactide unit, Cargill as H. Allen, and Luis A. Morales. Dow Polymers will have invested more "It's careful and thorough work," re than $300 million in the partnership. marks Norman M. Edelstein, a heavyAnd the partnership intends to spend element researcher at Lawrence Berke much more in coming years. Cargill ley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif. Dow says customers are lining up to buy Edelstein adds that these latest findings
Plastic found at the end of the maize
Heavyweight Pu0 loses stability title
represent "an important contribution" for a number of reasons. To begin with, the LANL research an swers decades-old questions about funda mental plutonium properties like color and oxidation state. Haschke points out that Pu0 2 is dark yellow. The green color that has been observed previously is due to the higher oxide, he says—not impuri ties, as some have suggested. And contrary to the commonly held view that the oxidation state of plutonium in the stable oxide is exclusively Pu (IV), the present work shows that Pu0 2 can be oxidized as high as Pu0 2 27, suggesting that more than 25% of plutonium atoms are in the Pu (VI) state. The study also provides another mechanistic explanation for the hydro gen production that's been observed during plutonium hydrolysis and oxida tion. Gas evolution in sealed storage containers leads to pressure buildup—a serious concern for long-term storage. 'The new results have great conse quences for underground disposal of nuclear wastes," writes Charles Madic of the Centre CEA de Saclay (part of the French Atomic Energy Commission), Gif-sur-Yvette, France, in a commentary in the same issue of Science. A key factor in favor of burying pluto nium waste is the highly insoluble nature of Pu (IV) compounds. But now the safety of those practices needs to be reconsid ered, Madic comments, in light of the fact that Pu (VI) species are far more soluble and hence more mobile in geological en vironments. Madic adds that these latest findings also call for "new evaluations of industrial operations involving Pu()2." Haschke explains that water mole cules split into hydrogen and oxygen at oms as water vapor adsorbs on solid Pu0 2 . Oxygen (from water) converts the dioxide into a higher oxide: Pu0 2 + χΆ.,0 -> Pu0 2+x + 2xH In an oxygen-free environment, he says, hydrogen atoms form H2 that can desorb from the oxide surface. "But if oxygen is present, hydrogen and oxygen react to form water because it's the thermodynamically favored pro cess," Haschke asserts. That reaction serves to replenish the supply of surface water molecules. The newly formed H20 may then desorb from the surface or disso ciate. If it dissociates, then the oxidation process continues and dioxide is convert ed to higher and higher oxides. Haschke says the group now plans to address envi ronmental plutonium-migration issues. Mitch Jacoby JANUARY 17, 2000 C&KN
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