Situation Analysis Most of the world's fusion research is funded by the European Union (EU), and the governments of Japan (JA), the Russian Federation (RF), and the United States. Smaller, but increasingly significant fusion programs are funded by Canada, China, India, and the Republic of Korea. Other countries are also funding fusion research activities, but at a level much lower than those mentioned above. The yearly funding for the U.S. fusion program was reduced 40% between fiscal years 1995 and 1997. Between fiscal years 1977 and 1998, the U.S. fusion budget was reduced 70% in real terms. In contrast, funding for the European and the Japanese fusion programs has significantly increased during that same period. In fiscal year 1997, the EU spent nearly three times the amount spent by the United States for fusion research, while we estimate that the Japanese program spent about twice as much as the United States. A consequence of the continuous reduction in the U.S. fusion budget has been the inability of the U.S. fusion program to make investments in major new experimental facilities. In contrast, the EU and Japan have continued to design and build such new fusion experiments. In 1995, the Congress instructed the Department of Energy to restructure the U.S. fusion program to be consistent with the expectation that, with the reduced urgency for new energy sources in the U.S, budgets will remain flat for the foreseeable future. Thus, the U.S. is no longer pursuing fusion as a goal-oriented energy technology development program. A new strategic plan for the fusion energy sciences program has been developed with new program goals that support plasma science research, emphasize the importance of exploring innovative solutions to technical issues, reinvigorate the search for concepts alternative to the conventional tokamak, and recognize the need to pursue research on the scientific and technological foundations for economically and environmentally attractive fusion energy powerplants through international collaboration. Taken together, the declining budget and the program restructuring have resulted in an increasing U.S. need to enhance our already considerable participation in international collaborations to achieve our fusion goals most cost-effectively, help maintain technical breadth in the program, and provide access to both existing capital facilities for which we do not have counterparts and future major capital facilities that we could not construct independently. With energy situations perceived differently than in the United States, the EU and Japan are continuing their goal-oriented fusion energy development programs. The long term goal of these programs is to produce a prototype fusion power plant. While both the European and the Japanese programs are pursuing the tokamak as the basis for an engineering test reactor, they are pursuing concepts alternative to the tokamak for possible use in demonstration powerplants. More information about the worldwide fusion programs is contained in the report of the Working Group on International Collaborations on the World Wide Web at the address shown on Page 2. Overall Strategy Collaborating with our international partners is one of the tools that allows us to meet our fusion program goals in the most effective way possible. The strategy for employing international collaborations is to: Identify and make use of opportunities to have U.S. scientists and engineers join with their counterparts in other countries to carry out research that uses the unique capabilities of fusion researchers and fusion facilities worldwide to achieve fusion program goals. This statement of our strategy is a revalidation and formalization of the strategic approach to international collaborations that has been so successfully used by the fusion program for the past twenty years. Proposals for work that supports the strategy are developed by the researchers as an integral part of the ongoing research program. The most successful proposals are those that are supported with roughly equal priority by each participating Party. Because the proposed collaboration is an integral part of the research program, the proposed international activity has the same programmatic priority as the domestic work that it supports and complements. During the past twenty years, a wide web of productive linkages among fusion programs worldwide has been developed to provide the mechanisms necessary for implementing the collaborations. Most of these linkages involve the U.S. and many of them have been stimulated in some way by the U.S. The pattern of this web can be drawn as underlying strands of bilateral connections between each of the fusion programs, and as multilateral activities under the auspices of the International Energy Agency (IEA) auspices. Additional strands represent interactions under the auspices of both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and various professional technical societies as well as personal relationships among technical personnel. In the chronological development of this collaborative framework, bilateral activities were crucial to learning about each other, establishing mutual interests, and practicing cooperation. This important role is being played today in the newly evolving bilaterals with China and Korea. As the bilaterals with the European Union, Japan and Russia matured, we found that the common interests extended multilaterally as well and the IEA Implementing Agreements were developed. The latest evolution has been the introduction and growth of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Engineering Design Activities in 1992. Tasks most appropriately carried out by ITER are done in that framework under the auspices of the IAEA; tasks of broad interest but not specific to ITER are carried out under IEA auspices; tasks of specific interest to two parties remain under the bilateral auspices. The intense ITER interaction has so improved communication among most program leaders in the ITER parties that bilateral policy meetings are in some cases now typically held as adjuncts to other international meetings, rather than as standalone multi-day investments. Each of these agreements has its own character, depending upon the individual participants, the facilities being used, the history of interaction, and relationship to the underlying domestic program. Each bilateral program has been an increasingly effective mechanism to advance fusion research with both Parties committed to carrying out the exchange activities. Strategy-Burning Plasma and Tokamak Performance ITER Over the past decade, the U.S. has benefitted immensely from the ITER activities by cost sharing and by focusing the research program to meet the ITER needs. The ITER EDA Agreement among the European Union, Japan, the Russian Federation, and the United States is scheduled to end in July 1998. The FESAC has recommended that the Department, in concert with its international partners, should build a burning plasma facility at the earliest possible time. ITER currently holds the most promise for fulfilling this recommendation, and both the FESAC and the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology have stated that the U.S. should be prepared to continue its participation in ITER beyond the end of the EDA Agreement, albeit in a manner somewhat restructured from the way it is now proceeding. The ITER governing body, the ITER Council, has proposed to the ITER Parties a three-year extension of the ITER EDA for work preparing for future decisions on construction and operations of ITER. The Council further recognized needs imposed by budget constraints, and thus has established a Special Working Group (SWG) to propose technical guidelines that should allow the design of minimum-cost options for ITER that will still satisfy ITER's overall programmatic objective. This SWG will also consider broader concepts for the ITER device, and the likely impacts of those concepts on fusion development paths. In support of the SWG considerations, the U.S. fusion community will work together to develop proposals for lower-cost design options with their associated cost estimates. In addition, during the three-year extension of the EDA the U.S. will continue collaborative experimental and theoretical fusion sciences research in existing facilities worldwide in support of ITER, test ITER prototype components developed earlier in the EDA to establish operating margins, support the Joint Work Site in San Diego, support a |