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2\06 FYI No 16- DOE FY04 Request
Part 1 of 2

FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 16: February 6, 2003

FY 2004 Budget Request: DOE Office of Science

In introducing the FY 2004 DOE budget request, Energy Secretary 
Spencer Abraham's primary emphasis was on the department's long-term 
vision to transform the nation's energy economy to a zero-emissions 
future through R&D in areas such as fusion and hydrogen.  He 
specifically cited the Administration's recent decision to rejoin 
ITER, and President Bush's announcement of a FreedomFuel hydrogen 
initiative.

Under President Bush's FY 2004 request, DOE's Office of Science would
receive $3.3 billion.  According to DOE, this is a 1.4% increase above 
the comparable request for FY 2003.  However, because the FY 2003 
appropriations process has not been completed, one way to look at the 
FY 2004 request is to compare it to the appropriation for FY 2002, 
which is final, to see how funding would change over the two-year 
period.  The FY 2004 request is less than 1.0% above the comparable FY 
2002 appropriations level.

According to Office of Science Director Ray Orbach, due to the ramping 
down of construction on projects like the Spallation Neutron Source 
and Neutrinos at the Main Injector and some other program changes, the 
request actually reflects an increase over the FY 2003 request of 
nearly 4.5% for the science performed by the Office.  As priorities 
for his Office, Orbach listed ITER negotiations and supporting R&D; 
Next Generation Computing Architecture; Nanoscale Science, Engineering 
and Technology; Genomes to Life; the Climate Change Research 
Initiative; Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing; a new 
Workforce Development initiative with DOE labs contributing to teacher 
professional development; and both new instrumentation and more 
operating time at user facilities.

Even with the decision to participate in ITER, the FY 2004 request for
Fusion Energy Sciences remains the same as the FY 2003 request, 
although greater than the FY 2002 appropriation.  High Energy and 
Nuclear Physics would each experience increases above both their FY 
2003 request and FY 2002 appropriations levels.  Funding for 
Biological and Environmental Research would increase over the FY 2003 
request but would not reach the FY 2002 funding level.  Basic Energy 
Sciences funding would fall from the FY 2003 request, largely due to 
the Spallation Neutron Source construction approaching completion, 
although the requested amount still represents an increase over FY 
2002 appropriations.

Explanations for the budgets of selected Office of Science programs, 
taken from the DOE "Budget Highlights" document, are quoted below.  
The figures for the FY 2002 appropriations and FY 2003 request given 
below have in some cases been adjusted by DOE so that they reflect 
"comparable" program content to the FY 2004 request.

FUSION ENERGY SCIENCES (FES): $257.3 million; up 6.7% from FY 2002
appropriation; equal to FY 2003 request.

"The FES facilities include the DIII-D at General Atomics in San 
Diego, the Alcator C-Mod at MIT, and the National Spherical Tokamak 
Experiment at Princeton.  Starting in FY 2004, DOE will participate in 
negotiations to construct an international burning plasma experiment, 
the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor."

"The FES program has identified $12 million within its existing 
programs that support preparations for ITER.  The program will 
maintain operation of its three primary facilities at the proposed FY 
2003 levels and will continue with design and fabrication of the 
National Compact Stellerator Experiment at Princeton.  Within 
available funding in FY 2004, the FES program will establish up to two 
Centers of Excellence in Theory and General Plasma Science."

HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS (HEP): $738.0 million; up 5.8% from FY 2002
appropriation; up 1.8% from FY 2003 request.

The HEP "research program is primarily carried out at the two major
scientific facilities: Tevatron at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, and
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California.  The DOE is 
participating in the construction of the Large Hadron Collider in 
Switzerland.  The HEP program also funds a program of non-accelerator 
physics that investigates dark energy, supernovae, solar neutrinos, 
black holes, and other topics."

The HEP program continues to give priority to two "windows of 
opportunity:"  the search for the Higgs Boson, which will be "the 
primary emphasis at Fermilab for the next several years," and 
"research on charge-parity violation at the Stanford Linear 
Accelerator Center....  DOE continues participation with the European 
Center for Nuclear Research on construction of the Large Hadron 
Collider (LHC).  The LHC funding profile has changed, and DOE will now 
fund the project through FY 2007 and then become a partner in its 
research program.  The HEP program has enhanced its program of 
non-accelerator physics, including $6.9 million for the SuperNova 
Acceleration Probe that will investigate 'dark energy'....  
Construction of the Neutrinos at the Main injector (NuMI) project is 
continued."

NUCLEAR PHYSICS: $389.4 million; up 11.1% from FY 2002 appropriaton; 
up 1.8% from FY 2003 request.

The Nuclear Physics program "funds two large flagship national user
accelerator facilities, the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator 
Facility at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport 
News, Virgina, and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven 
National Laboratory in New York.  It also supports several other 
laboratory and university facilities and a program of non-accelerator 
physics."

"The Nuclear Physics program will focus its FY 2004 resources on 
research and operations of its three largest facilities."  Operating 
time at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider will increase from 22 
weeks to 29 weeks, while operating times at the Bates and Thomas 
Jefferson National Accelerator facilities will each drop by a week.  
"In order to support other facility operations, the 88-inch Cyclotron 
at [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory] will shut down in FY 2004.  
Funding for R&D on a proposed new facility, the Rare Isotope 
Accelerator, is maintained at $3.5 million."

BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH (BER): $499.5 million; down 9.9% 
from FY 2002 appropriation; up 3.2% from FY 2003 request.

The BER program "is structured into four subprograms:" Life Sciences,
Climate Change Research, Environmental Remediation, and Medical 
Applications and Measurement Science.

The BER program "has several high visibility initiatives.  The Genomes 
to Life program increases by $24.5 million for additional research on 
function and control of molecular machines for energy and 
 environmental applications.  This is partly offset by a reduction of 
$12.2 million in the Human Genome Project, representing completion of 
human DNA sequencing.  The Climate Change Research program is 
increased by $5.0 million to study the response of ecosystems to 
environmental change.  Funding for the Savannah River Ecology 
Laboratory increases by $2.0 million for research on lowering the cost 
of environmental cleanup activities."

(continued)

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