USDOE Office of Science Director Mildred Dresselhaus, in an October 6 letter to Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) chair Richard Hazeltine, asks the committee "to address the scientific issues of burning plasma physics" and to provide a report by July 21, 2001. The FESAC will formally receive this charge at its November 14-15 meeting in Bethesda, Maryland (FPN00-43).

Dresselhaus notes, "For many years, the U.S. magnetic fusion community has recognized that burning plasma physics is the next frontier of fusion research," and that "in the last two decades, the program has made several attempts, both international and domestic, to move forward on the design and construction of a tokamak experimental device in which the science of burning plasmas could be explored." She notes, "For various reasons, all these attempts failed."

Dresselhaus says, "the community needs to come to consensus on two aspects of burning plasma physics as follows:

"1. What scientific issues should be addressed by a burning plasma physics experiment and its major supporting elements? What are the different levels of self-heating that are needed to contribute to our understanding of these issues?"

"2. Which scientific issues are generic to toroidal magnetic confinement and which ones are concept-specific? What are the relative advantages of using various magnetic confinement concepts in studying burning plasma physics?"

She says, "As a part of your considerations, please address how the Next Step Options program should be used to assist the community in its preparations for an assessment in 2004, as recommended in the Priorities and Balance report."

The complete text of the charge letter can be viewed at the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences web site: