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* U N I V E R S I T Y F U S I O N A S S O C I A T I O N
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* News and Information
| July 12, 2000
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. INTEGRATED PROGRAM PLANNING DRAFT POSTED FOR COMMENT

2. HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE COMPLETES FUNDING BILL

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1. Integrated Program Planning Activity nears Completion
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The Report of the Integrated Program Planning Activity for OFES is nearing
completion and will be presented to FESAC next week. This is a five-year
planning document for the Fusion Energy Science Program, and it is
important that any work you deem important to program is represented
therein. We encourage all community members to examine this draft and
comment as you feel is needed!

The most recent version (Revision 3, dated July 5, 2000) of the draft
report for the Integrated Program Planning Activity (IPPA) has been posted
on the VLT website at http://vlt.ucsd.edu/.

This version has been sent to DOE's Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory
Committee for their review. FESAC's review of the IPPA will begin at its
meeting in San Diego at General Atomics on July 18-19, 2000 and will last
approximately three months. Persons wishing to attend the FESAC meeting
should advise Marion Stav (stav@gav.gat.com).

Please share this draft report with all interested colleagues. All
comments are welcome and will be collected and sent to FESAC for its
consideration.

If you wish to comment on the draft please send your comments to FESAC
chair John Sheffield (oji@ornl.gov), with copies to Charles Baker
(cbaker@vlt.ucsd.edu), who chairs the Working Group that prepared the
draft, and to John Lindl (lindl1@llnl.gov), who chairs the IPPA Steering
Committee.

Members of the Working Group include: Charles Baker (chair), Steve Dean
(Fusion Power Associates), Bill Ellis (Raytheon Engineers and
Constructors), Richard Hazeltine (University of Texas), Grant Logan (LLNL),
Mike Mauel (Columbia University), Ned Sauthoff (PPPL), and Tony Taylor
(General Atomics).

Members of the Steering Committee include: John Lindl (chair), Stewart
Prager (U. Wisconsin), Vice Chair, Steve Cowley (UCLA), Rich Hawryluk
(PPPL), Tom Jarboe (U. Washington), Earl Marmar (MIT), Kathy McCarthy
(INEEL), Dick Siemon (LANL), and Ron Stambaugh (General Atomics).

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2. House Appropriations sets FY01 Fusion Sciences funding at $255M
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On June 20, the full House Committee on Appropriations completed its action
on the FY01 Energy and Water Development bill. The only change to fusion
related provisions in the bill was the addition of $5 million for fusion
energy sciences (making the total $255 million) and the addition of the
following language in the Committee's report: "The Committee recommendation
includes the budget request of $19,600,000 for decontamination and
decommissioning of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR)."

The full House of Representatives has accepted this bill and the Senate
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development is expected to take it up
tomorrow.

The fusion-related provisions of the final Committee report should read as
follows:

"SCIENCE

"Appropriation, 2000...................................$2,787,627,000
"Budget Estimate, 2001................................ 3,151,065,000
"Recommended, 2001...................................2, 830,915,000
"Comparison:
Appropriation, 2000....................................+43,288,000
Budget Estimate, 2001.................................-320,150,000

"The Science account includes the following programs: high energy and
nuclear physics; biological and environmental research; basic energy
sciences; advanced scientific computing research; energy research analysis;
multi-program energy laboratories facility support; fusion energy sciences;
and program direction. Due to severe funding constraints, the Committee
was unable to provide the significant budget increases requested by the
Department in fiscal year 2001. It has been necessary to defer many
on-going programs and new initiatives which the Committee views very
favorably and regrets being unable to fund. ....."

"FUSION ENERGY SCIENCES

"The Committee recommendation for fusion energy sciences is $255,000,000,
an increase of $7,730,000 over the budget request and the same as fiscal
year 2000. Additional funding of $25,000,000 has been provided in the
inertial confinement fusion program in the Weapons Activities appropriation
account to support work on the development of high average power lasers.

"Funds for this program should be allocated in accordance with the Fusion
Energy Sciences Advisory Committee's (FESAC) report on Balance and
Priorities. The Committee is pleased that the FESAC review process seems to
be positioning the U.S. program to take advantage of the much larger
international fusion research effort with the resources available and also
positions the program to accelerate the development of fusion energy.

"The Committee recommendation includes the budget request of $19,600,000
for decontamination and decommissioning of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor
(TFTR)."

"INERTIAL CONFINEMENT FUSION

"The Committee recommends $364,600,000 for the inertial confinement fusion
program, an increase of $169,700,000 over the budget request of
$194,900,000. The recommendation includes $144,700,000 which has been
transferred to inertial confinement fusion from the readiness in technical
base and facilities program, and $25,000,000 to further the development of
high average power lasers.

"Last year the Committee requested the Secretary to complete and certify a
new cost and schedule baseline for the National Ignition Facility (NIF).
This certification was to be submitted by June 1, 2000. If the Department
was unable to provide such a certification, the Department was to prepare
an estimate of the costs necessary to terminate the project. The
Department has not been able to certify a new cost and schedule baseline,
but has submitted an interim report calculating the total project cost at
approximately $3.26 billion. The Committee does not believe that the
information provided to date is an adequate basis for additional
appropriations in fiscal year 2001. The Committee will reserve judgement
on this project until the final report is submitted in September.

" Although completion of the NIF project in a timely and cost effective
manner is a high priority for the stockpile stewardship program, it is
important that the Department continue to support and maintain the work and
other inertial fusion facilities, and efforts in diagnostics, target
fabrication, and cryogenic target development. These elements of the
inertial confinement fusion program not only enable the goals of NIF, but
have important roles in meeting the overall goals of stockpile stewardship.
With significant delays in NIF, increased use of existing facilities and
the continued development of the supporting activities are essential to the
long term success of the program. The Committee recommendation includes
the budget request of $9,750,000 for the Naval Research Laboratory and
$32,150,000 for the University of Rochester."

Please feel free to contact any of the following if you have any questions:

Kate Bannan (University of California) - Kathryn.Bannan@ucop.edu
David Cherington (Princeton University) - ldcher@Princeton.EDU
Johanna Hardy (MIT)
Mark Haynes (General Atomics) - haynes@ga.radix.net

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