The State of the Laboratory -- 1984

I would like to start this report to you with my conclusions about the current state of the laboratory. In essence, they are these:

In many ways -- particularly its internal capability -- Argonne is in better shape than it has been in recent memory. But that asset is balanced by a nagging slow growth of funding, which has prevented our developing the laboratory into the vital, expanding organization it should be and can be.

Balancing our potential and our funding is the main challenge facing us. We have to maintain and improve the laboratory's capability at the same time we develop more financial support in an environment where funding will not come easily.

It may sound contradictory to suggest that the lab is in better shape, when we have just reduced employment. But everything I see at this laboratory and everything I have learned about the management of research tells me that we have improved and are improving. Let me tell you why.

• For one thing, we have more new, promising initiatives under way today in areas of clear national priority than at any time in modern Argonne history. These initiatives will determine our future.

• We have a solid record of achievement within current programs to lend credibility to our new proposals.

• Our outside support -- from the University of Chicago, from other academic institutions, from the Washington power structure, from industry and from local communities -- is stronger than it has ever been, and growing stronger.

• Investment in Argonne's physical plant and equipment is starting to catch up on the backlog of needs that resulted from a decade of starvation budgets. We will no longer be the poor relation in physical plant among the national labs.

• And finally, we are demonstrating to DOE and the rest of the scientific community that we have a trim operation that can weather fluctuations in federal budgets and still get the maximum scientific results for the taxpayers' dollars.

This last point bears directly on our recent reduction in employment. I know that subject is a matter of concern to you, as it has been to me. I would like to talk about it.

Reduction in employment

We must balance our budget each fiscal year, with no borrowing or carry-over of operations expense. Your management council spent many hours considering alternatives that would meet our financial limitations while offering maximum protection for the lab and its people.

For example, we could have continued operations at the old employment level and hoped that more funding would flow in part way through 1985 to balance our books. The problem is that if we waited and the funds did not come in, we would have to lay off even more people when we finally took the action. If we waited until March, for example, the layoff would have totaled close to 400. The risks and the penalties were too great.

The course we took -- immediate action to reduce the employment level -- was the most responsible, and the one that protected the most people at this laboratory. This is one of the hardest decisions for a director to make. But when a manager fails to face this kind of problem promptly, the damage to the organization and its people is infinitely greater. With the action that has been taken, we can provide financial support to do a good job for the programs and the people who must build our future through their current performance.

We examined all functions and took cuts where they did the least damage to the lab.

Predictably, the reduction in force has generated a quantum increase in rumors around this lab. That is understandable because people get scared and upset. The Russians have a saying that "fear has big eyes." Even in the best of times, the rumor mill is the primary entertainment medium in our tight little community.

Many of these rumors are so ridiculous that even the most gullible Argonne person will dismiss them for what they are. But there are a couple I would like to address.

One is that there are more massive layoffs coming. The cut ranges in size, according to which rumor you hear, from a hundred up to a thousand. Let me tell you right now that no more sizable layoffs beyond the 175 we have announced have been planned. One reason we took early action on this problem was to avoid having to go back with additional big cuts later in the year.

There will be the normal fluctuations in individual programs -- up and down -- that we always have. There will continue to be new hires to meet personnel needs that can't be filled by experienced Argonne people.

Another rumor -- one that has been deliberately fostered -- is that we are left without emergency medical aid for our employees. The fact of the matter is that all but three of our fire fighters are trained as emergency medical technicians. Backing them up is our professional staff in OHS and health department. Employees at Argonne have at least as high a level of emergency protection as they would get from most other employers in this area and more than many offer.

Finally, there are bound to be rumors about any layoff -- single or group -- that it is not being handled fairly. I want you to know that we have made the process of selecting employees for layoff much more involved and expensive to assure that standards of fairness are enforced through higher-level reviews and that each employee's rights are protected. And we are helping the people affected to find new jobs.

Let me emphasize again that we didn't undertake this reduction in employment because we wanted to or because we wouldn't rather put time and effort elsewhere. We were forced to do it to preserve your job security and the future of this laboratory.

First-class research at Argonne

There are too many examples of truly first-class work underway here to list completely. But it is important to mention representative examples. They reflect the basic professional health of this laboratory.

In our energy and environmental technology area, for example, a team headed by Darrell Fee is succeeding on a $3.2 million project to develop a totally new, monolithic, solid-oxide fuel cell. A first critical milestone was achieved when multi-layered ceramic composites successfully met performance goals, demonstrating that key building blocks of the cell could be fabricated.

Mike Roche and a Chemical Technology team have developed a glass electrolyte for sodium sulfur batteries with extremely low electrical resistance. Batteries using these materials have the potential to produce higher energy for their weight than any other rechargeable battery now under development.

