FPN10-20

Fusion Innovative Confinement Concepts Program to be Redirected

March 10, 2010

At the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) meeting March 10, Glen Wurden (Los Alamos National Laboratory) pointed out to the Committee that the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences had recently issued a solicitation for proposals in the Innovative Confinement Concepts (ICC) program that, he said, "substantially changes the nature and intent of the ICC program."

Specifically he noted the following statement(s) in the solicitation:

"The ICC program explores improved pathways to practical fusion power by addressing critical problems that hinder the tokamak concept, such as plasma disruption, heat load on internal components, and operational and maintenance complexity."

and also to the statement:

"Compared to previous ICC solicitations, an increased emphasis will be placed on those proposals that have the most promise of making such linkages and addressing the (tokamak) issues. Overall, support of research that can best help deepen the scientific foundations of understanding and improve the tokamak concept is an important focus area of this Announcement".

and to the statement:

"Another priority area for this Announcement is to provide experimental data in regimes of relevance to the FES mainline magnetic confinement and materials science efforts..."

Wurden said, "This was certainly not what the ICC program did in the past. In the past, based on the IPPA 2000, it was actually aimed at innovative confinement concepts at the concept exploration level. With an intent of moving some to the Proof of Principle level."

In response to a request from FESAC member Rulon Linford, OFES director Ed Synakowski confirmed that the wording represented a deliberate intent on his part to put less emphasis on the "confinement concept" aspect of the term "ICC" and more on the "innovative" aspect, in support of the broader scientific aspects of the fusion program. Budget realities make it unlikely that any of the alternate (to the tokamak) concepts would be able to have new, larger facilities in the foreseeable future, he said.

The solicitation is posted separately for DOE laboratories and for others.

The lab announcement is at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/grants/LAB10_286.html

The non-lab announcement is at: https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/PublicSearch/Public_Opportunities.aspx

To access the non-lab announcement, then click on "Research in Innovative Approaches to Fusion Energy" on the left. Then, click on "Body" on the top right.