400 Nature Vol. 292 30 July 1981 research by AID in 1980. A particularly sig­ with the rise of the independent trade union zation, one change is certain - a revision nificant increase is in energy research, movement last August. of the present practice of financing science scheduled to grow from $3.4 million in The new system, which is to be intro­ by "problems" ostensibly related to 1980 to $16.3 million in 1982. duced in four phases over the next 18 economic needs and organized into a The impact the increase in funds and the months, will allow for more public and cumbersome hierarchy of priorities. internal reorganization will have remains expert discussion in advance of overall Among likely innovations are direct controversial. Those in Congress who production plans and delegate to factories research contracts between industry and argued most strongly for the institute are initiative for deciding how they fit in with the universities or academy institutes and somewhat sceptical. the overall targets. the allocation of funds for basic research This scepticism is reflected in a report As in Hungary, the authorities will steer directly to the institutions concerned. from the House Foreign Affairs Com­ production by a system of financial For the moment, however, virtually all mittee on the AID budget request, which incentives, but factory managements will such funding will come in non-convertible has included as a separate item a proposed have considerable responsibility for zloty. Hard currency for the purchase of $10 million (reduced from President decision-making on modernization and equipment, reagents or journals from the Carter's requested $18 million) for the technological innovation. One of the West is simply not to be had; according to support of scientific and technological major charges laid against the previous one leading physicist, only two sub­ cooperation with developing countries. Gierek government in the preamble to the scriptions to Nature are now authorized for The committee has reinserted this money new plan is that autocratic planning thewholeofWarsaw. Vera Rich into the broader category of "selected blocked technical innovation. At the same development activities''. time, many of Mr Gierek's prestigious British Technology Group In fact, much of this money will be spent schemes are being dropped. The in a way comparable to what the institute "Program-Wisla", for example, which would have done, but through a different was totally to remodel Poland's major Mixed marriage agency, the National Academy of Sciences. waterway by the end of the century, has Last week, Britain's National Enterprise AID has agreed to provide $35 million of its been cut back to its environmental and Board and the National Research Develop­ science and technology funds over the next agricultural components. The schemes for ment Corporation finally merged. The five years to a new grants programme hydroelectric dams and the straightening British Technology Group, as the two are established under the academy's Board on of rivers have been dropped sine die. now called, has been in the offing since Sir Science and Technology for International Other harm done by Gierek's policies Frederick Wood was appointed chairman Development. will not be so easily remedied. Discrimin­ of both the board and the corporation at The grants, which will be $5 million for ation against the private farmer in the the beginning of the year. His plan for a 1981 and increase to $10 million by the pricing and supply system ran agriculture merger has now been accepted by the middle of the decade, will be spent largely down to a level where even the new government, although legislation to give on supporting research activities in the de­ rationing system cannot ensure supplies of the group formal status will not be possible veloping countries on projects selected by basic home-produced foods. The abolition until 1983. an advisory board. "One of our principal of the small pharmaceutical cooperative The plan is that the group will offer more goals is to help developing countries build factories in the 1970s has meant that streamlined services to innovators seeking up their research capabilities, precisely the Poland has had to shop abroad for a wide backing for their ventures than either of the request that they were making at UNCSTD variety of drugs whose production runs parent organizations. The merger will also (the United National Conference on were too small for the state pharmaceutical eliminate competition between the board and Science and Technology for Development) enterprise Polfa - and when hard corporation for the same projects. in Vienna in 1979", says the board's staff currency ran out, so did the supply of even The function of the former corporation director, Dr Victor Rabinowitch. the most essential drugs. The international to support research and development into When the grants programme is added to relief operation to ensure vital supplies now potentially marketable innovations will be its more traditional activities, such as being mounted jointly by Solidarity and largely taken over by the group's arranging seminars on Third World the Polish Ministry of Health is a strange technology transfer division. And the problems, the board will begin to resemble contrast with the anxiety in the mid-1960s board's experience in raising finance to a scaled-down version of the Institute for in the United Kingdom that Polish drugs invest in industry will be incorporated into Scientific and Technological Cooperation. might undercut the domestic products. the new investment and operations Furthermore its relative autonomy from Although the new plan pays lip-service divisions, the latter being responsible for AID goes some way to meeting the objec­ to the strengthening of scientific and tech­ returning investments to the private sector. tions of those who argued that, as put nical ties with other (especially Comecon) Both parent organizations have been forward by the Carter Administration, the countries, it is also clear that for the present widely criticized in the past. The board, inclusion of the institute under the Poland will have to rely mainly on home­ which was originally set up in 1965 by the umbrella of development aid bodies would based technology. then Labour government with the potent have stifled its flexibility. David Dickson A reorganization of the responsible title of Industrial Reconstruction ministries is also on the cards. One is for a Corporation, has since been substantially Polish economic reform State Committee for Technical Progress curtailed. And the corporation has been responsible to the Prime Minister. The new criticized mainly by academics for not body would be unique in the Comecon bloc being adventurous enough in supporting Self-governance wins in dealing only with technology, and may their innovations and persuading industry Warsaw point to an ultimate break-up of the to take them up. The British Technology The latest Polish plans for economic Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Group is intended primarily to marry the reform, discussed in considerable detail Technology. Straws in the wind include the corporation's access to innovators with the during the recent extraordinary Party appointment last month of a mining board's financial expertise. There is to be a congress, include a major shake-up for specialist, Jerzy Nawrocki, as Minister of new liaison team whose prime respon­ Polish science and technology. The basis of Science, Higher Education and sibility will be to scour the universities more the proposed new economic model is a Technology, and the plans discussed at the aggressively than in the past. switch from rigid central planning of congress for a complete review of the The group is also to have a new corporate industrial production to a degree of "self­ country's industrial research institutes and development unit to develop strategies for governance" (samorzadnosc) - a word the closure of those not cost effective. investment. Areas of priority are advanced introduced into the Polish political lexicon Whatever the final form of the reorgani- manufacturing and biotechnology. A