Commercial production started this year on an analytical instrument developed by Gerry Reedy to separate and identify complex mixtures containing more than 100 organic compounds through absorption of infrared light. A 15-pound portable analyzer developed by Joe Stetter for the U.S. Coast Guard can sniff out and identify 12 hazardous substances in holds of ships or other closed industrial areas. He is now refining it to sniff out 100.

A team from Components Technology, Applied Physics and Engineering divisions and headed by Paul Raptis recently achieved a breakthrough in acoustical measurement of the flow rate of combined solids and gases, or combined solids and liquids. This has previously posed a fundamental technical problem in many fossil energy technologies.

Rob Clemmer's team successfully demonstrated that tritium can be extracted from the lithium-aluminum blanket of a fusion reactor -- thus confirming the fusion reactor's ability to breed its own fuel. The FELIX experimental facility to test reaction of components to the severe stress of fusion magnets went into operation this year, under Larry Turner and Walter Praeg. Seven experiments were carried out in cooperation with the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

In Physical Research, the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source continues to perform as Argonne's star user facility. In June, it generated its billionth pulse of neutrons, putting it ahead of any comparable accelerator system in the world. An enriched target to increase the neutron flux by a factor of three is expected to be in use by 1986. Interest by industrial users continues to increase. Discussions are at an advanced stage with one firm, which would involve their quarter million dollar investment over four years to rebuild one of the IPNS instruments.

Our main accelerator construction project -- ATLAS -- is coming in on time and on budget under Lowell Bollinger's loving care. An additional $1.1 million was designated for ATLAS operation in the congressional budget as a result of work by the University of Chicago and key members of the Illinois congressional delegation.

Our understanding of the mechanism of photosynthesis was advanced by a team of Mike Wasielewski, Jim Norris, Walter Svec and Mark Niemczyk of the Chemistry Division. They have synthesized new model molecular systems that, for the first time, exhibit the series of electron transfer reactions that are fundamental to photosynthesis.

In June, the High Energy Physics division completed half of the order for 50 modules that make up the shower counter system for Fermilab's Tevatron. Each module is massive -- weighing about 2 tons -- highly sophisticated, and technically demanding.

A team of Dieter Gruen, Michael Pellin, Charles Young and Wallis Calaway has developed a technique for detecting surface impurities with three to four times the sensitivity of probes currently used commercially. This advance is significant to the computer field, in which continuing miniaturization of components diminishes tolerance for surface impurities in semiconductors.

In the area of biomedical and environmental research, Arnold Friedman has led the successful effort to attach a short-lived radioactive isotope to monoclonal antibodies -- biological compounds that seek out and attack cancer cells. By "piggy-backing" the isotope, the antibody becomes 100,000 times more effective in killing the cancer cells. The short life and range of the radioactivity should cause minimal damage to neighboring healthy tissue.

The team of Eli Huberman, Jim Hardwick and Marvin Stodolsky has just isolated the DNA clone that triggers the enzyme lysozyme, an important part of the human defense system against bacteria. Results of their investigations will increase our understanding of the mechanism that controls normal cell development and its disruption by cancer. A group led by David Grdina has shown that various chemical compounds protect cells from radiation-caused cell damage and mutation.

Two programs investigating "acid rain" involve Argonne scientists and specialists from other research organizations. One headed at Argonne by Patricia Irving and Jeffrey Schubert proposes to study the deposition of acid pollutants in four regional watersheds and trace the transport and transformations of those substances. This will be the first such major study on a watershed scale.

Marvin Wesely and Jack Shannon are involved in the other study, which relates to the key legislative question of whether there is a direct relationship between proposed emission reductions at the source of pollution and reduction of wet and dry acid deposition in sensitive areas many hundreds of miles away.

The Reactor Research and Engineering staff has continued on the upgrading of the TREAT reactor facility and on the STEP program which could result in less stringent precautions by nuclear power plants against accidental release of radioactive gasses.

Integral Fast Reactor

Primary among these is the Integral Fast Reactor. It is a concept that answers all the major concerns of the public about nuclear reactors and breeders. It is inherently safe. It is economical to build and operate. It is resistant to diversion of fuel for unauthorized use. And it answers environmental concerns about transport and disposal of radioactive materials. Through new technology, the IFR will be able to process its own spent fuel inside the plant fence and reuse it. No fuel or waste need leave the site over the 30 year life of the reactor.

We have termed it "the next logical step" in breeder development. But it is not the only proposal competing for ascendancy since Clinch River was eliminated as the nation's flagship in breeder development.

The overall budget for breeder research was cut between 15 and 20 percent for fiscal 1984, compared with last year. If that cut had been applied across all the labs engaged in such research, the effect at Argonne could have cost us hundreds of jobs. As a matter of fact, Argonne's reactor budget this year is about level with last year's.

