FPN14-07
Congressional Delegation Visits MIT Fusion Lab
March 5, 2014
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.)
visited MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) on Feb. 24 for the
official restart of research operations on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak.
Clark visited the PSFC last year as a state senator; Monday's visit was
the first visit for Warren. After a tour of the tokamak, Warren
expressed enthusiasm for fusion's promise of clean, abundant energy, as
well as her concern about the uncertainty of long-term funding of the
C-Mod project. The Department of Energy attempted to shut down the
facility last year, but was overridden by Congress. Sen. Warren
expressed her strong belief that the project should receive the kind of
long-term funding that allows MIT graduate students time to complete
their research. Sen. Warren and Rep. Clark were joined by Massachusetts
State Sen. Sal DiDomenico and Massachusetts State Rep. Jay Livingstone
as well as MIT President Rafael Reif and Vice President for Research,
Maria Zuber.