Key differences in the two bills passed so far are (1) House bill deletes funds requested for High Energy Density Physics but Senate bill endorses program; (2) House bill includes funding for High Average Power Laser program but Senate bill does not.

The language in the Committee's report is reproduced below:

FUSION ENERGY SCIENCES

For Fusion Energy Sciences, the Committee recommends, $427,85,000. This program advances plasma science, fusion science, and fusion technology through collaborations among U.S. Universities, industry, national research laboratories, and the international fusion community.

High Energy Density Plasma Laboratory Program. - The Committee is pleased that the Department has developed a multidisciplinary research program, which this Committee has been an advocate for the past several years. The Committee believes this program will provide greater interaction between the Office of Science researchers and the NNSA scientists and provide greater access to user facilities such as the Z machine, NIF and Omega. While these activities have their primary responsibility in the weapons program, these facilities can offer scientists new capabilities to support their experiments. The Committee encourages the Department to increase their investment in this modest program to ensure its future success. The Committee supports the budget request of $12,281,000 for the Office of Science. The Committee notes a similar amount has been included in the NNSA program.

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Inertial Confinement Fusion Ignition and High Yield Campaign - The Committee recommends $459,146,000 for the ICF campaign activities including $10,139,000 for the final year of construction of the National Ignition Facility as requested. The baseline ignition approach on NIF is x-ray or indirect drive. This approach was chosen after detailed review of its maturity and value to the weapons program. Significant challenges remain for the baseline approach as independent reviews have concluded. In addition there are severe budgetary constraints on the overall Stockpile Stewardship Program. The Department is therefore directed to allocate all of its resources for the first ignition demonstration with indirect drive and to defer other approaches such as direct drive until after achievement of x-ray driven ignition or after experiments have shown that the baseline approach will not succeed. The funds budgeted for direct drive should be used to increase the operating capacity of all other ICF funded facilities within the complex.

Facility Operations and Target Production - The Committee recommends $132,970,000 for the facility operations and target production. This funding increase reflects the Committee's desire to consolidate funding for the Z machine operations and experimentation into NNSA Science and the ICF campaign accounts. The Z facility at Sandia National Laboratories is a model NNSA shared national user facility. The request for Z experiments continues to grow. Scientists at the NNSA weapons laboratories are focused on the mission needs of the Stockpile Stewardship Program, and the new initiative in high energy density laboratory plasmas will increase the interest from scientists in the fundamental research fields of high-energy-density science, planetary science, and laboratory astrophysics. NNSA has invested $120,000,000 in the Z facility and a petawatt-class laser. Despite this investment, the budget request fails to provide sufficient funding to reestablish experimental capabilities (precision, performance, and shot rate) required to support the many users of the facility. This funding shortfall will severely restrict the ability to conduct high-priority weapons science , ICF, and basic science research using the refurbished Z facility. The Committee concurs with the President's budget request of Z using $12,800,000 in the Science Campaign, $10,440,000 in the ICF Pulsed Power and $1,200,000 in the ICF National Ignition Campaign activities. The Committee has provided $58,537,000 in the Facility Operations and Target Production category of the ICF Campaign in order to fully reestablish experimental capabilities on the refurbished Z facility. The Committee shifts $28,887,000 from the RTBF Campaign budget for Z to the ICF Facility Operations and Target Production category. Within the available funds, $13,000,000 has been added to ensure full operations and target production on Z and $5,000,000 to support a new approach known as a Linear Transformer Driver or LDT to create high current pulsed power devices has recently been demonstrated at Sandia. The funding shall be used to refine the baseline design including all of the critical elements of rep-rated high yield fusion facility and begin component improvements and demonstrations as appropriate. The Committee expects that the Department will provide adequate funding for the full utilization of Z machine in the out-year budgets.

Joint Program in High Energy Density Laboratory Plasmas. - The Committee appreciates the Department's effort to establish the High Energy Density Laboratory Plasmas joint program. The Committee is encouraged the Department is taking the proper steps to coordinate research between the Office of Science and NNSA, and to expand it to other agencies as well. The Department has provided $24,637,000 divided equally between Fusion Energy Sciences and NNSA. The Committee recommends the entire NNSA contribution of $12,356,000 be provided in the High Energy Density laboratory Plasma line. The Committee has shifted funds from experimental support activities.

NIF Assembly and Installation. - The Committee provides $136,912,000 for NIF assembly and installation.