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View from the Inside

Fiscal Year 2001 Budget Request for the Office of Science

by Sallie Ortiz

Nano information storageWhite House Science Adviser Neal Lane called the overall S&T budget request package for FY 2001 "an historic science and technology budget." If enacted by Congress, it would increase government funding for research by 7%, or $2.8 billion.

The Department of Energy's FY 2001 budget request is $18.9 billion. The theme "Strength Through Science" was chosen by Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson to emphasize that "…the Department of Energy is at its heart a science agency." Forty percent of the total DOE budget request of $18.9 billion is tagged for research and development.

The Office of Science's portion is $3,151 million, which is a 12 percent increase above this year's appropriated budget. The requested FY 2001 funding shows continued support for a strong national scientific infrastructure.

James Decker, Acting Director of the Office of Science, highlighted increased activities for scientific computer simulation, microbial genomics, and bioengineering during his testimony in March before a House Subcommittee. Nanotechnology and robotics are also areas of increased focus in the FY 2001 request.

Computer simulation: The budget asks for $182 million for the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research to increase computer modeling and simulation research and development.

Microbial genomics, an outgrowth of the Office of Science's pioneering work in the Human Genome Program, is expanding efforts in microbial cell research and is funded at $12 million this year. This study of organisms that have survived and thrived in an extreme and inhospitable environment could hold the key to energy production and use, environmental cleanup, medicine, and agriculture and industrial processing.

Bioengineering: A program coordinated with the National Institutes of Health to focus research on bioengineering applications and technologies needed for artificial human organs calls for $6.7 million in funding. This activity builds on the national labs' unique capabilities in mathematical simulation, sensors, microengineering, imaging, materials, lasers, electrochemistry and fiber-optics.

Nanotechnology is funded at $91 million. This research gives scientists and engineers the ability to manipulate matter at the atomic level and could spark further development of supercomputers that fit in the palm of your hand or tiny devices to fight disease or heal injuries from inside our bodies.

Robotics: The budget includes an expanded provision in fundamental research in robotics and intelligent machines for future applications for remote access to Office of Science user facilities and other for important DOE missions.


Basic Energy Sciences (BES): $1,015.8 million; up 30 percent

Most of this increase is attributable to the Spallation Neutron Source, which increases from $117.9 million in FY 2000 to $281.0 million in FY 2001. Ground was broken for construction of SNS in September 1999 in Tennessee. FY 2001 also includes $17.5 million for shutdown and surveillance of the High Flux Beam Reactor at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Materials research, in addition to enhanced funding of $16.9 million for increased activity in nanoscale science, provides $8.0 million to begin a jointly funded (with the National Institute of Health) upgrade to SPEAR 3 at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lab.

Chemical Sciences increases by $16.7 million and supports increased activity in nanoscale science and modeling and simulation.

Research in Engineering and Geosciences will increase by $3.7 million, mostly for increased activity in nanoscale science and robotics and intelligent machines, and Energy Biosciences research will increase by $3.0 million for the microbial cell and plant genome.

The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) increases from $6.8 million in FY 2000 to $9.8 million in FY 2001 to support education activities in the EPSCoR states.

Biological & Environmental Research (BER): $445.3 million, up 2.5 percent

BER has targeted specific activities to support human and microbial genome research, and climate change technology research to address carbon management in areas of science for efficient technologies, fundamental science underpinning advances in low/no-carbon energy sources, and sequestration science.

By the end of FY 2001, the DOE Joint Genome Institute will complete the sequencing and submissions to public databases of 100 million finished and 250 million high quality draft base pairs of DNA, including both human and mouse genomes.

BER will also complete genetic sequencing of at least two additional microbes that produce methane or hydrogen from carbonaceous sources or that could be used to sequester carbon.

Five Intensive Operations Periods will be conducted at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Plains Site, the second station on the North Slope of Alaska will continue to collect data, and the third station in the Tropical Western Pacific on Christmas Island will begin operation.

