Strategic Plan for the Restructured US Fusion Energy Sciences Program
Strategic Plan for the Restructured US Fusion Energy Sciences Program

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Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 20

ISBN-13:

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This plan reflects a transition to a restructured fusion program, with a change in focus from an energy technology development program to a fusion energy sciences program. Since the energy crisis of the early 1970's, the U.S. fusion program has presented itself as a goal- oriented fusion energy development program, with milestones that required rapidly increasing budgets. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 also called for a goal-oriented development program consistent with the Department's planning. Actual funding levels, however, have forced a premature narrowing of the program to the tokamak approach. By 1995, with no clear, immediate need driving the schedule for developing fusion energy and with enormous pressure to reduce discretionary spending, Congress cut fusion program funding for FY 1996 by one-third and called for a major restructuring of the program. Based on the recommendations of the Fusion Energy Advisory Committee (FEAC), the Department has decided to pursue a program that concentrates on world-class plasma, science, and on maintaining an involvement in fusion energy science through international collaboration. At the same time, the Japanese and Europeans, with energy situations different from ours, are continuing with their goal- oriented fusion programs. Collaboration with them provides a highly leveraged means of continued involvement in fusion energy science and technology, especially through participation in the engineering and design activities of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor program, ITER. This restructured fusion energy sciences program, with its focus on fundamental fusion science and technology, may well provide insights that lead to more attractive fusion power plants, and will make use of the scientific infrastructure that will allow the United States to launch a fusion energy development program at some future date.

An Assessment of the Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences Program
An Assessment of the Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences Program

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2001-05-07

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 0309183197

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The purpose of this assessment of the fusion energy sciences program of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science is to evaluate the quality of the research program and to provide guidance for the future program strategy aimed at strengthening the research component of the program. The committee focused its review of the fusion program on magnetic confinement, or magnetic fusion energy (MFE), and touched only briefly on inertial fusion energy (IFE), because MFE-relevant research accounts for roughly 95 percent of the funding in the Office of Science's fusion program. Unless otherwise noted, all references to fusion in this report should be assumed to refer to magnetic fusion. Fusion research carried out in the United States under the sponsorship of the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) has made remarkable strides over the years and recently passed several important milestones. For example, weakly burning plasmas with temperatures greatly exceeding those on the surface of the Sun have been created and diagnosed. Significant progress has been made in understanding and controlling instabilities and turbulence in plasma fusion experiments, thereby facilitating improved plasma confinement-remotely controlling turbulence in a 100-million-degree medium is a premier scientific achievement by any measure. Theory and modeling are now able to provide useful insights into instabilities and to guide experiments. Experiments and associated diagnostics are now able to extract enough information about the processes occurring in high-temperature plasmas to guide further developments in theory and modeling. Many of the major experimental and theoretical tools that have been developed are now converging to produce a qualitative change in the program's approach to scientific discovery. The U.S. program has traditionally been an important source of innovation and discovery for the international fusion energy effort. The goal of understanding at a fundamental level the physical processes governing observed plasma behavior has been a distinguishing feature of the program.

A Review of the DOE Plan for U.S. Fusion Community Participation in the ITER Program
A Review of the DOE Plan for U.S. Fusion Community Participation in the ITER Program

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2009-02-21

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 0309124751

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ITER presents the United States and its international partners with the opportunity to explore new and exciting frontiers of plasma science while bringing the promise of fusion energy closer to reality. The ITER project has garnered the commitment and will draw on the scientific potential of seven international partners, China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and the United States, countries that represent more than half of the world's population. The success of ITER will depend on each partner's ability to fully engage itself in the scientific and technological challenges posed by advancing our understanding of fusion. In this book, the National Research Council assesses the current U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plan for U.S. fusion community participation in ITER, evaluates the plan's elements, and recommends appropriate goals, procedures, and metrics for consideration in the future development of the plan.

Review of the Strategic Plan for International Collaboration on Fusion Science and Technology Research. Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC).
Review of the Strategic Plan for International Collaboration on Fusion Science and Technology Research. Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC).

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 63

ISBN-13:

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The United States Government has employed international collaborations in magnetic fusion energy research since the program was declassified in 1958. These collaborations have been successful not only in producing high quality scientific results that have contributed to the advancement of fusion science and technology, they have also allowed us to highly leverage our funding. Thus, in the 1980s, when the funding situation made it necessary to reduce the technical breadth of the U.S. domestic program, these highly leveraged collaborations became key strategic elements of the U.S. program, allowing us to maintain some degree of technical breadth. With the recent, nearly complete declassification of inertial confinement fusion, the use of some international collaboration is expected to be introduced in the related inertial fusion energy research activities as well. The United States has been a leader in establishing and fostering collaborations that have involved scientific and technological exchanges, joint planning, and joint work at fusion facilities in the U.S. and worldwide. These collaborative efforts have proven mutually beneficial to the United States and our partners. International collaborations are a tool that allows us to meet fusion program goals in the most effective way possible. Working with highly qualified people from other countries and other cultures provides the collaborators with an opportunity to see problems from new and different perspectives, allows solutions to arise from the diversity of the participants, and promotes both collaboration and friendly competition. In short, it provides an exciting and stimulating environment resulting in a synergistic effect that is good for science and good for the people of the world.

Advice and Recommendations to the US Department of Energy in Response to the Charge Letter of September 20, 1996
Advice and Recommendations to the US Department of Energy in Response to the Charge Letter of September 20, 1996

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Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13:

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In Jan. 1996, the Fusion Energy Advisory Committee (FEAC) provided recommendations to DOE on how to restructure the fusion program in light of compressional guidance and budget realities. DOE endorsed these recommendations and prepared a strategic plan. The FEAC report concluded that the goals of the restructured program could most effectively be accomplished at a funding level of $275 million per year, including Federal government management costs. DOE requested that Congress appropriate $255.6 million in FY97 for the fusion energy sciences program exclusive of Federal government management costs (about $8 million). On Sept. 11, 1996, the Energy and Water Development Conference Committee settled on a FY97 appropriation for the fusion energy sciences program of $232.5 million. This report contains the response to the charge letter, on how the program described in the strategic plan could be changed to make it consistent with the $232.5 million appropriation.