BYRD PULLS PLUG ON NAVY CLOCK HE HAD WANTED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 17, 1993                   TAG: 9304170326
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
BYRD PULLS PLUG ON NAVY CLOCK HE HAD WANTED
Sen. Robert Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has pulled the plug on a $7 million atomic clock he ordered the Navy to build in his home state of West Virginia.
Navy officials had protested that the clock - designed to duplicate an instrument at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington and a backup clock in Florida - was unneeded.
"I have recommended that the Navy immediately take steps to stop this project," Byrd, D-W.Va., said in a statement released to reporters.
"In light of global changes and the need, therefore, to reorient our national budget priorities, I have concluded that this project can be canceled without posing an unacceptable risk to the national security."
The master clocks - which use vibrating atoms to keep time within one-billionth of a second - are vital for synchronizing everything from warships' movements to bank transfers.
On Friday, the Navy praised Byrd's decision. "We recognize and concur with the senator's efforts to ensure that tax dollars for defense are spent only on essential projects," said Cmdr. Stephen Pietropaoli, a Navy spokesman.
Byrd had earlier pushed aside Navy objections to building the clock in Green Bank, W.Va., where it would have created seven jobs.
"I do not ever recollect being told by the Navy that the clock was not wanted," Byrd wrote Navy officials last month after his clock quest showed up in the press.
"The Navy has consistently told the senator that we don't need it," Dr. Gart Westerhout, the Naval Observatory's scientific director.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB