Brookhaven National Lab Picked as Electron-Ion Collider Site

The Department of Energy announced on Jan. 9 that it has selected Brookhaven National Laboratory as the site for the Electron-Ion Collider, a proposed nuclear science facility that the department estimates will cost between $1.6 billion and $2.6 billion. Brookhavens proposal for the collider calls for it to be built as a modification of the labs existing Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. DOE granted the project initial approval on Dec. 19 and plans will be further developed over a period of years before the final go-ahead is ultimately given to begin construction. Provided Congress appropriates the needed funding, the department estimates the collider will take about a decade to design and build. The project was originally recommended in the 2015 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science, and a 2018 National Academies report endorsed its scientific value. The only other contender to host the collider was the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Virginia, which would have built it as an extension of its Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility. According to DOE, Jefferson Lab will still be a major partner as the project moves forward.

On Jan. 10, the Department of Energy released its solicitation of proposals for the Quantum Information Science Research Centers called for in the National Quantum Initiative Act. The department states it expects to award up to five centers, which together will receive up to $625 million in funding over a period of five years. Final proposals are due April 10 and are to describe multi-institutional collaborations that employ multi-disciplinary teams and blend together basic research, engineering, and technology development. The National Science Foundation has already initiated its process for awarding a counterpart set of QIS centers.

The Department of Energy announced on Jan. 8 that it is launching an Energy Storage Grand Challenge initiative that aims to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies. The effort will comprise R&D funding opportunities, prizes, and partnerships, among other components, with the objective of sustaining American leadership in the field and securing a manufacturing supply chain that is independent of foreign sources of critical materials by 2030. DOE will manage the challenge through the Research and Technology Investment Committee it established early last year and plans to release a request for information to obtain stakeholder feedback on what specific issues the challenge should address.

Last week, the National Academies Space Studies Board released the statement of task for the upcoming planetary science and astrobiology decadal survey, which will set the fields priorities for the years 2023 through 2032. While the survey will follow its predecessors in focusing on robotic missions to other planetary bodies, its additional focus on astrobiology is new and will encompass not only the search for life in the Solar System but also aspects of exoplanet research and the search for technosignatures of extraterrestrial intelligence. In addition, the survey will cover planetary defense, including both the scientific study of near-Earth objects and, for the first time, the hazards they present to Earth. Another new feature of the survey will be its consideration of planetary science opportunities involving crewed space missions, which has become a more important issue in light of NASAs expedited plans to return astronauts to the Moon. The state of the planetary science profession will also be on the agenda, following in the footsteps of the astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey due for release about a year from now. According to the planetary science surveys notional schedule, it will start accepting white papers from the research community next month and its leadership will be announced at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March.

Update (1/14/2020): The National Academies has temporarily removed the statement of task from its website pending potential revisions.

The House Science Committee announced on Jan. 9 that Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX) has taken over as Energy Subcommittee chair from Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA). Lamb, who remains on the subcommittee, stepped aside after joining the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee late last year. In turn, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) is taking over Fletchers previous role as chair of the Environment Subcommittee and giving up her job as Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee chair. That spot will be filled by committee member Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL), who was a physicist at Fermilab before joining Congress in 2008.

The House Science Committee approved the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act by voice vote on Jan. 9. The bill, which is sponsored by Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and Mo Brooks (R-AL), is similar to the Senates Space Weather Research and Forecasting Act, which the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee advanced last April. However, before the committee approved the bill, it adopted an amendment introduced by Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK), which would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a pilot program for obtaining space weather data from the commercial sector. Noting the program would expire after four years, Lucas said his amendment balances the need to help ensure there is a market for a commercial space weather data with the existing roles of the federal government and the academic community. A similar provision appeared in a previous version of the legislation that the committee advanced in 2018.

On Jan. 8, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released adraft framework for climate legislation that sets an overarching goal of achieving a 100 percent clean economy by 2050, defined as reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Titled the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nations (CLEAN) Future Act, the draft bill will include provisions covering the power, building, transportation, and industrial sectors as well as a focus on clean energy workforce development. Beyond setting various renewable power and emissions standards, the bill will feature several R&D-oriented provisions. These include creating an Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing and Industry at DOE who would coordinate the agencys industrial efficiency initiatives, establishing a technology commercialization program for carbon capture and utilization, and creating a prize competition for direct air capture. The draft framework notes the committee plans to add provisions covering climate resilience, community transition, agriculture, financial issues, and international cooperation, among other areas. The committee expectsto release the text of the draft legislation by the end of the month.

Last week, the White House released a draft memorandum with guidance for federal agencies on how to approach the regulation and oversight of technologies that use artificial intelligence. The memorandum is a component of the Trump administrations AI initiative, which has been one of the Office of Science and Technology Policys foremost priorities. It instructs agencies to avoid adopting unnecessarily precautionary approaches and enumerates 10 principles they should consider when weighing the costs and benefits of potential regulations. U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios stated in an op-ed that the principles represent a light-touch approach to regulating AI that also aims to protect privacy and promote civil rights, civil liberties, and American values. The memorandum also provides examples of ways agencies can reduce barriers to the deployment and use of AI, such as increasing public access to federal data and models. Areas that are defined as falling outside the memorandums scope include the governments own use of AI technologies and the regulation of far-afield AI technologies that could approximate human intelligence.

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The Week of January 13, 2020 - FYI: Science Policy News