European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 02, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Nestor bras Laboratory worker. Ted stated output. Lofa Seco a a react it Equall Point As by brokering �5 l  Fly. Is safer Fusil in Keller Cracy  mid Gre Tower Tutt stored Fig Indra he pro aside from weapons work at los Alamos which neatly exemplifies the Post War emergence of the National governments partner and Initiator in research. Last with operating costs for 1978 at1275 million stuck with atomic weapons into the 1950s, working on the a bomb an designing warheads for missiles. But bombs Are like toothbrushes says Hammel. You can Only improve them so  last gradually be an diversifying. For the space age it debt oped nuclear propulsion for rockets on the shelf at least for now and research Tux solar Energy and the effects of absolute Zero. Such projects have direct if More mundane Decca wants in last s cryogenics and solar heating research. Continuity insured by Federal Money Isone of the most precious assets of a Nalion. Al lab Bottoms up sorts of places where ideas come from the troops says  the heyday of weapons development it was understood that a Good chunk of 2, 1978 Money would find its Way into Basic re search but today s Federal Cost account ing does t always provide a Cushion for Blue sky exploration. It riles Many of the scientists. The National labs Are our leading Edgio technology says Harold Agnew last s director and witness to both Enric Fermi s first Chain reaction and the bomb ing of Hiroshima. We operate by Law inthe National  with some heat. Agnew complains of Over management by last s Parent in Washington the department of  overseers want last to give them a five year plan. Says Agnew if we knew what we d be doing in research five years from now we d Start doing it  the government owns every atom and Eraser at last the lab is managed under a 53.5 million annual Doe contract by the University of California. It has Bee since the formation of the old atomic Energy commission now absorbed by the Energy department. Congress wanted the atom under civilian  is a Buffer says Hammel. When push comes to shove the government has both of us to contend i  it is the marriage Between Washington and los Alamos government and science that is the chronic prob Lem Agnew frequently flies to Washington to explain or cajole. He has to contend with a variety of agencies in Doe staffed Hesss with Nasa castoffs from the deem Pha sized space program As Well As Congress that As it has become More knowledgeable about atoms and science sofas become More inquiring. The government just does t under stand research says Keller. Budget cuts Nave slowed cancer research treatment a Lampf. Fusion Money is flattening out. Doe s Energy policy is too spread out scythe scientists. This country is tied to the Oil barrel says Al Blair at geothermal. There is a Lack of  bureaucracy is sick says John Rogers of cryogenics who is also a stat senator and has been Here since the War. There is no focus on a few Strong , anyone with an idea gets funded on a Small  scientists also get their share of knocks from the Public. They Are victims of their own Success. Why can t those folks who brought us the atom solve the Energy problem says or. Morris Bradbury who retired in 1970 after 25 years As last director world War ii was an extraordinary circumstance. You had dedication. A Brilliant new discovery. A vicious War. It was the first and last time americans May have been United in a War Effort. You could pull off the bomb. But you Don t get breakthroughs like that with Energy. It s an engineering prob  As a scientific achievement the Manhattan project was a prodigious Suc Cess. The subsequent history of the atom has been less so. Its initial use As a horrifying weapon was not the Best introduction Bradbury concedes. The atom was meant to Light our Way to tomorrow. Instead it left a legacy of misunderstanding and  we dig Coal import Oil and worry when the lights will go out for goo rather than confront the problems of radioactivity and atomic waste. So it May just be that los Alamos an the atom have already made their greatest  remains to be seen Over the next thousand years whether weapons were deterrent to War said John Rogers who helped a semble the first  the weapons were a deterrent it will be one of the greatest things science has Ever done. If not it will be one of the  second of two articles a look Down into water submerged Core of glowing reactor. Drums of radioactive garbage ready for burial in Trench. The stars and stripes Page is