DOE FY1995 Budget Bill Goes To House Floor Fusion Energy

The House bill making fiscal year 1995 appropriations for the Department of Energy, H.R. 4506, passed the House Appropriations Committee on May 26. It now goes to the House floor, where a vote is expected the week of June 12. Accompanying the bill is a 146-page report outlining the Appropriations Committee’s recommendations for spending. FYIs #74 through #77 provide selections from the report of interest to the physics community.

FUSION ENERGY

Current appropriation: $347,595,000 Administration request: 372,563,000 House committee bill: 376,563,000

“The Committee is pleased with the outstanding results of the deuterium-tritium (D-T) experiments being conducted on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR).... TFTR produced more than six million watts of fusion power in December 1993, and it is expected to produce 10 million watts of fusion power later this year. [On May 31, TFTR announced production of 9 million watts of power.] The Committee notes with approval that TFTR, the centerpiece of the U.S. fusion program, is achieving all of its design and scientific objectives.”

”...The international collaboration in fusion energy, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a high priority in the U.S. fusion program.... However, the Committee is very concerned that the Department has failed to report to the Congress on how it intends to move forward with the complex and detailed negotiations on ITER construction-related issues...”

“The Committee provides $66,700,000 to begin construction activities on the Tokamak Physics Experiment (TPX), the national facility at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.... This advanced, superconducting tokamak will demonstrate continuous operation at high power densities and improve the performance and attractiveness of the tokamak reactor concept....”

“The Committee also recognizes the potential for advanced low activation materials to improve the environmental qualities and safety of future fusion reactors. The Committee instructs the Department to begin an aggressive low activation fusion materials program with the goal of developing and characterizing low activation materials that could be tested on ITER and utilized in a future demonstration power reactor.”

”...Advances in plasma confinement, plasma equilibrium and stability, the behavior of alpha particles, power handling and plasma heating operations, continue to be developed by several intermediate-scale facilities, including DIII-D and its upgrade at General Atomics, Alcator C-Mod at MIT, PBX-M at PPPL, and TEXT at the University of Texas. The design and construction of TPX and ITER benefit significantly from the results of these existing experiments and the research and development that accompany them. With the continued strong participation of university research, the fusion program will be strengthened.”

INERTIAL FUSION ENERGY

The bill provides $10,000,000 for Inertial Fusion Energy, (included in the total for Fusion Energy) with the following explanation:

“The Committee is familiar with the substantial progress in the Inertial Fusion Energy program. This small program has drawn outstanding reviews as a promising energy source for the 21st century. The budget request for this program [of $6,000,000], while slightly above the fiscal year 1994 level, is still below its fiscal year 1992 level of $9,000,000. In order to proceed on a timely and cost-effective schedule with its next major experiment, the Induction Linac Systems Experiment (ILSE), the Committee provides an additional $4,000,000 ... to support an accelerated level of effort on ILSE.”