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study team on robotics has already for nuclear power. Under the Central In testimony before a congressional presented a strategy paper to the group Electricity Generating Board scenario, committee in March which has just been which is expected to result in investments which assumes a fairly rapid growth in declassified, the Department of Energy within the next few months. The group also nuclear power stations, the barrage is requested an increase in funds to $155 has plans for investing in biotechnology in marginally unattractive, says the com­ million over the next three years to support areas not covered by Celltech, the company mittee. But it could provide an attractive this research and its application to set up by the board last year. alternative if nuclear plans are modified plutonium enrichment. This money would As yet the group does not know precisely only slightly. include the construction of a pilot plant, how much public money it will have to and the department is also discussing plans spend. The precise structure of the new to construct a $200 million multipurpose organization should become clearer in plutonium isotope production plant. September. Judy Redfearn In a letter sent last week to the Secretary of Energy, Mr James Edwards, a staff Tidal energy scientist and an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council say that the The big dam plutonium laser isotope separation programme ''carries grave nuclear The economic feasibility of a tidal weapons proliferation risks" and is barrage for generating electricity across the ''totally inconsistent with the fundamental Severn estuary in south-west England will objective of President Reagan's nuclear depend on how many nuclear power non-proliferation policy". stations are attached to the national grid. They point out that although the depart­ In most circumstances, however, a barrage ment has identified several other appli­ would be a good investment, according to a cations for the process - such as the report by the Severn Barrage Committee enrichment of fuel-grade plutonium as fuel published last week. The committee, set up for the breeder reactor research in 1978 under Sir Hermann Bondi, then programme - • 'it appears that these appli­ chief scientist at the Department of cations would not serve as adequate justi­ Energy, and whose deliberations have cost fication for the program, particularly in £2.3 million, has also concluded that a light of the severe proliferation dangers". barrage is technically feasible but has called In their presentation to the congressional for detailed studies of its potential envi­ committee, Department of Energy officials ronmental, industrial and social impact. said that the purpose of the expanded The outlook for a barrage across the programme was to make available for Severn estuary, which has one of the weapons use approximately 70 tonnes of greatest tidal ranges in the world, has The committee seems convinced that a plutonium by reprocessing commercial improved considerably in the past two Severn barrage should at least be seriously spent fuel and then enriching the years, according to the committee. considered as a possible alternative to plutonium to weapons-grade by laser Approximately 40 per cent more energy investment in nuclear power. Before a isotope separation. It would be possible to should be obtainable from an inner decision is finally taken, however, it convert fuel-grade plutonium produced by barrage, the scheme favoured by the recommends further studies of the effects the department's nuclear reactor in committee, than was originally thought. on water levels, wildlife and local amenities Hanford, Washington, to weapons-grade. And electricity generation should be and the capacity of British industry to cope One of the purposes of the laser isotope possible nine rather than 16 years after the with such a project. If the government separation process is to enrich plutonium start of construction. decides to take investigations further, the to weapons grade by reducing the concen­ The committee estimates that the most next step should be an acceptability and tration of the major contaminant isotope cost-effective scheme would cost about preliminary design study costing £20 Pu-240, which is not spontaneously fissile. £5,600 million and would generate 13 TWh million and the building of prototype According to testimony given to Congress a year from an installed capacity of 7,200 concrete units at a cost of £25 million. by F. Charles Gilbert, assistant secretary MW. That scheme is for an inner barrage Judy Redfearn for nuclear materials at the Department of from Brean Down to Lavernock Point con­ Energy, plutonium is placed in one of four sisting of large prefabricated concrete units US nuclear weapons categories depending on the concentration housing turbines and sluices. A more of the Pu-240 contaminant: reactor-grade ambitious barrage built further out to sea, Lasers purify for 19 per cent or greater, fuel-grade for costing £8,900 million and generating 20 between 7 and 19 per cent, weapons-grade TWh from 12,000 MW capacity, would be Washington for less than 7 per cent, and supergrade for less economic and involve greater risk A Washington environmentalist group is between 2 and 3 per cent. during construction. The inner barrage trying to prevent the Department of Energy The laser enrichment process has two scheme, on which the committee has based from carrying out an expanded programme non-military uses. The first is the most of its calculations, has the added of research into laser isotope techniques separation of the Pu-238 isotope, which is advantage that a second barrage could be for separating plutonium for US nuclear used in space satellites and heart added at a later stage. The two together weapons from spent nuclear fuel. pacemakers, as well as for a heat source in would provide as much energy as the outer A classified research programme into thermoelectric generators. The second is barrage at a similar overall cost. laser isotope separations, using copper the separation of the Pu-241 isotope which Because of the variability in tidal energy, vapour lasers for uranium enrichment, has decays to Am-21 which is used in smoke a barrage would reduce the need for other been carried out at a relatively low level of detectors and for logging wells. According generating capacity only by about 1,000 funding at the Department of Energy's to the Department of Energy, the non­ GW, according to the committee, most Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory weapons applications at present require savings being in fossil fuel. And as nuclear and the Los Alamos National Laboratory less than two per cent of the output of the power is also capital-intensive and low on since the mid- I 970s - in both 1980 and Savannah River plant, which is the current fuel costs, the attractiveness of a barrage 1981 total funding for the programme was source of supergrade plutonium. will to a large extent depend on future plans $5 million. David Dickson

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