NEW ENERGY SOURCE MAJOR INTERNATIONAL FOREFRONT SCIENCE PRACTICAL BENEFITS WHAT IS NEEDED Fusion offers the promise of a safe, environmentally attractive largescale energy source and an unlimited fuel supply. It can be available on a timetable commensurate with the projected increase in world energy demand and decreased reliance on fossil fuels. The importance attached to fusion by other countries is evident in the unprecedented agreement among the U.S., European Community, Japan,and Russia to support the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world's first operating fusion reactor. Each party will contribute equally to the development and share the benefits. Fusion is at the leading edge of many areas of science and technology, such as superconducting magnets, advanced computer applications, high performance materials, and materials processing, among others. Such technologies are important to U.S. commercial competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century. An industrial infrastructure must be established to derive practical benefits from past and ongoing research and to position the U.S. to win an ITER site competition. To accomplish these objectives, U.S. industry must be used to develop engineering designs, fabrication approaches and advanced technology for all major new national fusion facilities and in the management of their construction. In addition, industry should perform much of the R&D and engineering design for ITER, to prepare for U.S. participation in ITER construction. During the past 12 years, the levels of fusion research and development in Europe and Japan have approximately doubled and now each exceeds the effort of the United States. It is essential that the U. S. Government provide adequate support to ensure that U.S. industry participates in the important fusion technological advances and in their utilization. "... Research and development should continue vigorously, especially in technologies like fusion power, which offer the prospect, however distant, of somewhat safer and more abundant sources of electricity." Vice President Albert Gore, Jr. "Fusion Energy holds great promise as an element of the nation's long-term energy supply." Hazel O'Leary, Secretary of Energy Testimony to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee |