Department of Energy

A National Academies study committee has begun a decadal survey of progress and opportunities in plasma science that will complement a separate forthcoming assessment of U.S. research programs in magnetic confinement fusion.

With recent funding increases, the Department of Energy is advancing a suite of upgrades to its light and neutron source scientific user facilities, helping them remain competitive with European facilities. Meanwhile, there are new discussions about building a new reactor-based neutron source, even as Congress pushes ahead with a different reactor for nuclear energy R&D.

President Trump has signed a fiscal year 2019 spending package that rejects his proposed cuts to the Department of Energy’s applied R&D programs for the second year in a row. Funding for renewable energy R&D remains stable, while government investment in nuclear energy R&D will continue its rapid increase.

Congress sent two bills to the president last week that provide policy direction to the Department of Energy Office of Science and Office of Nuclear Energy, respectively. The House also passed legislation to establish a National Quantum Initiative, which now awaits action in the Senate.

Congress has finalized a spending bill for fiscal year 2019 that would raise the Department of Energy Office of Science’s budget by 5 percent and the department’s applied research offices’ budgets by between 2 and 10 percent. If enacted quickly, as expected, the legislation will provide DOE with on-time funding for the first time in two decades.

At a July hearing, the House Science Committee discussed promising applications of machine learning techniques to scientific research and the Department of Energy’s role in supporting advanced computing infrastructure.

The National Academies released a report this week that backs the case for constructing a U.S.-based electron ion collider, a large-scale facility designed to enable new investigations in fundamental nuclear physics.

President Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Science received bipartisan praise at a Senate confirmation hearing on June 26, while Democratic senators expressed concerns about his nominee to lead the department’s renewable energy R&D office.

In their fiscal year 2019 spending bills, House and Senate appropriators again reject the Trump administration’s proposal for deep cuts to the Department of Energy’s applied energy R&D programs, and they state their opposition to its policy of focusing support on “early-stage” research.

The House Science Committee plans to introduce a bill next month that would create a 10-year National Quantum Initiative aimed at increasing America’s strategic focus on quantum information science and technology development.