Contending that wire-bonding machines were available to the Soviet Union from non COCOM-controlled foreign sources, Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher decided -- despite vigorous objections from the Defense Department and a contrary finding from the U.S. intelligence community -- to utilize his authority under the Export Administration Act to decontrol this technology.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

He could not send a wire back into the machines as he had done before.

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Helium-cooled superconductors like those found in MRI machines and the LHC cannot, however, compete with ordinary copper wire in more pedestrian applications, like transmission cables, where the advantages of superconductivity do not merit the enormous costs.

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