Secretary O’Leary on Fusion

In their November letter to Martha Krebs, Director of DOE’s Office of Energy Research, participants in an October workshop on fusion energy science (see FYI #164) stated:

“Throughout the workshop we discussed the need (emphasized by staff from OMB, OSTP, and Congress) for the fusion and plasma science community to improve communications with other scientific disciplines and to improve our outreach to the public and to the environmental and educational communities. We are convinced that much can be done to convey the excitement and real achievements of fusion research....”

An example of such outreach was a speech by Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary to a congressional and public audience on Capitol Hill in mid-May. Selections from her remarks to the Fusion Forum follow; the entire address can be viewed on DOE’s Office of Fusion Energy Homepage at http://wwwofe.er.doe.gov/

“Fusion is a long term option that must be developed, since world energy demand will grow rapidly - mostly in the developing nations - over the next 20 years - because we know that total energy available from conventional sources will not meet the expected growth in energy demand.

“By 2010, world wide energy consumption is expected to increase by about 15 percent to approximately 3554 Million Tons of Oil Equivalent....

"`Fortune’ magazine notes that, by the year 2020, if the per capita energy consumption in China and India rises to that of South Korea today - when considered with expected population growth, `these two countries alone will need a total of 119 Million Barrels of Oil a day. That’s almost DOUBLE the WORLD’S entire demand today.’

“We believe that one way to plan to meet that demand, and to do it without increased production of greenhouse gases, is to continue our fusion science research and to support our role in international fusion research.

“Fusion is our longest term option that shows significant promise.

“Fusion research is exactly the kind of program government should support. The payback period is long term. Industry can’t and won’t do it alone because of the payback period and because of high front end costs.

“Progress in fusion research has been steady and dramatic. Over the past 20 years, the fusion power equivalent produced in experimental devices has increased over 100 million-fold -- from 0.1 watt in 1975 to more than 10 million watts in 1995. This rate of progress far outstrips the rate of progress - for example - in increased capacity of semi-conductor chips -- a product more people are familiar with.

“Fusion research today is a wonderful example of international cooperation across a broad spectrum of research. The U.S. is no longer the dominant player, with our program accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s investment in fusion.

“The U.S. can no longer afford large capital investments to accommodate fusion experiments. Through international partnerships we can share in the knowledge that comes from the building and operation of multi-billion dollar devices by sharing in the planning, design, cost, and construction of them.

“We must maintain our scientific strengths to be a viable international player. The U.S. excels in many areas of fusion research including diagnostics, fusion theory, and computer modeling. We bring those areas of expertise to the table in any fusion research context, but without a strong domestic program, we will fall behind our partners.”