DOE Selects Reactor Projects for New Demonstration Program

On Oct. 13, the Department of Energy announced awards of $80 million each for two nuclear reactor development projects, funding the first year of new cost-sharing partnerships that aim to demonstrate working prototypes. One of the recipients is TerraPower, a venture backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates that is developing a reactor design known as Natrium, which uses molten salt as a coolant and aims to be more economical than traditional nuclear power plants. The other recipient is X-energy, which is developing a reactor called Xe-100 that is cooled by helium gas and fueled by TRISO (TRi-structural ISOtropic) fuel pellets that are designed to make meltdowns impossible and enable refueling without a plant shutdown. Congress created the demonstration program through last years appropriations legislation and, while the Trump administration has proposed discontinuing the awards, DOE anticipates it will spend a total of $3.2 billion on them over the next seven years if the funding is made available. The department also expects to make smaller awards in December to between two and five reactor development projects for reducing technical risks, and to at least two early-stage reactor concept development projects. Through its Project Pele, the Defense Department is also funding the development of three TRISO-based designs for mobile nuclear reactors, including one proposed by X-energy, and may eventually support one of the projects through to a prototype demonstration.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 17 that Chinese government representatives have privately warned U.S. officials that Americans in China may be detained in response to recent arrests of scientists with ties to Chinas military. This summer, the Department of Justice charged three visiting researchers and one graduate student with visa fraud, alleging they lied about their connections to the Chinese military on visa applications. It also charged a visiting researcher for destroying a hard drive, arguing the act interfered with an investigation into possible transfer of sensitive software to Chinas National University of Defense Technology. The department did not confirm the threats to the Journal, but stated, We are aware that the Chinese government has, in other instances, detained American, Canadian, and other individuals without legal basis to retaliate against lawful prosecutions and to exert pressure on their governments, with a callous disregard of the individuals involved. In 2018, China arrested two Canadian citizens shortly after Canada detained the chief financial officer of the telecommunications company Huawei, whom the U.S. had charged with evading sanctions against Iran.

The American Physical Society announced last week it has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the State Department seeking details on therecent revocation of more than 1,000 visas held by Chinese students and researchers. A May 2020 proclamation by President Trump empowered the department to cancel visas for certain Chinese graduate students and researchers deemed to have current or past ties to an unnamed set of institutions affiliated with the Chinese military. APS states that no administration officials they met with could or were willing to provide any details, such as: an example of a case of student espionage involving university basic research; the number of students the administration claims have engaged in or are charged with espionage; or, an estimate of the impact to the U.S. of the alleged espionage that would form the basis for the proclamation. The FOIA request seeks all internal policy documents related to the proclamation, the names of institutions it applies to, and the names of the U.S. institutions the visa holders were planning to attend, among other details. The request argues, Lacking any public explanation, the denial of visas will only contribute to the growing view that the United States is unwelcoming to foreigners and thereby diminish the ability of the United States to attract top talent, as the APS has seen in its annual survey of international students. (APS is an AIP Member Society.)

The White House published a National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies last week that outlines general steps the U.S. is taking to bolster the National Security Innovation Base and protect technology advantage, such as fostering public-private partnerships and expanding export controls. The strategy also lists 20 broad types of critical and emerging technologies that are identified as priorities across the government. The list overlaps with the White Houses Industries of the Future framework and includes additional items such as energy technologies and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear mitigation technologies. In a statement on the strategy, the Commerce Department highlighted its implementation of multilateral export controls on certain emerging technologies pursuant to the Export Control Reform Act of 2018. The latest set, published this month, applies to hybrid additive manufacturing/computer numerically controlled tools; computational lithography software designed for the fabrication of extreme ultraviolet masks; technology for finishing wafers for five nanometer integrated circuit production; digital forensics tools that circumvent authentication or authorization controls on a computer and extract raw data; software for monitoring and analysis of communications and metadata acquired from a telecommunications service provider via a handover interface; and sub-orbital spacecraft.