The first Field Research site for the Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research (NABIR) program will begin field site characterization and subsurface research, providing the fundamental knowledge to develop methods for bioremediation, containment, and cleanup of hazardous waste.

Fusion Energy Sciences (FES): $247.3 million; down 0.2 percent

Highlights of FES plans for FY 2001 include continued operation of Doublet III-D (DIII-D), Alcator C-Mod, and the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) facilities to address high priority fusion energy science issues.

Funding for DIII-D at General Atomics will support three additional weeks of operation in FY 2001, but the Alcator C-Mod at MIT will have four fewer weeks of operation. The NSTX will increase operations in FY 2001.

Funding for Fusion Theory will increase by $3.0 million to support increased activity in simulation and modeling.

Decontamination and decommissioning of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), begun in FY 2000, will continue in FY 2001.

Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR): $182 million, up 42 percent

Computational and technology research has the largest percent increase for FY 2001, reflecting the Office of Science's increased activity in computer simulation.

Highlights of the plan for FY 2001 include the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center's delivery of 3.6 Teraflop capability, and ESnet's continued work to expand and increase access to scientific and technical information on the Internet through specialized information retrieval systems.

ASCR will support a Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Program with the appointment of 10 students to support the next generation of leaders in computational science.

This office will also review and select 200 new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposals for Phase I funding, and review and select 80 of the highest quality previous Phase I projects for Phase II funding.

High Energy Physics (HEP): $714.7 million; up 1.5 percent

The FY 2001 HEP budget is largely driven by the operation of and research at three major facilities, which include Fermilab's Main Injector and the B-Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).

Funding for participation in the Large Hadron Collider remains at $70.0 million in FY 2001, with funding split between accelerator systems ($17.8 million), procurement from industry ($18.5 million), and detectors ($33.7 million).

Funding will decrease slightly at Fermilab as operation of the Tevatron is brought online with the new Fermi Main Injector, and fabrication of upgrades to the two major detectors nears completion.

Assembly of the MINOS Detector continues at $7.0 million in FY 2001, and funding for Muon-Muon Collider R&D, most of which is funded at Fermilab, remains at $8.7 million.

Funding will increase at SLAC primarily for operation of the B-Factory with its BaBar detector. The SLAC portion of the research on the Next Linear Collider (NLC) increases to $17.5 million in FY 2001, while total R&D on the NLC increases from $17.4 million in FY 2000 to $19.2 million in FY 2001.

At Brookhaven National Laboratory, funding will increase for incremental operation of the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) for high priority HEP experiments. Full funding responsibility for the AGS was transferred to Nuclear Physics at the end of FY 1999.

Funding for university research decreases by $1.9 million, but is offset by an increase in university equipment of $5.5 million, primarily for fabrication of non-accelerator hardware. Large-scale modeling and simulation is funded at $5.0 million.

Nuclear Physics (NP): $369.9 million, up 4 percent

NP includes funding for the operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). RHIC is scheduled for 4,800 hours of operation in FY 2001.

The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility will continue operation at 4,500 hours, and deliver continuous beam (at differing energies and currents) to all three experimental halls.

The BATES Accelerator at MIT will continue to operate at 2,000 hours and assembly of the BLAST Detector for BATES will be completed ($1.2 million). MIT's BATES Laboratory will begin operation of the BLAST Detector at the end of FY 2001.

The Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) facility at Oak Ridge will continue operation at a level of 2,300 hours. Funding for Nuclear Theory will increase to $18.2 million to support increased activity in modeling and simulation.


Congress is expected to finalize FY 2001 Science & Technology budget appropriations by the end of May 2000.

The DOE's FY 2001 budget can be accessed at http://www.cfo.doe.gov/budget/01budget/index.htm. The Department of Energy Annual Performance Plan for FY 2001 can be viewed in a pdf format at http://www.cfo.doe.gov/budget/01budget/AnPerfPl/app-final.pdf

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