State of the Laboratory -- 1994

Good morning, and welcome to the 1994 State-of-the-Lab report.

To paraphrase Charles Dickens: It is the best of times, it is the worst of times.

It is the best of times because the state of this laboratory generally is good -- and getting better. Argonne today is a living example of teamwork -- surviving and growing in an often turbulent world of scientific research and shifting national priorities. It's a world of flux and change that has seriously battered other laboratories. Yet we are generally healthy and our outlook is good.

We are at the forefront of research in many fields, we are well positioned in terms of scientific and technological trends, and we are in tune with the Clinton Administration's major objectives.

All these positives are thanks to your efforts and those of your colleagues.

Yet this also is the worst of times, because once again we find ourselves negotiating the future thrust and structure of our nuclear energy programs.

Threat to the Integral Fast Reactor

Once again, the Integral Fast Reactor is threatened.

Last year, we weathered strong opposition that saw the IFR defeated in the House but restored in the Senate. This year, forces opposing the IFR are even stronger.

And the administration, which backed the IFR last year, is now recommending its termination.

The IFR continues to receive support from allies in Congress, from the scientific community, and from Argonne's neighbors and employees. Yet I must tell you frankly that the outcome is uncertain.

You may have read news reports about negotiations among Argonne, the University of Chicago and DOE to bring more nuclear-related work to Argonne to compensate for what we might lose if the IFR is terminated. Those reports are substantially true.

Argonne and DOE together developed alternate programs that would use the lab's reactor research capabilities in areas that are more acceptable to the administration. Possibilities include working on technologies that support non-proliferation objectives, such as developing low-enriched fuel for research reactors, and technologies for tracking and monitoring weapons- grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium. Other possibilities include technologies to treat spent nuclear fuel and nuclear wastes; conducting research and safety analysis for advanced light-water reactors, nuclear reactors in former Soviet nations; domestic nuclear fuel cycle and waste management; and research into methods for decontaminating and decommissioning nuclear facilities. There are positive elements to these proposals. They represent substantial areas where valuable research can be done.

However, as with the future of the IFR itself, Congress must approve these or any other changes in the lab's nuclear mission. And it is there the matter rests for now. In fact, the Senate committee is marking-up the energy bill today. As much as I wish I could tell you what will happen, at this moment no one can confidently predict the outcome.

One thing I can say with absolute certainty -- as well as considerable pride -- is that all through this on- going turmoil, the Argonne IFR team continues to move the project forward. They continue enhancing its capability with additions such as this electrorefiner in the IFR fuel- cycle facility.

The dedication and achievements of our IFR team in such a difficult political environment should serve as a model for us all.

Such performance by Argonne people is one reason this laboratory overall is doing very well. It's important to keep that overall success in mind.

Rated `Excellent' overall by DOE

We've been rated "Excellent" by the Department of Energy; we have more than 200 research projects under way; we are active in areas of national priority, from the information superhighway to the clean-car initiative; and, responding to an administration elected under the banner of "change," Argonne is at the cutting edge of change among America's national laboratories.

Just look at our work in technology transfer. And our progress in quality management -- which brings me right back to the importance of people to Argonne's success.

There are more of us today than at any time in the last 12 years. And the trend continues upward as Argonne's mission expands. You may know that such is not the case at some other national labs. As you see, we're projecting a one-percent increase in regular employees next year.

I'm also pleased to be able to tell you that we're projecting a payroll increase next year too. Yes, the salary freeze ends when fiscal-year `94 ends on September 30. The Department of Energy has informed us that it has no plans for any similar freeze in the foreseeable future.

One measure of Argonne's people is, I think, the fact that you've worked under a salary freeze for almost a year, yet we see no fall-off in productivity, effort, or dedication to this lab. That in itself is remarkable. And while your salaries were flat, you nonetheless increased your contributions to the Argonne Combined Appeal by more than 6 percent. To be chief executive officer of such an organization is for me a continuing honor.

Our staff and payroll are growing because our job is growing, as reflected by our operating budget. We're projecting just over a five percent increase in operating funds next year, after slightly less than a seven percent increase this year. Our total budget -- which includes construction money and capital equipment, as well as operating funds -- will actually decline a bit next year, due almost entirely to a fully anticipated reduction in construction funds as the APS nears completion.

All those projections assume our nuclear energy programs continue at about the same level. And of course, as I've said, the outcome of that is uncertain.

Responding to changing national priorities

In Washington, the same shifts in national priorities which necessitate restructuring our nuclear-energy program are expanding our current and potential mission in other areas by adding strong environmental, tech transfer, and job creation overtones to our ongoing efforts in energy and basic scientific research.

The Department of Energy recognizes those evolving national priorities in what it calls its core competencies: advanced materials development; high-performance computing and communication; advanced manufacturing; and energy and environmental technologies. Within that framework, different national labs stress and expand on different competencies. But you will recognize that Argonne is active in each of those areas.

You also will recognize Argonne as an advocate of another new priority at DOE -- a drive to achieve Total Quality Management, or TQM. Here, we call it the Argonne Quality Management Initiative. It's a philosophy that stresses a customer perspective, teamwork, and heightened employee involvement -- and measuring results to ensure continuous improvement. We've already seen interesting results in the area of productivity. We'll continue to evolve this program and implement it in other areas at Argonne in the future.

And we will continue to evolve in other ways in the years ahead.

The Secretary of Energy has assembled a committee to study the future of the labs. That committee is headed by Robert Galvin of Motorola, and its report may be the next major impetus for change.

Because we are confident of your talent and your commitment, we view this changing research landscape as an opportunity for Argonne and Argonne people. It certainly has been that way thus far.

Environmental, tech-transfer programs reorganized

And nowhere is that opportunity more apparent than in the Clinton Administration's support and encouragement for programs in energy and environmental science and technology.

There, organizational realignment is the most visible sign of our gearing up to meet the challenge. We've pulled the tech-transfer programs together under Dick Weeks as general manager, and the environmental programs together under Terry Surles as general manager.

Earlier I spoke of the administration's emphasis on change, technology transfer and environment. These Argonne realignments position us to respond faster and more thoroughly to that administration emphasis. I'm pleased to note also that we did this a while ago, whereas other labs are just doing it today.

Technology transfer successes

Our response has been especially rapid and visible in the area of technology transfer. Through cooperative research and development agreements and other mechanisms, Argonne today works with hundreds of companies on profit-oriented projects aimed at producing higher quality fiber, safer herbicides, lower cost gasoline, and other potentially valuable products and processes. Our research work with large organizations tends to draw the most attention. Yet equally important to the nation is our joint research with smaller companies. Since 1987, thirty-four licenses and license options involving Argonne-developed technology have been executed, and four new companies based on Argonne inventions have been created. Current and former Argonne employees have formed nearly 50 spin-off companies, creating hundreds of private sector jobs.

One of those companies, Illinois Superconductor Corporation, was formed in 1989 by ARCH Corporation, the Argonne and University of Chicago joint development organization. Illinois Superconductor Corporation is based on high-temperature superconducting inventions from Argonne and Northwestern University. Illinois Superconductor actually went public last year, and its initial stock offering was well received. Incidentally, my saying that isn't a recommendation to buy or not buy their stock.

In other tech transfer areas involving multiple national labs, Argonne often leads the field in mission allocation and funding. Two examples are the AMTEX partnership to improve the global competitiveness of the American textile industry, and the USCAR program to create an efficient, affordable vehicle for the 21st Century. In each effort, Argonne has a major fraction of the funding in respect to the other national labs.

Energy and environmental science and technology

Our environmental programs also are among America's foremost such efforts. From massive projects such as the global CLIMATE atmospheric radiation measurement site to smaller-scale, but no less significant, socio-environmental efforts, such as our Bethel New-Life community program in Chicago's West Garfield neighborhood, Argonne is leading the way.

Biology programs also continue moving forward, with a particularly noteworthy milestone this year being establishment of the Structural Biology Center at APS. Biologists worldwide will use SBC beamlines for a variety of research projects -- among them the development of new therapeutic approaches to AIDS and inflammation control.

Advanced Photon Source

The Structural Biology Center's new home here is just one in a series of successes and major milestones at the Advanced Photon Source. APS continues on-budget and ahead-of-schedule as it moves toward initial experimentation in 1996.

The Advanced Photon Source is a watershed program for Argonne, as I recently told the Galvin Committee.

We just hosted our largest ever APS Users Group meeting, demonstrating that interest and enthusiasm among the science and business community remain high.

Just a few months ago, Illinois Governor Jim Edgar visited APS and noted that "... the advancements that will be possible through this new X-ray technology will enable business and industry to become more competitive." He also brought us a check to help pay for the new, 240-bed APS user residence, which we expect will house 2,000 visiting scientists each year. Getting state participation in this is no small achievement.

Thus far, we've signed seven APS collaborative access team agreements, or CATs, with consortia and companies including Dupont, Dow Chemical, Northwestern University, and many more. We expect four or five more CATs to be signed within the next 60 days.

One especially noteworthy CAT was signed earlier this month in Washington with researchers from Howard University, the University of Michigan and AT&T Bell Laboratories. The Secretary of Energy attended that signing, which is a sign of its significance. The team will use two X-ray beamlines to study ultrafast chemical reactions and the positions of atoms in materials.

Without question, APS is well on its way to becoming the nation's best, most-responsive user research facility and a jewel in the crown of the national lab system.

Physical research

Argonne operates in an era where applications-oriented research and what some in Washington and elsewhere call short-term "kitchen-table" impact are stressed. In this environment, basic science can be threatened by neglect. We're working to keep that from happening. And we've achieved some notable successes.

Argonne's physical research divisions are holding their own in most areas while basic research in some other facilities declines. In some areas, we're even advancing.

Just as Chicago was the frontier of nuclear energy 50 years ago, today we stand at the frontier of high-performance, scalable, parallel computing with our 128-microprocessor IBM SP-1 supercomputer. We're working with colleagues from around the country in our High-Performance Computing Consortium.

In doing that, we're again balancing basic scientific imperatives with commercial and political reality. And perhaps Argonne's ability to do that is one reason the SP-1 is here rather than at some other lab.

