Fight for funding: Pool shrinking for MSU's FRIB facility, other science projects

From Lansing State Journal: Fight for funding: Pool shrinking for MSU's FRIB facility, other science projects Thomas Glasmacher's cellphone rang for the third time in half an hour. He excused himself and stepped into the hallway. "I think twice when I want his time," said Konrad Gelbke, still sitting in the small conference room at Michigan State University's National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. "Normally, I expect people to be there when I want them. With Thomas, I say 'Do I really need him now?' because he's so busy." Gelbke is the cyclotron lab's director. Glasmacher is the person managing its most important project, the $615 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, which is 2 1/2 months away from its most important review by the U.S. Department of Energy, the review that will fix the cost, scope and schedule of the project and, if successful, allow MSU to go forward with construction. The scientists and engineers at FRIB have spent the past 1 1/2 years adding flesh to a conceptual design approved by the U.S. Department of Energy in September 2010, working out the technical conundrums of a machine powerful enough to create isotopes that don't exist outside the thermonuclear explosions in dying stars, fitting together the jigsaw of systems into a unified whole. But that work is now going on against a backdrop of concern for the project's future. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu spoke at a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club last month. Afterward, standing in a scrum of reporters, he was asked how FRIB would fare in next year's federal budget. His answer gave little reason for optimism. "If you look at all the things we're doing ... and you look at what we think we can afford in a budget projection given our deficit, we are saying 'Well, we have to be very careful, because we can't be starting six things and we can only afford four things,' " he said. The reaction was sharp and immediate: strongly worded statements from members of the state's congressional delegation, editorials in newspapers across the state, including this one, saying Michigan couldn't afford to lose its grip on a project that would bring so much in the way of jobs, money and scientific prestige.