FPN13-33

U.S. Ramps Down Effort on High Energy Density Physics and Heavy Ion Fusion

June 26, 2013

In 2002 the National Academies of Science and Engineering issued a report, Frontiers in High Energy Density Physics: The X-Games of Contemporary Science. A panel chaired by Ron Davidson of Princeton University prepared the report. The report stated, "Recent advances in extending the energy, power, and brightness of lasers, particle beams and Z-pinch generators make it possible to create matter with extremely high energy density in the laboratory. While there were important applications to astrophysics and other branches of science, the technology and expertise for doing laboratory research in this area rested largely with those working in the fusion research programs. The program was named High Energy Density Laboratory Physics (HEDLP).

Over the next decade a reasonably robust research effort prospered. The U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE), for example, set up a joint program between its Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) and the inertial confinement fusion effort within its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

Faced with diminished financial resources in its FY 2013 budget and as proposed in its FY 2014 budget submission to Congress, the USDOE is in the process of ramping down its efforts in this area of science.

One of the hardest hit programs is that of the Virtual National Laboratory for Heavy Ion Fusion (VNL-HIF) based at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The VNL-HIF is a joint effort of LBNL, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), but the ramping down is affecting many university-based efforts as well.

At LBNL, construction had just been completed on a new accelerator facility known as NDCX-II which was to perform experiments relating both to HEDLP and to the development of a technology for initiating inertial confinement fusion reactions using heavy ions, commonly referred to as Heavy Ion Fusion (HIF). The US DOE no longer plans to operate that facility and has "zeroed out" funding for the group in its FY 2014 budget submission. Over 20 scientists from that program have signed a letter, as private citizens, to the chairs of the various Congressional committees that oversee the fusion effort.

The OFES had recently completed a competitive bid selection of new work in HEDLP that could have included funding for the NDCX-II, but OFES has now indicated that no work will be funded based on that solicitation. In addition, the USDOE FY 2014 budget submission indicates that the NNSA will no longer will be participating in the joint OFES-NNSA effort on HEDLP and NNSA will not be funding planned university experiments on the laser-based National Ignition Facility (NIF).

Writing in the June 2013 issue of Physics Today, editor David Kramer quotes an unnamed NNSA official as saying, "We don’t have the funds at this point to support additional operations and lower priority work (on NIF)." He also quotes retired NNSA scientist David Crandall as saying "It's an incredible long-term loss in my view."

In their letter to the chairs of the Congressional committees referenced above, the HIF scientists state, "The declining domestic fusion budget has the further detrimental effects of driving away talented young fusion scientists who will be essential to carry out a vibrant national fusion program, and of destroying the scientific momentum that has been established over decades." Copies of the letter are available on request from Fusion Power Associates: fusionpwrassoc@aol.com