Secretary Abrahams said, "This arrangement provides us with an opportunity to pursue alternatives to our mounting energy demands and help secure our needs for the future. With the signing of the new umbrella fusion agreement, we look forward to continuing our many years of successful collaboration in the field of fusion research. This agreement also provides the opportunity to pursue new initiatives."

A DOE press release accompanying the signing states "Areas of cooperation under the agreement may include tokamaks, alternatives to tokamaks, magnetic fusion energy technology, plasma theory and applied plasma physics."

Under the agreement, the U. S Department of Energy plans to contribute $1.3 million over two years to develop hardware for use at the Joint European Torus (JET) fusion device in the United Kingdom. Following the shutdown of the US TFTR facility three years ago, JET is the only operating magnetic fusion facility with the capability of using fusion fuels deuterium and tritium and producing large amounts of fusion energy at near energy breakeven conditions. A next generation facility, ITER, capable of producing 5-10 times more fusion energy than used to heat the fuel, awaits site selection and construction decisions. The US is not currently a party to that ambitious international project.