GAO urges realignment for DOE research labs The changing roles of the Department of Energy's eight multiprogram laboratories should undergo even more of a change, concludes a new report from the General Accounting Office. Involved are Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, and Sandia Laboratories. Specifically, major recommendations call for a management realignment of the labs within DOE and an augmentation of staff capabilities to include socioeconomic areas of expertise. The aim of the changes would be to define more clearly the roles of the labs in nonnuclear energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D). In making its study, GAO concentrated its attention on the Energy Research & Development Administration and its successor as of last October, the Department of Energy, as well as the eight labs. But it also obtained views on the major issues from other DOE field operations, National Aeronautics & Space Administration operations, industrial and education organizations, and its own consultants on energy research and development at universities, industry, and government organizations. Historically, the labs in question were established to concentrate on nuclear science, nuclear energy, and nuclear weapons. In 1967, Congress expanded the labs' roles to include environmental and safety research, and, in 1971, nonnuclear energy RD&D. When DOE on its formation took over the labs, it assigned three to the assistant secretary for defense programs, two to the director of the Office of Energy Research, and three to the under secretary, depending on the labs' principal areas of effort. GAO believes that the labs all should be aligned to an office, such as the Office of the Under Secretary, that is not responsible for specific program areas. The thrust of GAO's recommendations, in its view, is to provide a clear definition of the role of each multiprogram lab in nonnuclear energy RD&D, including how it is to interface with other research entities, including universities and industry. DOE should assign appropriate missions in specific areas to those labs with capabilities in those areas.
GAO also thinks that the lab staffs should be augmented by experts in the various social and political sciences to make certain that the socioeconomic, political, institutional, environmental, and legal implications are adequately considered during development of energy technologies. Even if these tasks were contracted to universities or industry as needed, GAO says, DOE needs inhouse capabilities to monitor such efforts. A report of the study, EMD-78-62, is available from the U.S. General Accounting Office, Distribution Section, P.O. Box 1020, Washington, D.C. 20013, at $1.00 per copy. •
NASA selects more space experiments The National Aeronautics & Space Administration has selected another round of scientific projects for its microgravity laboratories in space. Four projects will go up with NASA's sixth Space Processing Applications Rocket (SPAR), scheduled to be launched late this year or early in 1979. And 17 have been chosen for the first five years of NASA's space shuttle and space lab program, scheduled to begin next year. The SPAR project is a continuing series of materials processing experiments in space rocket flights over a five-year period. Each rocket provides about five minutes of near-weightlessness during the coast phase of its flight, during which the materials processing experiments are performed. Typical of the types of experiments conducted on these launches is one to produce foam copper by Robert B. Pond of the small research and development firm Marvalaud of Westminster, Md. A first step in copper refining on earth involves adding graphite to molten copper to react with trapped oxygen in the melt and cause its removal as gaseous carbon monoxide. Pond and his associates hope that in the rocket's microgravity they will be able to solidify the copper while it still contains bubbles of carbon monoxide. By this method they hope to produce a copper alloy with high rigidity and very low weight. The first phase of the space shuttle and space lab program is a five-year, $12 million program introduced to demonstrate more fully than SPAR's five-minute experiments the value of space as a place to develop useful materials and products. Projects that show promise in initial flights can be reflown later in the program and further refined. For instance, five of the 17 projects chosen for the pro-
NASA has scheduled 17 scientific experiments for the space shuttle
gram are scheduled for a preliminary testing in an early orbital flight test of the space shuttle. All of these experiments eventually will be reflown on later space shuttle missions. Among the experiments to be included in the early space shuttle work is one directed by Dr. John W. Vanderhoff of Lehigh University to produce large particle-size monodisperse latices. Latex spheres of uniform size are used as calibration standards for electron microscopy, but because of gravitational effects, the seeding method used to produce these particles is only effective for producing commercial quantities of particles up to sizes of 2 micrometers. Many biologically important cells, such as red blood cells, are in the 5- to 10-micrometer size range, Vanderhoff explains, and a calibration particle in this size range would be very useful. Early space shuttle flights will carry kinetics experiments for this system—with an actual attempt to make a 2-liter sample of latex spheres— scheduled for a 1981 launch. •
OTA says LNG safety data inconclusive Existing data are uncertain on the safety and behavior of liquefied natural gas, and several years and millions of dollars will have to be invested in the U.S. to work out perceived problems of transporting and handling the highly volatile fuel. So concludes a just-released report on LNG by Congress' Office of Technology Assessment. But OTA also says that prudent siting and strict equipment construction standards can greatly improve the safety of LNG as a domestic fuel. The report is expected to add more fuel to an already heated debate on transportation safety of LNG involving a large number of firms, special interest groups, and government June 5, 1978 C&EN
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