FPN20-11

DOE Fusion Office Award Opportunities for Spherical Torus Research Support

February 14, 2020

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science announced award opportunities to research fusion energy at both U.S. and international facilities, focusing on the use of spherical tokamaks, as a route to the development of fusion as a practical energy source. The initiative will support research by U.S. scientists at a range of existing fusion facilities in the U.S., U.K., and other countries with current bilateral agreements with the United States.

The initiative will also provide support for research at the National Spherical Tokamak Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) at DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J., when it resumes operations. Currently completing repairs, NSTX-U is expected to resume operations in May 2021.

One research aim is to prepare for operations at ITER, the large international fusion facility currently under construction in France. “In addition to having potential performance advantages, spherical tokamaks can serve as excellent research instruments to probe key physics problems prior to burning plasma operation in ITER,” said Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar. “This initiative will help keep American scientists in a leadership role as we move toward the goal of cost-effective fusion energy for the world.” For more information, see below:

FES has just posted two Funding Opportunity Announcements dedicated to spherical tokamak research. These announcements (DOE-FOA-0002259 and DOE-FOA-0002255) can be found at the following link:

https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html?keywords=tokamak

To view the full announcements click the Opportunity Number in blue (e.g. DOE-FOA-0002255), then click the “RELATED DOCUMENTS” tab. Under this tab you will find a full PDF version of the announcement that can be downloaded.

Please don’t delay in reviewing this announcement as pre-proposal submissions are required and are due by Feb. 27, 2020. Also, note that all individuals planning to contribute a NSTX-U diagnostic over the next 5 years will need to submit to DOE-FOA-0002255.

Please direct all questions to Josh King (josh.king@science.doe.gov, 240-535-0834).