On Oct. 15, the National Academies announced that its newly established National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable will be led by MIT Vice President for Research Maria Zuber, former National Intelligence Council Chair John Gannon, and former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Richard Meserve. The roundtable will serve as a forum for representatives of the scientific community, federal science agencies, the intelligence community, and law enforcement officials to discuss concerns and activities related to securing research against exploitation by foreign governments. Congress mandated its creation through the Securing American Science and Technology Act, enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. The National Academies has long played a role in advising the government on research security matters, such as through the 1982 Corson report and the 2009 report Beyond Fortress America.

In its quarterly tranche of recommendations released last week, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence proposes a set of broad STEM workforce development initiatives as well as more targeted efforts in microelectronics, quantum computing, and biotechnology. Among its 66 recommendations are for Congress to provide the National Science Foundation with $8 billion over five years to fund 25,000 STEM undergraduate scholarships, 5,000 STEM graduate fellowships, and 500 postdoctoral positions. It also proposes creating a National Microelectronics Scholar Program modeled on the Department of Defenses SMART scholarship-for-service program. For quantum computing, the commission recommends providing researchers with access to quantum computers through a national cloud computing infrastructure and incentivizing domestic manufacturing of component materials through tax credits and loan guarantees. The commission also calls for the White House to create a Technology Competitiveness Council chaired by the vice president to focus government attention on technological innovation.

Among the 97 recommendations released last week by the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is a proposal to reconstitute the long-defunct Office of Technology Assessment as a Congressional Technology and Innovation Lab. The committee explains the new entity would go beyond the mandate of the original OTA by proactively studying and testing new technologies rather than waiting for directives to study technologies. It adds that the lab would employ nonpartisan experts, visiting professors, and graduate students to provide fresh perspectives to members of Congress and their staff. In recent years, there has been a renewed push within Congress to revive OTA, though House appropriators backed away from the idea this year, instead favoring continued expansion of the Government Accountability Offices Science, Technology, Assessment, and Analytics team.

The United Kingdom-based scientific journal Nature officially endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Oct. 14.Having previously published a news article reviewing ways that President Trump has damaged science, the journal's editorsfurther evaluateTrumps record on issues connected to science and criticizes his divisive approach to politics more generally. TheyargueBiden would chart a starkly different course on matters such as the pandemic, climate change, environmental regulation, and immigration, and urge, Joe Biden must be given an opportunity to restore trust in truth, in evidence, in science and in other institutions of democracy, heal a divided nation, and begin the urgent task of rebuilding the United States reputation in the world. While some scientific publications have broken longstanding positions of neutrality to weigh in on this years election, Nature previously backed Hillary Clinton in 2016, when it referred to Trump as a demagogue not fit for high office, and in 2008 it issued a more measured endorsement of Barack Obama.

More than 1,000 current and former officers of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Epidemiology Intelligence Service fellowship programsigned a letter published this month that proteststhe ominous politicization and silencing of the agency. Representing more than a quarter of the people who have participated in the program throughout its nearly 70 year history, the letter adds to the mounting criticism of how the Trump administration has sought control over CDCs pandemic-response efforts. This past week, the Associated Press reported that in June the Trump administration assigned two appointees to the agencys headquarters tasked with keeping an eye on CDC Director Robert Redfield, according to a half-dozen CDC and administration officials. The assignment was made during the same period that the chief spokesperson and a science adviser at the agencys parent department sought to exert control over CDC messaging and scientific products. Both those individuals departed the department last month under a cloud of scandal.

During her nomination hearing last week to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Amy Coney Barrett declined to explain her personal views on climate change when pressed by Democratic senators. In one exchange, vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) asked Barrett if she believes smoking causes cancer and whether coronavirus is infectious before then asking if she believes climate change is occurring. Barrett agreed that the coronavirus is infectious and smoking causes cancer, but declined to provide a direct response on climate change, stating, I will not express a view on a matter of public policy, especially one that is politically controversial because thats inconsistent with the judicial role. Harris observed that Barretts appointment to the court could have implications for climate policy, noting Justice Ginsberg voted in favor of the landmark 5-to-4 Massachusetts v. EPA case, which enabled the government to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

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The Week of October 19, 2020 - FYI: Science Policy News