March 26, 1997

FPN97-9 Fusion Program Notes

ICF Academy Panel Report

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), National Research Council, has released the report of its Committee for the Review of the Department of Energy's Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) Program. The 16-person committee, chaired by Steven E. Koonin, California Institute of Technology, has been holding meetings for about a year. After abolishing its own inertial fusion advisory committee at the end of 1995, DOE asked the Academy to establish the panel "to conduct an initial review to (1) determine the scientific and technological readiness of the NIF (National Ignition Facility) project, (2) assess the entire ICF program (including program scope, balance, and priorities; facility operation; experimentation; theory, etc.) and make recommendations to facilitate the achievement of the scientific goal, which is ignition, and (3) evaluate the capabilities of the ICF program (in conjunction with NIF) to support SBSS." (SBSS stands for Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship.)

In its "Findings and Conclusions," the panel said "the NIF would make important contributions toward the stated long-term goals of the SBSS program," and that "the science and technology have progressed sufficiently to allow the NIF project to proceed as planned."

The panel said, "The achievement of ignition appears likely, but not guaranteed. The steady scientific and technological progress in ICF during the 6 years since the last National Research Council review, the plausibility of ignition estimates based on the experimental and modeling results and capabilities in hand, and the flexibility of the facility all support the committee's finding that the NIF project is technologically and scientifically ready to proceed as planned with reasonable confidence in the attainment of its objectives."

Meanwhile, a group of organizations opposed to nuclear weapons research, under the leadership of the National Resources Defense Council, has obtained a preliminary ruling from a U.S. federal District Court judge, forbidding the DOE from "providing or obligating any (additional) funding, monies or other forms of support to the ICF Committee or to the NAS for the purpose of supporting the ICF Committee as of today (March 5)" or from "utilizing, relying on or, in any way incorporating into its decisionmaking process the ICF Committee report or any other work product of the ICF Committee." The intervenors claimed that the NAS committee violated the federal law governing federal advisory committees by not meeting in public session. The Academy contends that is not bound by that law. The intervenors also claimed that the members of the committee were biased, by conflicts of interest, in favor of the ICF program.

The DOE promptly announced (March 11) that it "has approved the start of construction" of the NIF. In papers filed with the court March 3, DOE's David Crandall said that the NAS report "is not essential to, or required by, the department as part of its policy and procedures for review and approval of construction of NIF."

The Academy report is available on the web at http://www.nas.edu/cpsma/icf.htm/

For more information, contact: Stephen O. Dean