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DISCUSSION 



Mr. FuQUA. Thank you very much. 



I had the pleasure of visiting for about an hour-and-a-half with 

 members of the Science and Technology Committee of the Europe- 

 an Parliament. This was a subject of conversation and they ex- 

 pressed interest in United States' participation in a joint European- 

 Japan effort in fusion similar to what you are doing in JET. 



By the way, we enjoyed very much our visit to the JET facility 

 last fall. It was a very interesting concept. 



Do you see any inherent impediments with joint efforts with 

 the European Community and the United States in fusion? 



Dr. WtrsTER. No, sir. I think if one speaks of collaboration be- 

 tween any two of the four important geographical units in the 

 ^vorld in the fusion work, I would think that due to their similari- 

 ties in economic structure, in political background, and also 

 common cultural background, collaboration between the United 

 States and Europe ought to be the simplest one, especially since 

 our policies for the responsible organization of research also in in- 

 dustry seem to be more similar than those in other places. 



However, I should not hide that there is in my mind, due to pre- 

 vious experience in other collaborative efforts between the United 

 States and other governments, a problem which in my mind is im- 

 portant and ought to be resolved. One of the main advantages 

 which we have traded in for the non-negligible complication of 

 international organizations is that our work maybe will be started 

 slowly, and it is subject to complicated political and administrative 

 decisions. But we get something out of it. We get out of this system 

 of consultation and deliberation and decision, long-term progress 

 which is reliable. In other words, in both fields— I have worked in 

 building accelerators before, and in fusion— the international 

 projects are more stable, have a more reliable medium term, 5- to 

 10-year planning background than the comparable or smaller na- 

 tional projects. 



We are used— and that is a very important thing, indeed— that 

 with a well-constructed international collaboration and organiza- 

 tion you have less to worry about after you have once discussed the 

 aim once and for all. 



We have, for instance, for the fusion program indeed every three 

 years a program discussion, but that takes about 1 year. So 2 years 

 we just work, and that is better than having a basic discussion 

 which might put ever3rthing in question every year. 



I believe this is something which you gentlemen ought to take 

 very much in mind, that it needs convincing that appropriations 

 will not be decided in the course of the year, but are reliable. I 

 mean, I write four letters just telling my members how much 

 money is due. I don't discuss how much I get. That is a change 

 from what my colleagues have in this country. 



Mr. FuQUA. Do you think a project such as the SSC would be 

 conducive to that type of cooperation? 



Dr. WtJSTER I believe any very large project which, in any way, 

 will entail considerable problems of selection of experiments, deci- 

 sion on proposals and decisions on program, if it is a very large ac- 