The computing technology and applications we develop with the SP-1 will help American industry keep its global edge in productivity and technology. Those companies certainly think so, or they wouldn't be joining us in this Consortium.

Another Argonne facility attracting outside researchers is ATLAS, our tandem linear accelerator. In concert with seven universities, we've added the 20-foot-long APEX detector to ATLAS so that we can probe what may be a new subatomic particle. ATLAS's heavy-ion acceleration and beam-focusing technology is highly reliable, thanks in part to use of superconducting materials. That reliability helped make it a natural site for this investigation.

Reliability and performance also are hallmarks of our Intense Pulsed Neutron Source. Last December, it produced its four-billionth pulse -- the equivalent of four years' continuous operation. Although this facility has been operating since 1981, its reliability remains at about 95 percent. We consider IPNS a highly capable research tool, with potential for even bigger things. And the IPNS also demonstrated our ability to run a user facility, which is one reason we were considered to be a site for the APS.

Even when Argonne scientists don't have a lead role in a project, we are often involved in helping make it happen. Such was the case recently when our colleagues at Fermilab discovered evidence of an elementary particle called the "top quark." Argonne helped build Fermilab's collider-detector, we built and provided hardware and software support for its central electromagnetic calorimeters, and we built and help operate Fermilab's pre-radiators. Wide publicity for such achievements -- whether at Argonne, Fermilab, or elsewhere -- helps all of us by promoting the worth of basic scientific research.

And one increasingly vital mechanism for preaching that gospel of basic research and its importance is via Argonne's educational programs. As DEP works to meet its primary goal of helping develop tomorrow's scientists, engineers and mathematicians, they also spread the word that science has a bright future in America. The Chicago Explorers Program we initiated with Bill Kurtis is now being copied around the country.

Efforts like these help assure Argonne and America a continuing supply of talented, young scientists to keep us going into and through the 21st century.

Non-programmatic achievements

But of course even the brightest scientists and engineers need a smooth-running place to work. And operations people keep Argonne running.

They deliver the power, clear the roads, check our blood pressure, ensure our safety, process our benefit claims, keep us legal, tell our story to the world, and make sure we get our paychecks. They even made sure you, your family, and your guests had a good time at our recent open house. And they helped Argonne's running team win this year's Chicago Distance Classic.

Massive progress has been made to our site over recent years. The buildings look better, the roads are smoother, and all the things we so easily take for granted -- things like water, electricity, sewage, and air-conditioning -- are far more reliable.

It's a continuing effort. Over the past decade we've spent more than $100 million to upgrade or replace substandard facilities, build new ones, enhance our fire protection, and improve or replace the roads, lines, pipes and wires that are called our infrastructure. Our site-beautification campaign also has made Argonne look a lot better than it did a decade ago.

Our environmental safety and health program also continues to be a growing contributor to Argonne's achievements. So much so that we have earned DOE's top safety ranking. Our lost-time injury "severity index" rate is less than half the DOE average. But that's not good enough for us -- we've hired the Dupont safety folks to help us become "the best of the best." This year, we'll spend about $28 million to help assure your safety and health on the job. That's an increase of 6.5 percent over 1993.

ES&H is but one of the many Argonne human-service programs you encounter every day. From our new policy-and-procedures manual and family-leave policy to the Child Development Center, employee assistance program, sports tickets, and cardiovascular testing. These efforts help give Argonne that "family quality" outsiders often admire.

For an organization committed to people, it's only natural to stress "people programs" as a vital ingredient for productivity and performance.

And speaking of people programs: As I hope all of you know, affirmative action remains among our highest management priorities. Women now comprise 27 percent of the Argonne work force, but considerably less than that in management and scientific positions. We have made progress, however. Our "Science Careers in Search of Women" program is one sign of that progress. We recently invited more than 375 young women from 73 Chicago-area high schools to Argonne to learn why a science career would be worthwhile for them.

Our staff mix also is better. Today 16.5 percent of Argonne supervisors are women, as are 16.8 percent of our professional managers, and 10.9 percent of our scientists and engineers. But we need to go further, and we are. I hope I'm able to report additional significant increases in those percentages next year.

This morning, we've talked about many Argonne people and jobs and facilities, from nuclear reactors to sewer pipe. No matter the site or the job or the person, though, we're all part of the same team -- mutually supportive and focused on the same goals.

That's the most important reason we've endured and grown in this environment of change.

One key player on the Argonne team is the University of Chicago, and we continue to receive strong support there.

To sustain Argonne's growth in fiscal year `95 and beyond requires more of the same -- consistently high dedication, consistently strong commitment, and consistently hard work from you, from me, and from every member of the Argonne team.

My final point this morning is aimed at all the directors, managers, supervisors, and team leaders in this audience: You can help Argonne the most by never forgetting that people determine our future. All the tools, all the instruments, all the buildings mean nothing without talented, trained and motivated people to use them. This is an underlying principle of quality management, and a primary responsibility of every Argonne supervisor.

Quality management's payoff is continuous improvement ... and only people can deliver that. People are the Argonne edge. Let's keep it so.