Thank you for your letter of June 27, 1986, which requested a report on the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Agreement on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. The requested report is enclosed.

If you or your staff would like additional information, the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Energy Emergencies, David B. Waller, is responsible for coordination of activities under this Agreement. In particular, your staff may find it useful to talk to two members of his staff, Dr. Harold Jaffe, Director, Office of International R&D Policy, and John Metzler, Executive Secretary, U.S.-U.S.S.R. Atomic Energy Agreement, at 252-6777. They have recently returned from the sixth meeting of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Joint Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Moscow, August 18-25, 1986.

Yours truly,

John 5. Wamington

John S. Herrington

Enclosure

Honorable Lee H. Hamilton

Chairman, Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East

Committee on Foreign Affairs

House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

CC:

Honorable Benjamin A. Gilman
Ranking Minority Member

Description of Basic Activities

The U.S.-U.S.S.R. Agreement on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy was signed by President Nixon and General Secretary Brezhnev on June 21, 1973. The Agreement explicitly lists three major areas for cooperation: 1) Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion, 2) Fast Breeder Reactors and 3) Research in the Fundamental Properties of Matter (FPM). The Agreement has been renewed twice, by an exchange of diplomatic notes in the summer of 1983 and automatically in December 1985. It comes up for renewal in June, 1988.

Cooperation under the Agreement is to be carried out on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity. Termination of the Agreement would not necessarily affect the validity of active implementing protocols and contracts as the Agreement allows these to be carried to completion.

The Agreement establishes a Joint Committee on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy to review annually past cooperation, approve new proposals and address important issues as they arise. The Joint Committee has met six times, in February 1974, October 1974, December 1975, December 1976, April 1978 and August 1986. Reporting to the Joint Committee are the Joint Fusion Power Coordinating Committee (JFPCC) and the Joint Coordinating Committee on Research in the Fundamental Properties of Matter (JCCFPM). Except for 1980, these Coordinating Committees have been fairly consistent in meeting annually to review the past year's achievements and each other's programs, approve the next year's activities, and address various issues as they arise. A Coordinating Committee on Fast Breeder Reactors has not met since 1978.

Cooperative activities in the areas of thermionics, light water reactor safety and spent-fuel storage were also explored in the 1970s. The decline in the DOE thermionics program frustrated the efforts of a proposed program put together by the two thermionics delegations exchanged in 1976 and 1977. Delegations were exchanged in light water reactor safety in 1978, and the topic was approved by the Joint Committee in April 1978. However, the program was dropped when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The exchange in spent fuel storage was never initiated because of a lack of sufficient mutual interest.

Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion

The purpose of cooperation in controlled thermonuclear fusion is the eventual development of prototype and demonstration-scale thermonuclear reactors. Cooperation may include theoretical, calculational, experimental and design-construction studies at all stages up to industrial-scale operations.

Activities conducted under the magnetic fusion exchange program consist of joint meetings, workshops, symposia, etc., and occasionally long-term assignments of scientists to each other's facilities.

The topics under the magnetic fusion exchanges originally covered all aspects of magnetic fusion, from the science of plasma confinement research to the technology of power reactors. In 1981, both countries agreed to a U.S. initiative to limit the scope of the exchanges only to topics on plasma theory, experimental physics, and technology related to physics experiments. This was in response to the new policy directed by the Department of State to pursue only those activities of substantial interest to DOE.

Research on the Fundamental Properties of Matter

The purpose of cooperation in research on the Fundamental Properties of Matter is to include joint theoretical and experimental studies on mutually agreed subjects, and particularly in high, medium and low energy physics, through utilization of accelerators, data processing equipment and other facilities of the two countries. Cooperation may also be undertaken on the design, planning and construction of joint facilities to be used in this area of research.

Cooperative activities under the JCCFPM include the fields of high energy physics, nuclear (i.e., medium energy) physics, and accelerator sciences. Exchange activities cover visits by individual scientists and groups to laboratories and universities; conferences and workshops on specialized topics by theorists and experimentalists; experiments, principally at major accelerator laboratories; and research and development activities on accelerator physics and detectors. FPM is the most extensive area under the Atomic Energy Agreement and involves multi-year experimental programs, usually at U.S. facilities, with the transport of some expensive Soviet hardware to U.S. laboratories.

Fast Breeder Reactors

Cooperation in fast breeder reactors is directed toward finding solutions to mutually agreed basic and applied problems connected with the design, development, construction and operation of nuclear power stations utilizing fast breeder reactors.

Although a Fast Breeder Reactor Coordinating Committee existed until 1978, exchange activities in fast breeder reactors were conducted on an ad hoc basis and consisted of exchanges and discussion of papers. The few seminars focused on the development of steam generators for Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactors. Some U.S. cladding materials were tested in the Soviet BOR-60 breeder reactor and some U.S.S.R. cladding materials were tested in DOE's EBR-II. The final experimental results were never exchanged, in part due to the absence of a pressing DOE demand for them. Exploratory talks on the possibility of testing a U.S. steam generator in the Soviet BN-350 breeder were terminated in 1978 because of the major cost required to rectify the technical incompatibilities between the Soviet reactor and the U.S. steam generator. In the August 1986, meeting of the Joint Committee, both sides agreed to organize four specialists' meetings in 1987. Depending upon the results of these workshops, the two sides will decide on the merits of re-activating the Joint Coordinating Committee for Fast Breeder Reactors.

