IP: text of Clinton's Los Alamos speech on supercomputers and ASCI

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

   The following remarks from President Clinton's speech "REMARKS BY THE
PRESIDENT TO THE WORKERS AND COMMUNITY OF LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY"
on Feb. 3, 1998 contains his most detailed statements on supercomputers.
It may be useful in our report generation to refer to Presidential
statements on the benefits of High End Computing for the nation's future.   






        "We can balance the budget and still continue to invest in
education.  We can hire 100,000 teachers for our elementary schools to
lower class size to 18 in the 1st through 3rd grades, and help to repair
or build 5,000 new schools.  We can open the doors of college literally
to every American with the laws that are on the books now by continuing
to fund them through the next five years.  We can allow hundreds of
thousands of middle-aged Americans who've lost their jobs and their
health insurance to buy into the Medicare program without burdening the
trust fund.  We can extend child care to a million more children.   
   
     And, most important for you, I think, we can still continue to
substantially increase our commitment to scientific research and
technological development, which are key to our success in the new
global economy of the Information Age.  (Applause.)      


     Many of you know this, but the entire store of human knowledge is
now doubling every five years.  Breakthroughs which now seem normal,
just a couple of years ago seemed impossible.  In the 1980s, scientists
identified the gene for cystic fibrosis after nine years of efforts.
Last year scientists located the gene that causes Parkinson's Disease
after nine days of effort.  Within a decade, gene shifts will offer a
road map for prevention of illness throughout a lifetime.  And we'll
discover cures for many of our most deadly diseases, from diabetes to
Alzheimer to AIDS.      


     I have worked to increase our investments in research and
development for the last five years even as we have reduced the deficit
by over 90 percent.  And the new balanced budget contains the largest
investment in science and technology in history.  It includes a $31
billion 21st century Research Fund -- to significantly increase funding
for the Department of Energy, The National Institute of Health, The
National Science Foundation and the National Cancer Institute.  
    
     It funds critically important initiatives in areas ranging from
astrophysics to agricultural technology.  Now, just a few minutes ago, I
toured the labs here to see some of that 21st century technology our
balanced budget will help to develop further.  The supercomputers here,
along with those that Lawrence Livermore and Sandia Laboratories, are
already the fastest in the world.  They're already being used to do
everything from predicting the consequences of global warming to
designing more fuel efficient engines to discovering life saving drugs


to cracking down on Medicare fraud.      


     Let me just say, parenthetically, it is terribly important that
this environmental mission continue, because I have a big job to do as
President to convince all of you -- and people like you all across
America -- that there really is a scientific consensus that if we don't
do something to slow the rate of greenhouse gas emissions and in fact
turn it around and reduce it in America and throughout the developed
world and eventually throughout the developing world as well, we will
disrupt our climate in ways that are potentially disastrous for people
all around the world sometime in the next century. 
     
     And just as I saw you all clapping, because a lot of you  -
particularly those of you who are my age or a little younger, those of
us who are baby boomers, we know it would be terribly wrong for us
either to bankrupt the Social Security system or bankrupt our kids
making them pay for us.  We know that would be wrong.    
  
     Believe me, it is just as wrong, and potentially even more
devastating, for us not to deal now in a responsible, disciplined way
with the problem of global climate change; even though our
grandchildren, perhaps even our great grandchildren, would be the ones
to bear the greatest consequences.      


     We know now things that we couldn't have ever known before because
of what science is teaching us and it enables us to take small steps now
to avoid having to take huge and more burdensome steps later to do what
is clearly right.  So I think that it is almost impossible to exaggerate
the responsibility and the opportunity these labs have to build a
consensus necessary in our country to do what has to be done to both
continue to grow our economy at a brisk rate, but to do it in a
different way so that we reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  And I thank
you for your work on that.      