That achievement reflects special effort by Senator Percy and Senator McClure. It also provides a pattern -- which we hope we can maintain in the future -- of giving priority to the Argonne program.

We have funding to begin proving the IFR concept. The EBR-II staff here and in Idaho have primary responsibility, with heavy support from other portions of the lab, particularly in pyrometallurgical disciplines. More than $100 million is involved over several years in first proving the concept and then converting EBR-II to a prototype IFR plant. The success of IFR is primary to our future plans.

6 GeV synchrotron light source

Argonne faces a long fight to have the synchrotron incorporated into DOE's program and the budget. We can expect to compete vigorously against other institutions to have the synchrotron built at Argonne. We believe it is worth the effort. Funding for construction and initial instrumentation alone will total about $160 million.

A team from our Physical Research organization is now working on plans for the synchrotron. We believe there are major advantages to the nation in building it at Argonne.

We have the expertise in physics, and in magnet-accelerator technology. We have a support structure in place with proven capability to serve both staff scientists and outside users from around the world. We have one of the world's largest materials science and technology organizations. And we have complementary machines, like IPNS, for parallel materials studies.

It looks like Argonne has a good chance for the synchrotron. But it will take top performance over a long period on the part of many people inside and outside the lab to bring that chance to reality.

Other initiatives

One is biotechnology -- the manipulation of genetic potential from one living species to another.

Argonne has established itself as coordinator and catalyst in early efforts to analyze possible applications of biotechnology to energy production and utilization. Many academic and industrial organizations are involved. The first step has been to determine the feasibility and focus of such research. Next, we will orient and educate our staff, inventory Argonne's capabilities and examine current, relevant research at the lab. The main point is that we are in at the start, which is where we want to be in new areas of research.

The second growing science in which Argonne is establishing a niche is super-computing -- more specifically, super-computing of scientific information. Two separate but related projects are advancing our capability in parallel computing. That is, enabling one computer to work simultaneously on different aspects of a complex problem.

Finally, Argonne is gaining recognition in an activity that carries heavy endorsement by the administration and congress -- technology transfer and industrial interaction.

Argonne's emerging leadership in this area is exemplified in the steel initiative, which originated with the president's science advisor, Jay Keyworth. He saw a domestic steel industry losing out to more advanced foreign competition. He saw a national laboratory system with the potential to solve problems and possibly help the industry leapfrog foreign producers.

After bringing together experts from steel companies and from national laboratories, he gave what I consider the two most important research assignments to Argonne. They are the conversion of raw materials to liquid steel, and the forming of liquid steel into more finished shapes than are currently cast.

This year, Argonne will receive between $2 million and $4 million for initial investigations. This is an extremely challenging assignment, both because of the importance attached to it in Washington and because we are trying to revolutionize processes that have been the targets of good minds and invested dollars by the industry over the last century.

Argonne is also pioneering in technology transfer through its proposal for an industrial development center. This would be a halfway house to bring Argonne research in close working relationship to the commercial market. It would provide offices and possibly work areas inside our fence or adjacent to Argonne where entrepreneurs from industry would work with Argonne staffers to spin off discoveries from this laboratory into commercial processes and products. DOE has given us the go-ahead to develop a working plan for such a center. The Argonne board of governors has endorsed the concept. If we can bring it to reality -- probably by next fiscal year -- we will be the first national lab to do so.

Meanwhile, we are engaged in serious negotiations to have work sponsored at Argonne by such diverse corporations as Deere and Company -- to help on their development of the Wankel engine -- Polaroid Corporation and the Cabot Company. Argonne played a role in the loosening of restrictions on corporations seeking to do proprietary work on our big user facilities. We are completing negotiations to have the DOE assign to the University of Chicago the rights to Argonne patents -- with increased payments going to the inventors. And we have instituted a patent review board to assure maximum commercial application of inventions by Argonne staff.

To do the work on the important initiatives I have described, we need the highest quality of people. We need the highest level of effort. And we need the physical environment in which first-class research can be conducted. The funding for physical plant and equipment is higher in 1985 than it has been in eight years. This is a separate budget from Operations and cannot be shifted over to payroll.

We are also closely examining our entire network of administrative activities to assure the most effective, efficient support for our scientific mission.

In orienting and preparing this laboratory for future growth, my guiding philosophy is this: We may not be able to do all the things we want to, but those things we do, we will do in a manner that befits a first-class center of research and development.

I hope that all of you share that philosophy. I want you to understand our goals, our capabilities, the restraints under which we operate and the reasons for the decisions that affect you.

It is easy to get confused and frustrated when we have to reduce employment despite the good effort you have all put in over recent years -- and continue to put forth. But I honestly believe that if we objectively examine Argonne's assets and its capabilities, you will agree that we are putting this laboratory in better shape. We aren't out of the tough times yet. But we are building a better Argonne -- a lab with a promising future.

Thank you.