FPN02-63

FESAC Comments to Orbach

September 20, 2002

In a cover letter to DOE Office of Science director Raymond Orbach, DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee chair Richard Hazeltine states "The Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) endorses the conclusions of the Burning Plasma Strategy Panel (FPN02-57). This endorsement is unanimous and enthusiastic." Hazeltine says "The FESAC finds the outlined strategy to be sensible, coherent and convincing."

Hazeltine says "the present report is more than a restatement of long-felt ambitions: it offers a proactive plan to realize those ambitions. For there has been a change in our community: a firmer confidence that burning plasma physics is well within our reach, and a reinforced conviction that studying the behavior of a burning plasma will bring truly enormous scientific and technical gains for fusion energy. This community sees itself on the threshold of a giant step forward."

The full text of the letter and related materials have been posted at http://fire.pppl.gov