The danger that political inertia, which makes pro- 

 jects hard to start, but even harder to stop, will 

 dominate; 



— The possibility of drains on national research budgets 

 because of international commitments; 



— The tendency to undertake, internationally, only low- 

 priority projects; and 



— The apparent conflict between cooperation and impro- 

 ving a nation's competitive position. 



These types of opportunities and difficulties may well be the 

 focus, for example, for discussions that have begun in the Congress, 

 the Administration, and the international scientific community over 

 the construction of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), a big 

 science high-energy physics facility that may have construction costs 

 that will fall in the range of $3 to $7 billion, an amount that 

 dwarfs the costs of most big science facilities listed in this 

 report . 4/ 



The 1982 Versailles Summit meeting of the heads of state or 

 government of the United States, Canada, France, the Federal Republic 

 of Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the President of 

 the Commission of the European Communities, as reaffirmed in their 

 London Summit meeting, emphasized the importance of international 

 science and technology to the nations involved. As a result of this 

 initiative, a number of international working groups were established 

 to deal with several areas of science. Those working groups which 

 most closely relate to the areas of big science discussed in this 

 report are solar system exploration (U.S. lead), remote sensing from 

 space (U.S. lead), high-energy physics (U.S. lead), controlled ther- 

 monuclear fusion (U.S. -European Community co-lead), fast breeder 

 reactor design (U.S. -France co-lead), and advanced materials and 

 standards (U.S. -U.K. co-lead). These initiatives are summarized 

 briefly in the most recent Title V Report of the President to the 

 Congress. 5/ The summaries are included in this report as appendix 

 1. The Title V Report also discusses the current state of U.S. 

 international cooperation in science in some detail. 



4/ SSC: Progress on Magnets, Uncertainty on Foreign Collabor- 

 ation" Physics Today, v. 38, Mar. 1985. p. 63-66. 



5/ Science, Technology, and American Diplomacy, 1985: Sixth 



AnnuaT~Report Submitted to the Congress by the President Pursuant to 



Section 503(b) of Title V of Public Law 95-426. Mar. 20, 1985. 

 p. 15-17. 



