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Reports the plans of the Department of Energy to construct a nuclear repository in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Environmental condition of the mountain; Importance of a nuclear waste repository to the future of United States nuclear power; Reactions for considering the mountain as a possible site for the project.

Reports on actions taken by the United States government in an attempt to restore morale in nuclear energy laboratories after the trial of Wen Ho Lee, a Chinese American who was accused of stealing nuclear secrets from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. How strict security measures and controls have limited the capabilities of scientists; Re-examination of laboratories run by the US Department of Energy (DoE); Concerns regarding the rights of scientists and their emotional well being.

Addresses the reliance among physicists and biologists on funding by the United States Department of Energy in 2000. How the department will miss out on a large increase in science spending expected in the national budget; Proposals by U.S. President Bill Clinton for the increase; Reasons why two federal agencies that support basic research, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will be passed over for the fund increase.

Focuses on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Changes at the National Ignition Facility, a laser project; Comments by the United States Department of Energy about the cost overruns on the project; Public announcements by Bruce Tarter, laboratory director and Bill Richardson, the energy secretary; Resignation of Mike Campbell, the laboratory's associate director for lasers; Outlook.

Reports that a panel of newly elected Republicans in the United States House of Representatives has set out plans to disband the Department of Energy. Proposed appointment of closure commission to rationalize the department's network of physics laboratories; Transfer of responsibility for nuclear weapons research to the Pentagon.

Announces the agreement of the United States Department of Energy to provide funds for the building of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Cost of the project; Where funding will come from; The project's use of lasers to cause nuclear fusion; Schedule for the project; Congressional and administrative support.

Reports that United States Energy Department (DoE) scientists will stop large-scale human gene sequencing later in 2000. Status of the Joint Genome Institute; Planning for the DoE division of biological and environmental research; Exasperation of the extent the United States National Institutes of Health's National Human Genetics Research claimed most of the credit for the genome project.

Focuses on the concern at the United States Department of Energy's laboratories over the planned creation of an agency to run their nuclear weapons research. The expected introduction of the National Nuclear Security Administration; Support from researchers; Concern of scientists working on non-weapons programs; Outlook.

Focuses on the cost overruns of the National Ignition Facility nuclear weapons laser project of the United States Department of Energy. Difficulty experienced by the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Livermore, California, in assembling the lasers for the facility; Possible completion of the project in year 2005.

Reports that United States Senate is moving to abandon the Next Linear Collider (NLC), accelerator, that high-energy physicists would like to build as their major experiment after Europe's Large Hadron Collider. Financial issues; Decision by the Department of Energy.

Cites criticism over a plan to create an agency for United States nuclear weapons laboratories under a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy. Backing of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson; Proposal of the House subcomittee that controls the energy department's budget; Separate bipartisan criticism of the plan; Response of Republicans on the panel; Legislation being prepared by the House to reform the department.

Reports that the United States is realigning its nuclear fusion program to integrate magnetic and inertial confinement fusion approaches. The US' withdrawal in 1998 from global research fusion collaboration; Details about the Department of Energy's Fusion Energy Sciences program; New inertial confinement fusion experiment at the National Ignition Facility, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, California; Common needs of both approaches.

Reports that classified computer operations at the United States Department of Energy's nuclear weapons laboratories will return to normal after a week-long stand-down. Focus on security issues; Stand-down ordered by energy secretary Bill Richardson; Enhancement of security measures; Previous stand-downs; Views of under-secretary for energy Ernie Moniz.

Focuses on the United States Department of Energy's (DoE) fight to protect its collaborations with weapons scientists in Russia following the critical report from the General Accounting Office (GAO), an investigative arm of the US Congress. Details of the GAO report; History of the scientists' union; Difficulties the DoE will face; Outlook.

States that the United States Department of Energy's (DoE) budget for nuclear physics was impeded by plans to close down Bates Linear Accelerator. Operation of the facility by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Call made by energy secretary Bill Richardson to MIT president Chuck Vest; DoE statement regarding the funding of Bates; MIT's plans to use some of the money to complete Bates Large Acceptance Toroid experiment.

Reports that leaders of the Human Genome Project rejected a proposed memorandum of understanding between the United States Department of Energy (DoE) and Celera. Celera established by Craig Venter; Concerns about the memorandum; Draft agreement written by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI); Views of the NHGRI's Francis Collins; Pressure from the US Congress for government collaboration with Venter.

Reports that Bill Richardson, United States energy secretary, signed a statement of intent that will allow the US to continue work on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) design. Participation of the US in the extension to the ITER engineering design activity; Statement issued by James Sensenbrenner of the US House Science Committee; Various views on the issue.

Focuses on the possible effects of downsizing to research programmes of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). Details on the unfilled technical positions of the department; Department's problems on retiring workers.

Reports that Ernie Moniz, the United States Department of Energy's senior scientific administrator, has proposed an integrated strategy to boost the department's supercomputing capability. Details of Moniz's proposals; Costs; Reactions.

