From: 72240.1256@compuserve.com (Jed Rothwell)
Newsgroups: sci.physics.fusion
Subject: MITI Funding Confusion
Date: 21 Aug 92 15:46:18 GMT
Article-I.D.: CompuSer.920821143859_72240.1256_EHL29-1
Reply-To: Jed Rothwell <72240.1256@compuserve.com>
Organization: Sci.physics.fusion/Mail Gateway

To: >INTERNET:fusion@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG

Dieter Britz asks from down under:

"Jed has been bombarding us with news of all the money MITI is GOING to spend
on it, and I am sure he has used the figure of hundreds of millions of
DOLLARS; it seems that not only is that so many YENS (i.e. down by a factor of
1000 or so) but MITI has actually only decided to APPLY for the money. Jed,
you have not been straight with us, or somebody has not been straight with
you?"

I posted my sources, why didn't you check them? I repeat, this news was
printed in the Yomiuri Shimbun, Nikkei Shimbun, NHK television, the Wall
Street Journal, and Science. Such sources are usually "straight." I confirmed
the story by talking with Ikegami, Takahashi, the Director of the MITI
program, the Deputy Director, several editors of science journals, the people
from EPRI who just came back from Japan, and the people in BARC, India, who
where there this spring.

It is possible that other news sources are not being "straight." Nobody
reports everything they know, certainly not me, but most are reporting
absolutely nothing, which amounts to a distortion, in my opinion. For example,
I have sent a great of material to the Scientific American. I have sent them
the telephone numbers of high officials in MITI, at Technova, and their own
publication in Japan. They have all of the information in its full and correct
form, and they have not published a word. It may be that the Japanese are not
telling them as much as they tell me, but that is highly unlikely. The
American and Indian scientists who recently went to Japan got red carpet
treatment. They were introduced to all of the top people, and they were told
everything they wanted to know. This openness will not surprise anyone who is
familiar with the scientific culture and atmosphere in Japan.

There is some confusion here with dollars, yen, budgets, and budget proposals.
Also, I have been so busy, I have not had a chance to post a more
comprehensive description of the material. Perhaps someday U.S. journals will
begin translating and publishing more information about research in Japan, but
you do not see it very often now. I did not translate every scrap from the
press (I would *really* be bombarding you if I did!), but here is an outline:

MITI has officially requested $2.6 million for the next fiscal year. There
will be at least another $2.6 private money going into the MITI program. I
would described as start-up money, or "walking around money." I asked them
what they are going to do with it, and they said, "hold meetings." Since most
people I talk to over there is "in a meeting" most of the time, this will not
last long. This "official request" has not been officially granted, but nobody
expects the Finance Ministry to object. The program director said the first
year pilot program has been nearly approved, and additional funding will
follow that upon meeting the conditions and milestones which have defined by
the ministry. He did not give me the impression that they expected any trouble
meeting these conditions. I have been briefed on some of their objectives, and
they seem moderate and realistic to me.

They only officially request and grant budgets one year at a time, so all
years after this are "planned" -- never official. However, I have seen parts
of the plan, and the headlines of the newspapers have been boldly talking
about a five year plan for $50 million. That's $50 from the government, and
$50 million in matching funds from private industry.

There are other sources of cold fusion funding in Japan. The primary sources
are the 20+ corporations which attended the recent Imra meeting in Sapporo,
where Pons and Fleischmann spoke. This meeting was described in the Wall
Street Journal, and I spoke to some of the attendees. Because the meeting was
closed to the press, I assume they do not want people talking it, so I have no
further comment.

Another source of cold fusion research funding is the Ministry of Education,
which is putting about $15 million per year into cold fusion. This "$15
million" is my informal estimate, based upon the number of people working on
cold fusion in the National Universities. There is no central accounting of
the money they spend; it is not appropriated. Ikegami reported last year at
Como, "there are more than 100 scientists a present working on cold fusion in
Japan, spanning more than 40 universities and institutions." My data base
confirms this, roughly. I know exactly how much salary these people make (it
is a matter of public record); I know how much discretionary funding they get;
and how many grad students they have hanging around the labs. Also, I know how
approximately how much "special funding" has been appropriated by NIFS. Based
on all this, I come up with a rough estimate of $15 million total, which is
conservative. $20 million might be closer to the mark. It depends on whether
you include the cost of things like the neutron detector that Takahashi is
"borrowing" from himself. He said his CF experiment cost only $6,000, but he
did not include the cost of the neutron detector, the waveform generator, the
grad student labor, or much else! He meant the box, the heavy water and a few
other miscellaneous items. The palladium, I should add, is free from Tanaka
Kikinzoku. This firm has been extraordinarily cooperative and helpful to all
cold fusion researchers, and I am sure everyone joins me in thanking them.

- Jed