From: Rich Blinne (richblinne@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Sep 14 2002 - 18:14:20 EDT
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2002/913/4
New Hope for Fusion Fans
GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND--Fusion research in the United States might be
igniting again. A panel of scientists meeting here 11 September
recommended that the United States rejoin negotiations to help build the
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a
multibillion-dollar international project to investigate nuclear fusion
as an energy source that the United States abandoned in 1998. The
17-member panel--the Department of Energy's (DOE'S) Fusion Energy
Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC)--also argued that the United States
should initiate its own fusion experiment if the ITER negotiations fall
through.
FESAC's strategy for fusion science is two-pronged: Try to join ITER,
and begin design work on a less expensive domestic experiment, the $1.2
billion Fusion Ignition Research Experiment (FIRE). The FIRE alternative
"shows the international partners that we're serious about the
discussion and that ITER is not the only game in town," says Vincent
Chan, a FESAC member who works at General Atomics in San Diego,
California. If DOE does not get a seat at the ITER table by mid-2004,
the report recommends, the United States should proceed with the FIRE
project instead.
Full partnership in the ITER collaboration would cost the United States
at least $100 million per year above the current budget levels. However,
$100 million a year is likely to be a stretch for DOE. "What I've
personally said for many years is that I think the U.S. can afford $50
million [per year]," says Anne Davies, DOE'S associate director for
fusion energy sciences. "That number has been floating about the
Administration."
Ray Orbach, director of DOE'S Office of Science, acknowledges that
"political as well as scientific issues play a key role" in the future
of fusion. But with an upcoming National Research Council report on
fusion power, a draft of which might be ready in early December, Orbach
hopes to make a strong case to the Administration. "Our job is to
provide the president with options," he says. "I would like to give the
president, by mid-December, the full scientific view of how to get from
here to there."
--CHARLES SEIFE
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sun Sep 15 2002 - 22:59:24 EDT