July 17, 1996

Both House and Senate full Appropriations Committees have endorsed their subcommittee marks and passage by the full House and Senate is expected to proceed quickly. Conference between House and Senate committees would then resolve differences. House marked at $209M plus $16M for computer center support and program direction. Senate marked at $225.3M plus $14.7M for computer center support and program direction. This compares to this year's budget of $$227.4 plus $16.6M for computer center support and program direction and the President's request for FY97 of $255.6M plus $8.4M for program direction (computer center budgeted elsewhere). The House and Senate Committees fully funded the DOE's request for inertial confinement fusion, including construction of the National Ignition Facility. That request is for $366.5M for the program total, including $191.1M for the NIF. This year's ICF budget is $240.7.

The Fusion Energy Advisory Committee met at the Gaithersburg, MD Hilton on July 16-17. It was their final meeting. All the industry members are being replaced and they will get a new name (Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee) and a new chairman (John Sheffield of ORNL replaces Bob Conn of UCSD) effective August 18. Several people with inertial fusion credentials will be added to the committee (John Lindl, Melissa Cray and Dick Briggs).

At their meeting, FEAC endorsed the reports of subpanels that have been reviewing Alternative Concepts and Inertial Fusion Energy. The Alternative Concepts subpanel, chaired by F. Najmabadi of UCSD recommended a methodology for categorizing and reviewing concepts. They also recommended expansion of concept exploration activities, initiation of a proof-of-principle spherical torus facility, strengthening and broadening the reversed field pinch program, an expanded stellarator program, and establishment of a vigorous theory program.

The IFE subpanel, under the chairmanship of John Sheffield recommended a strong IFE program be carried out in OFES/ER in coordination with DOE's ICF program in Defense Programs. They recommended extension of the IFE program beyond the current heavy ion accelerator program to include energy-related technologies, such as wall protection schemes. They recommended at $10M program, including $2-3M for the technology issues. The current program is at $7.8M, including about $1M for the technology issues. They said that a minority of the subcommittee wanted a less aggressive program and another minority wanted a more aggressive program. The recommended that the accelerator driver program be aimed at preparing a proposal for an ambitious ($100M class) construction project in 1999.

For more information, contact: Stephen O. Dean