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Interim Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research (2018)

Chapter: 2 The Committee's Information-Gathering Process

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Suggested Citation:"2 The Committee's Information-Gathering Process." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Interim Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24971.
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2

The Committee’s Information-Gathering Process

The assessments in this report are based on the following:1

  • Review of many past studies on magnetic fusion energy and research needs that were written to guide fusion energy research strategy for the United States and for Europe, China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea;
  • The December 2015 report to Congress from the Acting Director, Department of Energy Office of Science, titled A Ten-Year Perspective and describing the present U.S. activities in fusion plasma and materials science;
  • The May 2016 report to Congress from the Secretary of Energy on U.S. Participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Project;
  • The Project Execution Plan for the U.S. Contributions to ITER Subproject-1 (U.S. ITER SP-1) Project Number 14-SC-60, released in January 2017;
  • Narratives from the annual budget request from the Department of Energy, Office of Science Fusion Energy Sciences Program, and the Reports from the congressional Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittees;
  • Briefings, reports of ongoing research, and presentations of strategies provided as input to the committee as part of the public record;
  • Written documents and oral presentations made during the first two meetings of the committee;
  • Input from the first of two community workshops on strategic directions for U.S. magnetic fusion research held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, from July 24-28, 2017;
  • Relevant review articles published in the scientific literature—for example, describing (1) scientific and technical achievements since the 2004 report of the National Research Council (NRC) Burning Plasma Assessment Committee,2 (2) the magnetic fusion energy development path,3 (3) the scientific opportunity afforded by study of a burning plasma experiment,4,5 and (4) the plan of Director General Bernard Bigot to correct organizational problems and sustain ITER construction performance;6 and

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1 See Appendix D for the source material used for the committee’s information-gathering process.

2 National Research Council, Burning Plasma: Bringing a Star to Earth, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2004.

3 C.L. Smith and S. Cowley, The path to fusion power, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 368:1091, 2010.

4 J. Ongena, R. Koch, R. Wolf, and H. Zohm, Magnetic-confinement fusion, Nature Phys 34:398, 2016.

5 A. Fasoli, S. Brunner, W.A. Cooper, J.P. Graves, P. Ricci, O. Sauter, and L. Villard, Computational challenges in magnetic-confinement fusion physics, Nature Phys 12:411, 2016.

6 B. Bigot, Nuclear physics: Pull together for fusion, Nature 522:149, 2015.

Suggested Citation:"2 The Committee's Information-Gathering Process." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Interim Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24971.
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  • Expertise of the committee’s membership including magnetic and inertial fusion energy, fusion materials science, fusion engineering science, plasma science, and nuclear science and engineering.

A short description of the science and history of magnetic fusion energy research is given in Appendix A. The statement of task for the committee is in Appendix B. The agendas for the committee’s first two meetings are provided in Appendix C. A bibliography of prior reports and studies consulted by the committee is provided in Appendix D.

Suggested Citation:"2 The Committee's Information-Gathering Process." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Interim Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24971.
×
Page 11
Suggested Citation:"2 The Committee's Information-Gathering Process." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Interim Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24971.
×
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In January 2003, President George W. Bush announced that the United States would begin negotiations to join the ITER project and noted that “if successful, ITER would create the first fusion device capable of producing thermal energy comparable to the output of a power plant, making commercially viable fusion power available as soon as 2050.” The United States and the other ITER members are now constructing ITER with the aim to demonstrate that magnetically confined plasmas can produce more fusion power than the power needed to sustain the plasma. This is a critical step towards producing and delivering electricity from fusion energy.

Since the international establishment of the ITER project, ITER’s construction schedule has slipped and ITER’s costs have increased significantly, leading to questions about whether the United States should continue its commitment to participate in ITER. This study will advise how to best advance the fusion energy sciences in the United States given developments in the field, the specific international investments in fusion science and technology, and the priorities for the next ten years developed by the community and the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) that were recently reported to Congress. It will address the scientific justification and needs for strengthening the foundations for realizing fusion energy given a potential choice of U.S. participation or not in the ITER project, and develops future scenarios in either case.

This interim report assesses the current status of U.S. fusion research and of the importance of burning plasma research to the development of fusion energy as well as to plasma science and other science and engineering disciplines. The final report will present strategies that incorporate continued progress toward a burning plasma experiment and a focus on innovation.

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