A U.S. Department of Energy task force has recommended that DOE retain but downsize its national laboratories to concentrate on research strengths and quit other areas.
The report to Energy Sec. Hazel O'Leary said the 10 labs should focus their research on traditional missions of national security, energy, environment, and fundamental science.
The labs are Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, Los Alamos National laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, and Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Washington state.
The report observed that federal energy research began with efforts to create peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and later expanded to oil, gas, and alternative energy.
As a result, it said, areas of energy supply and end use research and development remain balkanized, operating as isolated fiefdoms.
INTEGRATION NEEDED
One of the most important challenges facing the department and its laboratories is to achieve greater integration of its applied and fundamental energy R&D programs: fossil energy, nuclear fission and fusion, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and basic energy sciences.
The labs' programs are conducted in a variety of ways, with and without industry cost sharing. Of DOE's fiscal 1994 applied energy budget of about $1.8 billion, only 30% is spent at the laboratories.
The report said, 'The task force believes the energy mission is of extreme importance and deserves greater attention by the national laboratories, working in collaboration with the private sector. Additionally, we believe the department needs a framework for rationalizing management of energy supply and conservation technologies in terms of a strategic portfolio of R&D projects."
The report recommended better integration of applied energy programs between the programs and industry and between applied and basic energy research work performed at the laboratories.
The task force recommended better integration of energy and environmental considerations. And it said the multi-program labs should be managed as a system, naming lead laboratories in areas of research and giving all laboratories clear mission statements.
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