DOE Gains New Secretary, Approves NIF; Prabhakar Leaving NIST

PENA CONFIRMED AS ENERGY SECRETARY: On March 12, Federico F. Pena was confirmed as Secretary of Energy. The Senate vote was 99-1, with only Senator Rod Grams (R-MN) voting against Pena. Grams’ opposition was fueled by his disagreement with the Administration over policies for building a nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Grams argued that Pena “has not provided the needed answers or displayed the leadership necessary to help resolve this pressing national issue.... I cannot, in good conscience, today vote to confirm Mr. Pena to be our next Secretary of Energy.” Pena has no previous experience with most of DOE’s missions, but won praise for his management abilities as Transportation Secretary in President Clinton’s first term. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell noted that “The Department of Transportation...is now leaner and more effective than it once was--success in taming and trimming a vast bureaucracy that can only be accomplished with discipline, determination, and hard work that Federico Pena was willing to put in.” Pena also brings a local perspective on nuclear waste and clean-up issues from his previous service as mayor of Denver, Colorado, close to DOE’s Rocky Flats site. (See FYIs #4, 18 , 32 .) In a White House statement announcing Pena’s confirmation, President Clinton stated, “As Transportation Secretary, Federico Pena built consensus among communities, business and government and streamlined operations to reap benefits for all taxpayers.... With this record, I am confident that Secretary Pena has the skill, experience and dedication to lead the Energy Department to meet its central challenges -- to broaden America’s energy resources, to promote a safer, more secure world and to help to create a brighter economic future for all Americans.”

DOE APPROVES NIF: The Department of Energy has given approval for construction to begin on the world’s largest laser, the National Ignition Facility (NIF), to be built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. With the Administration’s decision to cease underground nuclear testing, the facility will play a central role in ensuring the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile through science-based stewardship. According to a DOE press release, the NIF “will direct the energy of 192 laser beams onto a small (one millimeter) capsule containing isotopes of hydrogen to induce a fusion reaction...simulating reactions in the explosion of thermonuclear warheads.... When used with other data and advanced computational capability, results from this work will allow assessment, without testing, of the reliability of the nation’s nuclear stockpile as it ages.” Full construction funding of $876.4 million has been asked for in DOE’s FY 1998 budget request, though only a portion of that will be spent in that fiscal year. When completed, the release says, NIF will produce “50 times the energy of any laser now in existence,” and “will be a multipurpose research facility with defense and civilian applications such as fusion energy research and astrophysics.”

PRABHAKAR TO LEAVE NIST: On March 12, NIST director Arati Prabhakar announced she will be stepping down from the directorship of the Commerce Department agency. She has accepted a position as senior vice president and chief technology officer for the Raychem Corporation of California. The directorship of NIST requires appointment by the President. Physicist Robert Hebner will continue to serve as NIST acting director, a position he has filled for the past few months while Prabhakar took maternity leave. Prior to that he was NIST’s deputy director.