     Now, that to me is just the beginning.  today I also want to
announce to you that that balanced budget includes over $500 million  -
$517 million to be exact -- to help the Department of Energy develop the
next generation of supercomputer technology.  Just recently, we signed
contracts with four leading United States companies to help to build
supercomputers that will be 1,000 times faster than the fastest computer
that existed when I took office.  By 2001 they'll be able to perform
more calculations in a second than a human being with a hand-held
calculator could perform in 30 million years.      


     Now, even a person as technologically challenged as me can
understand that is a big deal.  (Laughter).  It is a good investment.
It is an investment we must secure.  Of all the remarkable things these
supercomputers will be able to accomplish, none will be more important
than helping to make sure that the world is safe from the threat of
nuclear weapons.      


     For more than 50 years, since we first split the atom and
unleashed its awesome force, the nuclear threat has hovered over our
heads.  Throughout the Cold War and the arms race, it has been an ever
present threat to our people and the people of the world.  For five


years I have worked to reduce that threat.  Today, there is not a single
Russian missile pointed at America's children.  But we have to do more.
Last fall, I sent the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty to the
Senate for its advice and consent.  In my State of the Union address
last week, I asked the Senate to approve that treaty this year.  By
banning all nuclear tests for all time, we open a new era of security
for America.      


     At the same time, our national security requires that we maintain
a nuclear arsenal strong enough to deter any adversary and safe enough
to retain the confidence of our military leaders, our political leaders
and the American people.    
  
     Five years ago, I directed the development of the Stockpile
Stewardship Program to maintain our nuclear arsenal through science.
The program is an essential safeguard to accompany the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty.  In fact, I don't think we can get the treaty ratified
unless we can convince the Senate that the Stockpile Stewardship Program
works; that we will be secure while we try to make the world safer from
the dangers of nuclear development and nuclear use in other countries.
Now, by combining past nuclear data with the high-tech simulations that
computers like those here at Los Alamos make possible, we are keeping
the arsenals safe, reliable and effective.  And we're doing it without
detonating a single explosion.      


     I just received a briefing, as you heard, by Dr. Browne and the
other directors of our national labs on the Stewardship Program.  They
confirmed that we can meet the challenge of maintaining a nuclear
deterrent under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty through the Stockpile
Stewardship Program.  This Test Ban Treaty is good for America's
security.  Already, four former chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff,
General John Shalikashvili, General Colin Powell, General David Jones
and Admiral Bill Crowe have all endorsed it.  I also discussed the issue
last week when I had my annual meeting with our nations senior military
leadership -- all of our four stars, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the
heads of various commands around the world.  General Shelton, the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and General Habiger, the Commander-in-Chief
of our Strategic Command, have both given their treaty their full
support.  This is in America's interests.      


     Five years ago, I extended the moratorium on testing passed by
Congress in 1992.  The Test Ban Treaty will hold other nations to the
same standard we already observe -- that is it's importance.  It's ban
on all nuclear explosions will constrain the nuclear powers from
developing more advanced and more dangerous weapons, making a costly
arms build-up less likely.      


     It will also make it more difficult for states that don't now have
nuclear weapons to develop them, because without testing there's no way
for them to know whether a new weapon will work as it is designed as it
is designed or whether it will work at all.  The treaty will also put in
a place an extensive global network of monitoring stations to detect and
deter nuclear explosion on land, under ground, beneath the sea, or inspace.




           Our national security demands that we monitor such nuclear weapons
programs around the world.  We have to do that with or without the Test
Ban Treaty.  But with the treaty in force, we will gain a powerful new
tool to do that monitoring.  The great scientist, Louie Pasteur, once
said that he held, "The unconquerable belief that science and peace will
triumph over ignorance and war; that nations will come together not to
destroy, but to construct.  And that the future of humanity belongs to
those who accomplish the most for humanity.      


     With the new balanced budget, with our commitment to science and
technology, with our commitment to the Test Ban Treaty, with the work
you have done here and at the other labs to assure the safety of the
treaty through the Stockpile Stewardship program, all these things are
helping to build a stronger America for the 21st century, a safer world
for our children in the 21st century and a legacy worthy of America's
glorious past.  For your role in that, I thank you very, very much."