Principal Point of Contacts

The corresponding agency to the U.S. Department of Energy is the State Committee for the Utilization of Atomic Energy (GKAE). Alvin W. Trivelpiece, Director, Office of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy, and A. M. Petrosyants, Chairman of the State Committee for the Utilization of Atomic Energy, are the co-chairmen of the Joint Committee. The principal coordinator for the Soviet side is Alexander Grabov, Deputy Head of the GKAE International Relations Department and the principal coordinator for the U.S. side is John E. Metzler, Executive Secretary, U.S.-U.S.S.R. Atomic Energy Agreement, Office of International Research and Development Policy, Office of International Affairs and Energy Emergencies, Department of Energy.

Number of Participants ca an Annual Basis

The level of cooperative effort in fusion steadily increased from 1974 through 1976 as the participants on both sides took advantage of their initial opportunity to learn in detail about activities of the other country. Activity peaked in 1976 to a level of about 190 man-weeks of U.S. visitors to the Soviet Union, and 142 man-weeks of Soviet visitors to the U.S. After 1976, the level of activity began to drop as the exchange participants became more familiar with each other's programs. This reduction coincided with a slowdown in the momentum of the Soviet fusion program, in part due to the death of its leader, Lev Artsimovich. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979 resulted in a hiatus of nearly two years. By mid-1981, agreement had been reached in principle to resume the exchanges on a modest, more selective basis. Subsequently, each side has sent annually about six delegations (around 40 man-weeks for each side). In 1985 and 1986, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. fusion programs were able to conduct a few long-term, working assignments of several months -- as contrasted with short-term visits of one or two weeks in the U.S. and U.S.S.R.; such long-term assignments have not occurred since the late 1970s.

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Under the FPM exchanges, the U.S. accepts from the Soviet Union about a dozen high-energy and nuclear physicists (scientists who study the fundamental properties of matter) per year, primarily to participate in multi-year experimental programs at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). The ratio of Soviet man-weeks in the U.S. (about 300 man-weeks on average) to U.S. man-weeks in the Soviet Union is about 5 to 1. This is due to the superior U.S. facilities in which experiments can be conducted. Soviet research proposals compete with those from other countries in high energy physics and are judged on the basis of scientific merit, not national origin.

Annual Cost of Activities

The cost to DOE for both the fusion and FPM exchanges is rather modest, essentially travel costs and salary of the DOE contractors involved. The exchanges operate on the principle that the "sending side pays" the expenses of their traveling delegation, such as transportation costs, per diem, and telephone calls. There are also the manpower costs of time spent preparing for and participating in the

exchanges in the U.S.S.R. and hosting exchanges in the U.S. These expenses are part of DOE's general program budget and are not considered as a special cost against program resources.

Assessment of Benefits

In the fusion exchanges, DOE benefits substantially from access to the best of the U.S.S.R. fusion scientists, experimental facilities and data complementary to U.S. programs. DOE has gained considerably from the innovative ideas and approaches of the Soviets, and has applied the Soviet experience in specific DOE experimental projects. The fusion exchanges have also increased confidence in DOE experimental approaches, an important factor when conducting costly and challenging research. DOE has also realized both cost and time savings through these activities.

For proper perspective on the fusion exchanges, it must be noted that it is impossible to discuss fusion without mentioning major Soviet achievements, which have profoundly affected the U.S. fusion program and cover every major aspect of fusion science. For example, the Soviets invented the Tokamak confinement concept on which DOE has expended the majority of its program funds. The Soviets were coinventors of the magnetic well for mirror machines, did the original work on the concepts which led to the development of the plasma-stream stabilization process for mirrors, and simultaneously with the U.S., invented the tandem mirror concept. The Soviets were the first to operate a tokamak with superconducting magnets and pioneered the development of negative-ion neutral-beam sources and gyrotrons for plasma heating. The Soviets are also world leaders in fusion theory which is the analytic underpinning for all fusion design work.

In

In the area of FPM, the U.S. is a world leader and at present U.S facilities are generally more advanced than those in the U.S.S.R. This explains why more Soviets come to the U.S. than U.S. scientists go to the U.S.S.R. The Soviet scientists that have participated in the exchanges have generally been of high quality and have contributed significantly to the success of the joint efforts. For example, several of the experiments performed at Fermilab involve major investments on the part of the U.S.S.R. in equipment which represent cost savings to DOE over their lifetime of several millions of dollars. particular, the Soviets supplied a very sophisticated Transition Radiation Detector which has worked excellently and has helped resolve some scientific uncertainties regarding the validity of the prevailing theory of fundamental forces. The development of the first prototype of a "lithium lens" by the Soviets provided the basis for the utilization of a second-generation lithium lens as the critical hardware element of the antiproton source for the new Tevatron Collider at Fermilab. The Tevatron Collider will be a key element in returning leadership in the field of high energy physics to the U.S. The Soviets excel in such technical areas as innovative acceleration, detection techniques and theoretical physics. DOE has gained much from direct exposure to their ideas and thinking, and indirectly from the stimulation provided by such direct contacts.