PCAST Fusion Working Group Established

During last week’s meeting of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) it was announced that a Fusion Working Group was being established. As described at this meeting, the Working Group is to provide “thoughtful advice on the outlook for the fusion program.”

The Working Group was established in response to the conference report accompanying the FY 1995 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. In this report, House and Senate conferees stated: “Because of the large budgetary requirements needed in the future for the fusion energy development program and other issues related to the development of fusion as an attractive energy resource, the conferees urge the President’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology to undertake a review and evaluation of magnetic fusion and inertial confinement fusion energy development. The Council is also urged to issue a report that will help shape the direction of the Nation’s effort on these important energy sources for the future.”

The Working Group is to complete this report by June 29, when PCAST holds its next meeting. It was acknowledged that it is going to be a “challenge to get this study done,” by the deadline. Meetings are closed to the public, with some of the work to be done by e-mail and conference telephone calls. Inertial confinement fusion will not be examined because of time constraints. It is hoped that the study’s timing will permit its use by Congress as it considers the FY 1996 DOE budget. The Administration will use the report in formulating the FY 1997 budget request, a process which is now in its formative stages.

John P. Holdren, University of California, Berkeley, is chair of the Working Group. Other members, some of which are not PCAST members (and so designated with an *), are:

Norman R. Augustine, Lockheed Martin Corporation

Charles M. Vest, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lilian Shiao-Yen Wu, IBM

Robert Conn, University of California, San Diego*

Lawrence Papay, Southern California Edison Company*

Stewart Prager, University of Wisconsin*

Andrew Sessler, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory*

Robert Socolow, Princeton University*

UPDATE: PCAST notes that Norman Augustine will not serve on the Fusion Working Group. Diana MacArthur of Dynamac Corporation will be joining this group. The panel will “identify budgetary requirements and policy and technology tradeoffs for different options in structuring [DOE’s] magnetic fusion energy program. These options include whether and when the United States should commit itself to constructing major new facilities for fusion energy development.”