February 4, 1997

FPN97-4 Fusion Program Notes

Presidential Energy R&D Initiative

President Clinton has sent a letter, dated January 14, 1997, to John Young, Co-Chair of the President's Committee of Advisor's on Science and Technology (PCAST), telling him "I have asked Jack Gibbons (the President's Science Advisor) to work with the new Secretary of Energy, once he is confirmed by the Senate, to review the current national energy R&D portfolio, and make recommendations to me by October 1, 1997 on how to ensure that the United States has a program that addresses its energy and environmental needs for the next century." Clinton says, "The analysis should be done in a global context, and the review should address both near- and long-term national needs including renewable and advanced fission and fusion energy supply options, and energy end-use efficiency." Clinton says, "I want to thank the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) for underscoring the issues PCAST members believe my Administration needs to address in our second term."

Clinton was responding to a December 16, 1996 letter from PCAST suggesting that five issues that "deserve increased attention." These were (1) A National Strategy for Energy R&D, (2) Improved Understanding and Management of Biological Resources, (3) Research and Technology to Improve Education and Training, (4) Industry-Government-University Partnerships, and (5) Improved Protection, Management, and Disposition of Nuclear Materials.

On Energy R&D, the PCAST told the President, "The United States has allowed Federal spending on energy R&D to fall more than three-fold in real terms in the last 15 years, a period in which private funding for energy R&D also was falling. Government spending on energy R&D is more than twice as high in Japan as in the United States, and about four times as high as a fraction of GNP." The PCAST says, "We recommend a substantial and sustained increase in Federal expenditures on energy R&D, coupled with measures to encourage increased energy R&D in the private sector." They recommend "resoration of fusion R&D funding to the levels recommended by PCAST last year."

Persons wishing to read the full text of the letters should visit a new national fusion web site at http://www.fusionscience.org/ The letters are under the "policy" heading.

For more information, contact: Stephen O. Dean