Budget deficit makes FRIB funding uncertain
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Funding for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, at MSU is anything but certain following statements made by a federal official Wednesday.
Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu could not commit to the status of the funding for the $600 million nuclear science project during an interview with reporters at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show.
“If you look across the Department of Energy … and you look at what we think we can afford in a budget projection given our deficit … we have to be very careful,” he said. “Because we can’t be starting six things, and we can only afford four things.”
FRIB’s home at MSU was announced by federal officials in December 2008 with an expected construction completion date by 2020.
In previous interviews with The State News, MSU officials have touted the potential economic impacts of the project as upwards of 1,000 researchers from around the world could work in East Lansing at the facility.
During an interview with reporters Wednesday, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said the facility “already brought in 200 scientists to the state” as the process continues to build “what would be a world-class national facility.”
But until the check is signed, DOE spokesman Damien LaVera reiterated such uncertainty in an email.
“While the Department continues to believe this is an important project, our nation faces tough economic times and difficult budget choices have to be made,” he said. “At this point, we have not made a decision on the level of support for this project.”
MSU officials said Wednesday the project still is on track despite the shaky funding picture.
“We recognize these are difficult times, but we remain optimistic in part because of the congressional support for the program that was expressed in the 2012 fiscal year spending bill,” university spokesman Kent Cassella said, adding the budgeting process still is in its early stages.
Recent project reviews with the DOE indicated the project still will break ground this summer, Cassella said.
FRIB project manager Thomas Glasmacher expressed little concern, calling today’s interview with Chu “less exciting than it sounds” because next year’s federal budget is not official and establishing budgets happens every year, he said.
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., lashed out at the federal government following Chu’s statement, urging the department to keep the funding in place.
“MSU and the state of Michigan have met their commitments in this partnership, and it would be unconscionable if the federal government failed to live up to its commitments in meeting this critical national priority,” Levin said in a statement.
Staff writer Ian Kullgren contributed to this report.
Commentary
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Ben
(01/12/12 9:51am)Report
If Obama drops funding for this, I drop my vote for him!
Eliot Singer
(01/12/12 10:58am)Report
First, don’t panic. The plug has not been pulled.
But anyone who knows about the Federal Government knows funding for a 10-year project is always iffy.
The entire “jobs and money” brought to East Lansing and the state hype on this thing has been ridiculous, like all the economic development hype from political hucksters and economic development bureaucrats. I’ve had the misfortune, in tracking down East Lansing brownfields, of reading MEGA “jobs and private investment” announcements. It’s all Emperor’s New Clothes stuff.
FRIB is an important scientific research facility. If completed it will increase jobs directly related to it compared to the current jobs related to the Cyclotron. I’ll wait until it happens and people are hired to see how many. The typical way economic development hype is done is to proclaim the total jobs as if new jobs without subtracting the old jobs.
The hype makes it sound like there will be all these high tech spinoffs turning us into another Silicon Valley. That is a total crock. The Cyclotron and MSU’s world class nuclear physics department has yet to produce any spinoffs, and none of the PR types or politicians who wouldn’t know a quark from a muon can explain why the new facility would be any different.
I’ll leave critics of the MSU administration to take it to task on this one. I’m busy enough going after East Lansing government. FRIB has been one of the key talking points of the economic development liars in City Hall. It has been used as an excuse for squandering and planning on squandering money on build-up in downtown. We’ve been told there is a need for new office space (exactly who needs the office space in never specified) and need for new condos to house all those scientists, even though at best we’re looking years down the road.
At some point I am going to drum this through the thick skulls of the wishful thinkers on Council: Don’t count your chickens before they are laid!