Riemann's Contribution to Flight and Laser Fusion

ommends continuing the small Europeaninertial fusion program.To push the JET program forwardand embark on an engineering phase,the report calls for a budget of about1,500 million European CurrencyUnits (about $1.5 billion) over theperiod from 1982 to 1986, comparedto the 877.1 million ECU formerlyprojected for 1979 to 1983. Discountinginflation, this is approximately a30 percent real increase over the fiveyearperiod.The report also addresses the loomingproblem of a shortage in scientificmanpower. "The average age of thestaff working on fusion R&D in theCommunity is about 45 years," thereport states. "In about 15 years time,when these staff retire, most of theknow-how acquired in 30 to 40 yearsof R&D efforts will disappear rathersuddenly, unless new staff is trainedand introduced in the system in timeto allow an adequate transfer'of thisknow-how."To counter the manpower shortage,the report recommends a EuropeanFusion Research Fellowship programwith 30 to 50 well-paid positions foryoung scientists and engineers.Although the panel notes that "theroute to commercial fusion will belong and costly and involve the solutionof extremely difficult technicalproblems," it states that the U.S. MagneticFusion Energy Engineering Actof 1980 and the spring 1981 recommendationsof a Japanese fusion revieware built on a "worldwide consensusthat the potential advantagesof harnessing the energy source ofthe stars on earth are so enormousthat they justify this very considerableeffort."ViewpointContinued from page 10Congress provided legislative authority"to require a substantialamount of new, precise, and sophisticateddata, and established "uniformcriteria" to be used in assessing pesticidesafety. Congress apparently intendedfor all pesticides used in theUnited States to be evaluated accordingto a set of uniform criteria andequally stringent standards.The EPA was delegated with theauthority to implement the provisionsof the FIFRA amendment, along withthe basic safety requirements that alreadyexisted under the Milleramendment. Passed in 1954, theMiller amendment to the FederalFood, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requiresthe establishment of tolerancesfor pesticide chemicals in or on rawagricultural commodities, either asresidues remaining on food productsafter harvest, or those chemicals thatmight be intentionally added afterharvest to fresh or processed commodities.The EPA was also delegated theDelaney amendment passed in 1958.This amendment further providedthat "no additive shall be deemed tobe safe if it is found to induce cancerin man or animal."The constant pressure on the EPAfrom various groups, and Congress aswell, coupled with the strict requirementsfor pesticide registration containedin the various federal laws, isprobably responsible for most ofthese problems.I believe that pesticide registrationprocedures should adequately andrealistically assess risk versus benefit,and minimize unnecessary testing,costs, and time delays.I suspect the agency may have respondedby overreacting to someclaims or charges by antipesticidegroups that were unfounded or overstated.However, the federal lawsare written in such a way that the EPAmay not have much choice in its man-•ner of response. We in Mississippihave experienced some of the problemsfirst hand in the loss of Mirexfire ant bait, 2,4,5-T, DDT, and Silvexfor forestry uses, to name a few.I should add that the EPA has beenresponsive to our requests for exemptionsto allow the use of unregisteredpesticides in emergency control programsutilizing the synthetic pyrethroidsand other new pesticides forcontrol of cotton bollworm and tobaccobudworm on cotton. We havealso experienced the conditional registrationbenefits, which speed upregistration of pesticides. However,with two years' loss of a control programwhile fire ants multiplied in the230 million infested acres and spreadto millions more, and with the newmaterial costing 10 times as much, thiskind of cooperation can, and will, killus sooner or later.In my judgment the first stepneeded to bring order out of chaos is"defanging" the Delaney amendmentof 1958 and allowing the EnvironmentalProtection Agency to exercisejudgment in weighing costs and benefits.Once this dam is broken, theother restrictions should graduallygive way to a sensible public policy.Jim Buck Ross is the commissionerof the Mississippi Department of Agricultureand Commerce.Iraqi ReactorContinued from page 49and other obstacles through a miracleof ingenuity and foreign assistance,there is still the matter of the safeguards,the report stated. Iraq operatesits nuclear facilities under theauspices of the International AtomicEnergy Agency, which requires thatthere be foreign observers either inthe facilities or with access to them atall times. The IAEA surveillance includesintensive chemical assays, onsiteradiation detection equipment,time-lapse photograhy, and seals,whose explicit purpose is to guardagainst the diversion of nuclear materialsfor bomb production.The FEF report also found that thepossibility of Iraq's constructing a plutoniumbomb from the small quantitiesof U-238 present in the fuel isremote. The extraction of weaponsgradeplutonium requires sophisticatedisotope separation techniques,which Iraq does not possess.As for the common argument thatIraq has so much oil, it could notpossibly need nuclear as an energysource, this reasoning ignores the factthat Iraq has the most ambitious industrialdevelopment program of anyMideast nation, and has plans to usenuclear as its principal energy sourceafter its oil reserves are used up inindustrialization.October-November 1981 FUSION 61