Reports that Tara O'Toole is leaving the United States Department of Energy with a warning that scientists must engage with their communities or face oblivion. O'Toole's experience; Need for scientists to engage in politics; O'Toole's role in dealing with tritium leak at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Long Island, New York, in 1997; Biology and so-called big science; O'Toole's specialization.

Informs that scientists are attempting to restore federal funding for a US Department of Energy program designed to forge links between schoolteachers and scientists in laboratories. Why and when the program was cancelled; Details about the program; Comments from scientists.

Discusses the two major physics projects included in the US Department of Energy's 1998 budget proposal. The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; The US contribution to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. How nuclear physics research will be effected by the budget proposal; The decrease in support for fusion science.

Reports that the US Department of Energy is seeking bids from United States universities to host up to five supercomputer centers. The purpose being to develop supercomputer applications to support nuclear weapons testing; The energy department's Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative.

States that the United States Department of Energy has announced a series of four reviews of its network of research laboratories. Details of planned reviews, the first of which will be released in November of 1996; Comments from Charles Curtis, the deputy energy secretary; Waiting for the end of the 1996 presidential elections before making a move on laboratory reform; A 1995 report from Bob Galvin, an executive with Motorola.

Reports on the Department of Energy's plan to buy a supercomputer from the International Business Machine Corp. to be used at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Highlights of a speech by President Bill Clinton at the National Science and Technology Medal awards ceremony on July 26, 1996; Budget for the acquisition.

Discusses a draft of a `strategic mission plan' which details the operations of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) laboratory network. Limitations and criticisms of the draft; The document containing explicit information on the exact role of the laboratories, and the nature of research programs.

Reports that research grants are being offered by the United States Department of Energy to find new approaches to cleaning up its nuclear weapons complexes. Offers to scientists at universities and national laboratories to form a guild dedicated to simplifying the problem; The program's money coming from a 1996 appropriations bill; The number of years it will take to see results.

Reports on US Department of Energy's plan to close the largest fusion machine in the United States in 1997. Refocusing on basic plasma physics and materials science; Decrease in the fusion budget; Concerns from fusion scientists.

Reports on the criticism of US National Research Council's (NRC) scientists over the use of the Department of Energy's reports as basis of decision on the use of the Nevada's Yucca Mountain as repository for the long-term storage of nuclear waste. Contentions from scientists on the issue; Impact of sharp cuts on the budget appropriations on the project.

Reports that the semiconductor company Intel is to build the world's most powerful computer under a $50 million agreement with the United States Department of Energy. Intended use; Republican Party member Steven Schiff's reaction; Issue of US industrial dominance.

Reports on the US Department of Energy's request to reassess the future needs of American researchers for access to neutron sources. Increase in the demand for neutrons; Comparison between neutron researches in the United States and in Europe.

Reports on the United States Department of Energy's decision to reverse its plan to strip the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of responsibility for managing Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) in Japan. RERF scientists' reaction to the original plan; US energy secretary Hazel O'Leary's rationale for the original plan; Decision to extend the Academy's contract for two years.

Reports on the $1.2-billion cut from the Department of Energy's applied research program. Spreading the cut across researches in nuclear fusion, nuclear fission and solar power; Effect of the cut on the clean-up of nuclear sites; Reasons behind the budget cut.

Presents the reactions of Motorola chairman Robert Galvin on a report published in February 1994 of the Contract Reform Team set up Department of Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary which sets out long lists of new departmental functions. Greater involvement of the department in managing contractors; Questions on the government-owned, contractor-operated facilities concept.

Reports on Representative Robert Walker's campaign to limit non-defense research and environmental restoration work at the Department of Energy. Proposal to amend the Hydrogen, Fusion and High Energy and Nuclear Physics Authorization Act; Objective of using the extra funds for the high energy physics work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

Focuses on Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's rejection of a call from a coalition of environmental groups for a presidential commission to find new approaches to the management of nuclear waste. Department of Energy's (DoE) limitations in meeting obligation to accept nuclear waste from power stations in 1998; Negotiations with several Indian tribes.

Reports on the plans for the United States Department of Energy's network of laboratories. Task force set up by Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary; Crisis of identity; Membership of the task force; Fundamental problem with government funding; Opinions of government representatives.

Announces an invitation by the Department of Energy and the state of Texas for proposals on uses for the defunct Superconducting Super Collider (SSC). Remnants of the abandoned particle accelerator; Impending legal battle between the federal government and Texas over the funding provided by the state for SSC.

Suggests the undertaking of collaborative research by the atomic weapons laboratories which is mostly controlled by the Department of Energy. Improvement of industries; Suggestions by the Office of Technology Assesment (OTA) of cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs); Resources and budgets; Streamlining of bureaucracy; Development of clean cars and high technology public transport system.

Reports the Department of Energy has given the go-ahead for a $39-million project to rebuild the core of one of the world's largest solar power plants with the goal of generating commercial quantities of electricity by 1998. Solar Two project at Barstow, California; Details of the project.