GOVERNMENT & POLICY CONCENTRATES
DOE WEAPONS LABS FACE 20–30% CUT
LAW WOULD MANDATE PUBLIC ACCESS AT NIH
U.S. COURT BLOCKS NEW PATENT RULES A federal court in Virginia has temporarily blocked the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office from enforcing new rules intended to streamline the patent application process. British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline sought the injunction, arguing that the rules would stifle innovation by curtailing the amount of patent protection available to inventors. The proposed regulations aim to speed patent reviews by the chronically understaffed PTO. Among other things, they would limit the number of times an inventor could modify an existing patent application or contest a rejected claim. Currently, applicants can file an unlimited number of amendments or challenges. PTO says the rule changes “are part of a package of initiatives designed to improve the quality and efficiency of the patent process and move American innovation and our economy forward.” GSK will now file a motion asking
The three national nuclear weapons laboratories and five other major weapons facilities could face major changes. Their workforce would be cut by 20–30%, and about 600 buildings would be knocked down under a plan being developed by the National Nuclear Security Administration, a part of the Department of Energy that oversees nuclear weapons. The result would be elimination of 6,000 to 9,000 jobs and a reduction of one-third of NNSA’s overall footprint. Most of the proposed cuts would come through attrition and take place over the next 10 to 20 years, NNSA spokesman John Broehm says. However, the elimination of the 600 old structures and a plan to consolidate “special nuclear materials” (plutonium and highly enriched uranium) from eight sites to five will happen within five years, he says. Broehm stresses that the plan is being formulated now and will be made public in December. NNSA has announced its intention to overhaul the entire weapons system over the next 25 years, a process called the “Complex 2030 Plan,” but Broehm says this latest transformation plan recognized that some portions of the overhaul must happen sooner. “As the nuclear weapons stockpile gets smaller, the labs will have to do more with less taxpayer dollars,” he says. “The workforce will be reduced, as with any kind of business that needs to streamline and be more efficient.” No labs would be closed, he adds.
the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to block the rules permanently, a company spokeswoman says.
APPLICATION FILED FOR NUCLEAR PLANT The Tennessee Valley Authority applied last week to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate two new nuclear reactors at its Bellefonte site in Alabama. TVA was joined in the application by NuStart Energy Development, a consortium of 13 energy and engineering companies. TVA’s application marks only the second filing for a new nuclear plant in the past 30 years, notes DOE Deputy Secretary Clay Sell, adding, “through public-private sector collaboration, loan guarantees, and tax incentives, the Administration is providing a sound and stable policy to propel the nuclear industry.” However, pro-nuclear members of Congress and the industry are seeking to enlarge the size and scope of DOE loan guarantees. And a growing number of nuclear critics and taxpayer groups are warning about government liability for the proposed plants, the cost of which could reach $5 billion for a 1,000MW plant, industry sources say.
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PANEL APPROVES BAN ON MERCURY EXPORTS U.S. exports of elemental mercury would be banned starting in 2010 under legislation approved last week by the House Energy & Commerce Committee. The bill, H.R. 1534, would require the Energy Department to store the mercury generated as a by-product of the mining industry and from chloralkali plants that use mercury cells. The measure also would prohibit the sale of mercury by the U.S. government. The legislation is designed to help stem the flow of commodity-grade mercury from industrialized countries to small-scale gold miners in the developing world. The committee approved the measure 45–2. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who voted against the bill, says she fears that the private sector’s mercury will end up at DOE’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., where the department currently stores 1,206 metric tons of mercury left over from Cold War activities. N ICK KOUDI S/GET TY IMAG ES
A provision to beef up the public access policy for research supported by NIH is in the 2008 Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services, Education & Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 3043 and S. 1710), which both houses of Congress have now passed. The provision would require NIH to make its public-access policy mandatory. All researchers supported by NIH would have to deposit any resulting research articles in its PubMed Central database within 12 months of publication in a peer-reviewed journal in a “manner consistent with copyright law.” The American Chemical Society, which publishes C&EN, and other publishers continue to express copyright concerns over this policy, according to Glenn S. Ruskin, director of ACS’s Office of Legislative & Government Affairs. “The publishing community is concerned that a mandatory policy could violate a publisher’s copyright and intellectual property and adversely impact the peer-review process,” he says. Ruskin adds that ACS believes the current voluntary depositing policy is adequate. ACS “has been working with NIH to facilitate the deposit of over 3,000 articles that have appeared in ACS journals since the policy’s inception in February 2005,” he points out, referring to publications of work supported by NIH.
