gy. They have long been seen as a natural part of 

 energy research. Their relevance to other aspects 

 of energy R&D is primarily of the sort described 

 earlier as Type V. They deal with the kind of fun- 

 damental issues whose resolution is likely to re- 

 structure our ways of thinking about the physical 

 world. Such restructuring, if it does occur, will 

 affect all the physical sciences. And if history is a 

 valid guide here, the social consequences are likely 

 to be of great importance. 



The day-to-day interactions with workers in oth- 

 er ERDA programs revolve around the technolo- 

 gies used and developed in the high energy and 

 nuclear physics programs. Accelerator technology 

 vitalizes these programs. Its advancement requires 

 a major part of their resources. It is impressively 

 developed in many ways rather like the technolo- 

 gies of internal combustion engines and aircraft. 

 As accelerator technology has flowered, the appli- 

 cations have multiplied. Accelerators and accelera- 

 tor technologies are widely used in materials re- 

 search and various aspects of research in chemis- 

 try, and, for that matter, increasingly in electronics 

 technologies and clinical medicine. High efficien- 

 cies can be achieved. As much as 50 percent of the 

 total energy for operation of an accelerator can be 

 converted to the kinetic energy of a well-defined 

 beam of ionized particles. In the past several 

 years, two promising direct applications to energy 

 production have been identified and early studies 

 and design work are underway in the high energy 

 and nuclear physics programs. The first of these 

 involves acceleration of heavy ions for implosion 

 of fusion targets and is being carried out jointly 

 with the Division of Laser Fusion. The second, 

 known as accelerator production of fissile materi- 

 als, involves breaking up heavy nuclei in solid tar- 

 gets to give neutrons and other fragments, then 

 capturing the neutrons to generate new fuel for 

 fission reactors (much as is done in breeder reac- 

 tors). 



The high energy and nuclear physics efforts for 

 many years have included pioneering work in the 

 design and construction of large superconducting 

 magnets. Many of the people drawn from these 

 programs now have key positions in the other 

 ERDA efforts concerned with the technology of 

 superconductors, such as superconducting power 

 lines and superconducting magnets for magnetohy- 

 drodynamics and fusion power. High energy physi- 

 cists have also pioneered development of comput- 

 er-based systems for pattern recognition. Such 

 systems are essential for interpretation of the large 

 number of photographs from the particle detectors 

 known as bubble chambers. The systems have 

 proved readily adaptable to other applications, 

 such as analyses connected with regional environ- 

 mental planning and recognition of defective chro- 



mosomes. A number of examples have been cited 

 here to illustrate the range of interactions of the 

 high energy and nuclear physics programs with 

 other matters of importance to ERDA. In practice, 

 the role of these programs in ERDA extends well 

 beyond that of carrying out their particular special 

 mission. 



The special mission research in ERDA derived 

 from the A EC is not confined to high energy and 

 nuclear physics. Two fairly sizable activities with- 

 in the basic energy sciences program should proba- 

 bly also be viewed in this light. This program oper- 

 ates research reactors that are copious sources of 

 neutrons used to probe and elucidate the internal 

 structure of materials. One of these reactors, the 

 High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National 

 Laboratory, was designed as the Nation's principal 

 source of transplutonium elements for research 

 purposes. The levels of effort devoted to studies of 

 materials by neutron-scattering techniques and to 

 production of transplutonium elements for re- 

 search are strongly influenced by the uniqueness 

 and national importance of the ERDA facilities. 

 The same considerations apply to the use of a set 

 of electromagnetic separators at Oak Ridge for 

 production of separated isotopes. Much of the 

 other special mission research in ERDA is applied 

 research. It includes programs devoted to medical 

 applications and to space applications of nuclear 

 technology. 



Examples of Basic Research 



The ERDA programs that include basic research 

 have been identified in the course of the discussion 

 of the roles of basic research in ERDA and a varie- 

 ty of examples have been given of specific re- 

 search tasks. In this section, the full scope of the 

 research will be briefly defined for each of these 

 programs. The total operating costs estimated for 

 fiscal year 1978 are used as a measure of program 

 size. Under ERDA's budgeting system, these costs 

 exclude those for capital equipment and construc- 

 tion of new facilities. For the programs carrying 

 out research described earlier as technology-ori- 

 ented, the total operating costs are dominated by 

 expenditures for applied research, technology de- 

 velopment, and demonstration projects. 



The interfaces among these programs are com- 

 plex and often critically important to ERDA's 

 effectiveness. Coordination among the programs 

 demands strong and continuing attention. A varie- 

 ty of mechanisms are used. A number of interfa- 

 cial areas are covered by formal staff coordinating 

 committees such as in the areas of materials, com- 

 bustion research, and nuclear data. ^Vorkshops 



168 



ENERGY RESEARCH S DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION 



