Re: National Labs -- radiological connection

[Jim Muckerheide <jmuckerheide@delphi.com>]

Good, Ruth. Add that ALL the major gov't radioactivity/radiation research
institutes should be separated from their respective gov't agencies, to kill
the 'mission bias' at DOE, EPA, NRC, NIH, NCI, etc.  PLUS, National Academies
(BRER/BEIR Committees), NCRP and other such groups should NOT be funded for
specific studies by the mission agencies, using 'scientists' that are funded
by the agencies - assuring undue influence and bias.

Regards, Jim
muckerheide@mediaone.net
Radiation, Science, and Health
==============================

ruth_weiner wrote:
> 
> Having thought some about Melissa's comment:
> 
> A good deal of research into radioactive materials is done at the national
> laboratories.  In particular, almost all plutonium chemistry, and a good
> deal of other actinide chemistry, is done at national laboratories, in part
> because many of these laboratories are already equipped to handle these
> materials and because they have attracted many actinide chemists as staff
> members.  Perhaps this should be done in the private sector, but most such
> research does not yield an immediate usable (let alone profitable) result,
> and private sector companies are reluctant to spend money on risky ventures,
> for good reason.
> 
> Over the years, government-funded laboratories have produced a lot of good
> research which has eventually found both use and salability (e.g., DARPANET,
> exhaust emission controls on cars).  Even the work I do, and did at
> Sandia -- assessing risk of transporting radioactive materials -- uses a
> program and code developed at a national laboratory, with DOE funding, that
> is now heavily used in the civilian nuclear power reactor world.
> 
> In 1960, as a graduate assistant, I set up one of the first radiochemistry
> teaching laboratories in the U. S.  It was funded entirely by the federal
> government.  My postdoctoral fellowship (1963-64) was funded by the AEC.
> Finally, working at Sandia I have been able to learn an enormous amount
> about radioactive materials that would have been unavailable to me as a
> professor at a second-string university scraping for grant money.
> 
> Where is this leading?  The national lab system is, as has been pointed out,
> dying, and with it go a very large number of careers in science, both
> existing and potential, and particularly in the science of radioactive
> materials.  My own suggestion (but who am I?  nobody) would be to separate
> the national labs from DOE funding and oversight, and make them an
> independent consortium that acts as the first line of scientific support for
> the entire U. S. government.   OK there are problems and this is a
> complicated business, but the suggestion is no more facile than "let the
> private sector do it."
> 
> Thanks for the soapbox, and Melissa, I tried to make it relevant.
> 
> Ruth F. Weiner
> ruth_weiner@msn.com
> 
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