S. HRG. 100-1005 U.S. EFFORTS TO COMMERCIALIZE HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ONE HUNDREDTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JUNE 28, 1988 Printed for the use of the Committee on Governmental Affairs For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office CONTENTS TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 1988 John Gibbons, Ph.D., Director, Office of Technology Assessment, accompanied by John Alic, Ph.D., Project Director, and W. Wendell Fletcher, Deputy APPENDIX Prepared statements of witnesses in order of appearance... "Federal Research Programs in Superconductivity," Federal Coordinating Page 41 115 280 U.S. EFFORTS TO COMMERCIALIZE SUPERCONDUCTIVITY TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 1988 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:35 a.m., in room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Glenn, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. Present: Senators Glenn, Chiles, Pryor, Bingaman, and Roth. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN GLENN Chairman GLENN. The hearing will be in order. The subject of our hearing this morning is superconductivity, one of the newest areas of scientific. research. Today I am releasing a major, new Office of Technology Assessment report that evaluates U.S. efforts to commercialize high-temperature superconductivity technologies. One of the major findings of the report is that, "American companies may already have begun to fall behind," their foreign competitors in the race to commercialize new products and processes based on high-temperature superconductivity. The last 2 years have witnessed the rapid discovery of new materials capable of conducting electricity without resistance and therefore without heat losses at temperatures higher than scientists previously anticipated. These discoveries hold the promise of amazing new products: levitated trains which speed along at 300 miles per hour, remarkably efficient energy storage systems, supercomputers in desk-top models, and super-sensitive medical imaging equipment cheap enough for any clinic to afford. But all of this is old-and good-news. The report I am releasing today contains something more-a truly disturbing new finding. OTA's assessment suggests that competitors like Japan are probably already ahead of us in preparing to bring revolutionary hightemperature superconductivity-based products and processes to market. As with semiconductors, video cassette recorders, high-density television, and electronic consumer goods-the list is embarrassingly long-the United States again appears on the verge of missing opportunities offered by a new technology based on a science in which the United States is the preeminent leader. This is a dire conclusion. The United States is a Nation built on vast endowments of both natural resources and human capital. It is not an exaggeration to say that in the industrialized world of the (1) |