FPN02-53

Another Academy Fusion Review Begins

August 19, 2002

The U.S. Department of Energy has asked the National Academies to conduct another review of aspects of the U.S. fusion program -- this time by a "Burning Plasma Assessment Committee." The Academy completed a review in April 2001 of the "quality" of the U. S. fusion energy sciences program. The Committee is in the process of being formed, with a planned first meeting in mid-September.

The Committee is expected to be chaired by John Ahearne, director of the Sigma Xi Center in Raleigh, NC. Ahearne, a physicist and member of the National Academy of Engineering, is a former chairman of the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and served for a time as a deputy assistant secretary at the U. S. Department of Energy. From 1972 to 1977 he served as an assistant secretary at the U. S. Department of Defense. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University.

The charge to the Committee has three components:

1. An assessment of the importance of a burning-plasma experimental program to fusion energy sciences and technology and the development of fusion as an energy source, plasma physics, and science in general.

2. An assessment of scientific and technical readiness to undertake a burning plasma experimental program.

3. An independent review and assessment of the plan for the U. S. magnetic fusion burning plasma experimental program as developed by the Department of Energy through the FESAC and Snowmass processes. The committee will make recommendations on the program strategy aimed at maximizing the yield of scientific and technical understanding as the foundation for the future development of fusion as an energy source.

The criteria for judging experiments "will include the prospects for achieving technical objectives, extracting scientific and technological understanding and making progress of broad and generic applicability, and contributing to the next steps in the experimental program."

The Committee will function under the auspices of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies, National Research Council. It aims for a "Progress Report" in December 2002 and a final report sometime in 2003.

The Committee begins its review just as a FESAC panel, under the chairmanship of Prof. Stewart Prager (U. Wisconsin), completes its review (FPN02-48). That panel will report to FESAC at a public meeting September 11-12 in Gaithersburg, Maryland.