The general mission of the organization is to coordinate and advocate technical work in burning plasma science research, with an emphasis on support of participation in ITER.

Davies said, "While details will evolve as the community works on developing this activity, it is expected to be modeled on the successful approach taken by the Virtual Laboratory for Technology. A large sector of the OFES programs, including among others the three major facilities (DIII-D, C-MOD, NSTX), theory and modeling, fusion technologies, international collaborations and International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA) contribute substantially to the totality of burning plasma research. The activity to be organized by Ray will work with the community to promote research on burning plasma science issues, provide an efficient and effective technical coordination among these programs, and work closely with the U.S. ITER project office in providing our best contributions to the ITER Physics basis. I look forward to the community supporting Ray in establishing the Burning Plasma Science Organization, which will evolve as the ITER process develops to a full agreement for its construction."

Fonck can be reached at fonck@engr.wisc.edu