Argonne director addresses National Press Club

Focus on key issues in science

WASHINGTON D.C. (June 9, 2005) – Robert Rosner, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, discusses today key issues related to nuclear energy, the importance of basic science research to the nation's global economic standing, plans for a sustainable approach to energy production, the significance of hard data in national science policy decisions and the importance of women and other minorities in science programs.

Rosner believes that the resurgence of nuclear energy as a viable option is the result of the advanced technologies that will be able to reduce the level of radioactivity in spent nuclear fuel. Argonne's solution – a series of proliferation-resistant technologies for treating and disposing of spent nuclear fuel – will reduce the volume, toxicity and heat load in spent nuclear fuel.

“Nearly all the risk from spent fuel comes from about 1 percent of its content,” Rosner said. Removing the plutonium, neptunium, americium and curium from the spent fuel means that the remaining 99 percent of the fuel needs only one thousand years in the repository before its toxicity drops below that of natural uranium.

“Compare that to more than 10,000 years of storage for untreated spent fuel,” Rosner said. Argonne is working with DOE on these issues.

“Basic research,” according to Rosner, “is essential to the development of products that fuel our economy.” The products that are part of our every day life ranging from cell phones to television sets are the result of the basic science conducted 20 years ago. 

Without that basic research, our economy, as Nobel Laureate Jerome Friedman from MIT put it, will run the danger of eventually coasting to a stop.

“To avert this danger,"Rosner said, "the nation vitally needs stronger public support for vigorous programs of basic research in the physical and biological sciences.”

Industry supports about 60 percent of research programs in the U.S., but that research is focused on new products and services. What's missing is the basic understanding that sparks development, and the largest funder of this research is DOE's Office of Science.

The importance of scientific literacy, which is especially important for national policy leaders and the people who advise them, is a key issue as well. “On any issue, there are many competing voices and sources of information and opinion,” Rosner said. “But the best source of information about how the world works is undeniably science.”

Rosner also addressed the significance of women and minority scientists and engineers, who are a major resource in the field of research.

“We're wasting more than 50 percent of our intellectual resources if women and minorities are missing in science and engineering,” Rosner said.

“Great strides," he said, "have been made in recent decades in providing opportunities for young women and minorities to enter scientific and technical fields. But statistics show that they are still significantly under represented. Blacks and Hispanics make up only about 3 percent each of doctorate holders employed in scientific careers, and about 2 percent each in engineering – far out of line with their relative proportions in the U.S. population.”

Argonne's programs in this area are designed to provide direct access to positive real-life examples of women and minorities in science and engineering for junior high and high school students.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.