FPN08-01

ITER Budget Cuts Protested

January 4, 2008

On January 4, 21 members of the U.S. fusion community sent a letter to members of Congress and the Executive Branch protesting the removal of funds for U.S. participation in the ITER project in the Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill recently signed by the President. The letter was addressed to the President's Science Advisor, John Marburger, the Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman, and the chairs of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water Development, Byron Dorgan and Peter Visclosky, respectively. Copies of the letter were sent of Department of Energy Under Secretary for Science Raymond Orbach and to all members of the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations, Energy and Natural Resources, and Science and Technology.

The letter reads as follows:

Despite being fully funded in the President's and in the House and Senate Appropriations measures, the Fiscal Year 2008 omnibus funding measure contains $0 for the U.S. contribution to the ITER Project. ITER is the key breakthrough project for magnetic fusion energy. The purpose of the ITER Project is to "demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes." If the United States cannot participate in ITER, the U.S. will lose a centerpiece of its own fusion program, a key scientific tool for understanding a fundamental process in the universe (burning plasmas like those in the sun and stars) and the pathway to the future of fusion energy.

ITER is a joint project of the China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States. Congress authorized U.S. participation in this project in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the President committed the United States to its approximately 10% share of the ITER construction just a few months ago. Failure by the United States to sustain its international commitments to ITER seems certain to establish the United States as an unreliable partner not only in the ITER project, but in many other areas of science. This comes at a time when the expense and scope of many critically important scientific activities suggest international partnership and cooperation.

Therefore, for the sake of the international and domestic fusion effort and for the sake of the U.S. reputation in the international scientific community, we most respectfully urge that funding be provided for continued U.S. participation in ITER.

Finally, as scientists concerned about the whole U.S. scientific enterprise, we also ask that funding be restored to the other areas of the Department of Energy's Office of Science. There is no doubt that scientific progress on a broad variety of fronts is essential for our nation's future. These areas of science also represent essential fronts in our understanding of the universe and the basic functioning of the world around us. We therefore urge that these budgets also be made whole.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this important matter.

The letter was signed by the following:

Mohamed Abdou (UCLA)
Charles Baker (UCSD, retired)
Michael Brown (Swarthmore College)
John Cary (Tech-X Corporation)
Steven Cowley (UCLA)
Stephen Dean (Fusion Power Associates)
Robert Goldston (Princeton University)
Adil Hassam (U. Maryland)
Richard Hazeltine (U. Texas)
Thomas Jarboe (U. Washington)
Stephen Knowlton (Auburn U. and University Fusion Association)
Arnold Kritz (Lehigh U.)
Stanley Milora
Gerald Navratil (Columbia U.)
Miklos Porkolab (MIT)
Stewart Prager (U. Wisconsin)
Ned Sauthoff
Ronald Stambaugh (General Atomics)
George Tynan (UCSD)
James Van Dam (U. Texas)
Glen Wurden (Los Alamos National Laboratory)