A Congressional Perspective on the New Superconductors
- PDF / 936,798 Bytes
- 2 Pages / 604.8 x 806.4 pts Page_size
- 97 Downloads / 197 Views
A Congressional Perspective on the New Superconductors Paul C. Maxwell Congress, like everyone eise, was excited by the discovery of the new high temperature superconducting materials announced by Dr. Paul Chu and others last year. Public interest, fanned by stories in Time, Newsweek, the Washington Post and elsewhere was, perhaps, best shown at Congressional hearings held last June. For the first time in memory it was necessary to have crowd control at a hearing on science. TV coverage was limited to a maximum of eight cameras, and a s t a n d i n g - r o o m - o n l y a u d i e n c e r e m a i n e d t h r o u g h most of the nine hours of testimony and questions. What members heard at those hearings confirmed much of what they had been reading in the press — that these new materials offered the potential for vast, revolutionary changes in such diverse areas as microelectronics, transportation, Communications, electrical energy, and medical Instrumentation, among others. What they also heard but what was not emphasized in the press was that much work still remains before the potential of these exciting materials can be r e a l i z e d . Years, p o s s i b l y decades, could be necessary to understand these materials in order to overcome inherent obstacles in their physical p r o p e r t i e s — b r i t t l e n e s s , l a r g e anisotropy, and instability, among others— in order to use them at their füll potential. Obviously, such long-range research and development will require a m a j o r l o n g - t e r m c o m m i t m e n t of resources — estimated at h u n d r e d s of millions of dollars per year by both the private and public sectors. These h e a r i n g s w e r e followed by numerous other meetings, symposia, and Conferences, in the United States and abroad, including an unusual "presidential Conference" on supercon-
ductivity for economic competitiveness held last July. An eleven-point presidential initiative was announced, several legislative proposals were introduced, and additional follow-up hearings were held last fall and this winter.
Most apparent and... most lacking... is the existence of a comprehensive national superconductivity program. In terms of dollars the current Status of our federal programs in high temperature superconductivity looks reasonably bright. Beginning little over a year ago, our federal agencies raised funding from virtually zero to close to $50 million in FY 1987. Current estimates in FY 1988 exceed $90 million, and the presidentially requested budget indicates over $120 million dedicated to research on these new materials. That's the good news. The bad news includes the following: • No national program exists — indeed it is hard to identify even individual agency program plans, with the Department of Defense being a possible exception. • Most of the money, over two-thirds in FY 1988, is being directed through the Department of Defense rather than our civilian research agencies. • Most of the effort focuses on basic and theoretical aspects of the new materials with only min
Data Loading...
