American Notes THE ADMINISTRATION

George Bush seems to have found the position of Secretary of Energy the hardest to fill in the entire top rank of his Administration. Not until last week did he announce the last of his 14 Cabinet appointments, but then his choice drew much praise. His selection: retired Admiral James Watkins, 60, an expert on nuclear power, former Chief of Naval Operations and once a long-shot prospect to become father-in-law of Britain's Prince Charles (Watkins' daughter Laura Jo had a romance with the Prince before marrying an American actor). Watkins' last Government job was as head of Ronald Reagan's AIDS commission; he showed a gift for drawing agreement from people with very diverse views by coaxing a surprisingly compassionate report out of a sometimes quarrelsome group. Watkins' flexibility will be sorely tested in his new job. His biggest task will be to develop a strategy for resuming nuclear- weapons-fuel production and simultaneously cleaning up the fearsome pollution caused by now closed weapons plants -- so far without access to anything like the tens of billions of dollars in funding that will eventually be required.