II

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 3278

To authorize funding for nanoscale science and engineering research and

development at the Department of Energy for fiscal years 2002 through

2006.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

DECEMBER 14 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 22), 2000

Mr. BINGAMAN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

A BILL

To authorize funding for nanoscale science and engineering

research and development at the Department of Energy

for fiscal years 2002 through 2006.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Department of Energy

5 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds the following:

8 (1) The emerging fields of nanoscience and

9 nanoengineering address the ability to create mate-
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1 rials with fundamentally new compositions by

2 prepositioning atoms within an overall molecular

3 composition.

4 (2) The ability of the United States to respond

5 to the energy and economic challenges of the 21st

6 century will be driven by science and technology.

7 Nanoscience and nanoengineering will enable the

8 United States to develop new technologies for energy

9 exploration and production, for monitoring energy

10 infrastructure, for increasing energy efficiency in

11 end-use application, and for developing new tech12 nologies applicable to other Department of Energy

13 statutory missions. These advances will also enhance

14 the strength of U.S. science, technology, and medi15 cine generally.

16 (3) The fundamental intellectual challenges in17 herent in nanoscience and nanoengineering are con18 siderable, and require public support for basic and

19 applied research and development. Significant ad20 vances in areas such as the self-assembly of atom

21 clusters will be required before nanoscience or

22 nanoengineering will be useful to the energy or man23 ufacturing industries.

24 (4) The development of new scientific instru25 ments will also be required to advance nanoscience
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1 and nanoengineering. Such instruments are likely to

2 be large and costly. Specialized facilities are also

3 likely to be required in order to advance the field

4 and to realize its promise. Such facilities will be suf5 ficiently expensive that they will have to be located

6 and constructed on a centralized basis, similar to a

7 number of unique facilities already managed by the

8 Department of Energy.

9 (5) Contributions from individual researchers as

10 well as multidisciplinary research teams will be re11 quired to advance nanoscience and nanoengineering.

12 (6) The Department of Energy’s Office of

13 Science is well suited to manage nanoscience and

14 nanoengineering research and development for the

15 Department. Through its support of research and

16 development pursuant to the Department’s statutory

17 authorities, the Office of Science is the principal fed18 eral supporter of the research and development in

19 the physical and computational sciences. The Office

20 is also a significant source of federal support for re21 search in genomics and the life sciences. The Office

22 supports research and development by individual in23 vestigators and multidisciplinary teams, and man24 ages special user facilities that serve investigators in

25 both university and industry.
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1 SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY PROGRAM.

2 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Energy,

3 through the Office of Science of the Department of En4 ergy, shall support a program of research and development

5 in nanoscience and nanoengineering consistent with the

6 Department’s statutory authorities related to research and

7 development. The program shall include efforts to further

8 the understanding of the chemistry, physics, materials

9 science and engineering of phenomena on the scale of 1

10 to 100 nanometers.

11 (b) DUTIES OF THE OFFICE OF SCIENCE.—In car12 rying out the program under this Act, the Director of the

13 Office of Science shall—

14 (1) support both individual investigators and

15 multidisciplinary teams of investigators;

16 (2) pursuant to subsection (c), develop, plan,

17 construct, acquire, or operate special equipment or

18 facilities for the use of investigators conducting re19 search and development in nanoscience and

20 nanoengineering;

21 (3) support technology transfer activities to

22 benefit industry and other users of nanoscience and

23 nanoengineering; and

24 (4) coordinate research and development activi25 ties with industry and other federal agencies.
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1 (c) NANOSCIENCE AND NANOENGINEERING RE2 SEARCH CENTERS AND MAJOR INSTRUMENTATION.—

3 (1) AUTHORIZATION.—Within the funds au4 thorized to be appropriated pursuant to this Act, the

5 amounts specified under section 4(b) shall, subject

6 to appropriations, be available for projects to de7 velop, plan, construct, acquire, or operate special

8 equipment, instrumentation, or facilities for inves9 tigators conducting research and development in

10 nanoscience and nanoengineering.

11 (2) PROJECTS.—Projects under paragraph (1)

12 may include the measurement of properties at the

13 scale of 1 to 100 nanometers, manipulation at such

14 scales, and the integration of technologies based on

15 nanoscience or nanoengineering into bulk materials

16 or other technologies.

17 (3) FACILITIES.—Facilities under paragraph

18 (1) may include electron microcharacterization facili19 ties, microlithography facilities, scanning probe fa20 cilities and related instrumentation.

21 (4) COLLABORATION.—The Secretary shall en22 courage collaborations among universities, labora23 tories and industry at facilities under this sub24 section. At least one Departmental facility under
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1 this subsection shall have a specific mission of tech2 nology transfer to other institutions and to industry.

3 (d) MERIT REVIEW REQUIRED.—All grants, con4 tracts, cooperative agreements, or other financial assist5 ance awards under this Act shall be made only after inde6 pendent merit review.

7 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

8 (a) TOTAL AUTHORIZATION.—The following sums

9 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of En10 ergy, to remain available until expended, for the purposes

11 of carrying out this Act:

12 (1) $160,000,000 for fiscal year 2002.

13 (2) $270,000,000 for fiscal year 2003.

14 (3) $290,000,000 for fiscal year 2004.

15 (4) $310,000,000 for fiscal year 2005.

16 (5) $330,000,000 for fiscal year 2006.

17 (b) NANOSCIENCE AND NANOENGINEERING RE18 SEARCH CENTERS AND MAJOR INSTRUMENTATION.—Of

19 the funds under subsection (a), the following sums are au20 thorized to be appropriated to carry out section 3(c):

21 (1) $55,000,000 for fiscal year 2002.

22 (2) $135,000,000 for fiscal year 2003.

23 (3) $150,000,000 for fiscal year 2004.

24 (4) $120,000,000 for fiscal year 2005.
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1 (5) $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2006.

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