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UNIVERSITY FUSION ASSOCIATION

http://depts.washington.edu/ufa


E-mail Newsletter
February 2008
sent by S. Knowlton, UFA President

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Items:

1.  FY09 budget

2.  One-page letter for Fusion Day, Feb. 21


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1.  As many of you know, the FY09 budget request from the 
Administration was released a little over a week ago.  You can find 
budget summaries and the complete budget for OFES on the FIRE website 
at http://fire.pppl.gov.  I am attaching to this newsletter a summary 
presentation made by Associate Director Ray Fonck of OFES.  This 
presentation was made in a conference call on Feb. 5 with a number of 
leaders of the US fusion program.

The total requested budget is $493.1M, up from the FY08 allocation of 
$286.5M.  The big increase is to support the US commitment to ITER 
construction ($214.5M in FY09, up from $10.6M in FY08).  You'll 
recall the last-minute 2007 Omnibus bill eliminated all spending for 
ITER in FY08, but the Office of Science was able to provide funding 
for core functions of the US ITER Project Office in FY08.  As of Jan. 
2008, the estimated cost range for the US contribution to ITER  is 
$1.4 - 2.2 B.  More accurate costs for ITER will be known in 2009 or 
2010 when the project is baselined.

Some highlights of the proposed budget follow:

Funding for High Energy Density Laboratory Plasma (HEDLP) is 
increased by $8.6M in FY09 to $24.6M.  This is a joint program with 
NNSA, started last year. Proposed  NNSA funding for this effort 
decreases by $2M in FY09 to $10M.  A new effort in HEDLP is starting 
at LLNL, and some existing activities in other OFES programs will be 
transferred to this area.

The Fusion Simulation Project kicks off in FY09 with $2M new funding.

Funding for Advanced Planning (planning for new US initiatives in 
response to charges &their reports) is up $2M

NCSX construction funding (PPPL) is up $3.6M to $19.6M if the project 
passes a Validation Review and the project costs are  successfully 
re-baselined later this year.

Allocations for Experimental Plasma Research (ICC Program) are down. 
The reductions are due to the shutdown of SSPX at LLNL and the 
termination of QPS preparation support at ORNL.  And additional loss 
of $0.37M is said to result from some ICC effort being transferred to 
HEDLP.

SciDac , MST, and General Plasma Science remain about the same with 
some small increases.  Funding for non-SciDac and non=FSP theory is 
reduced somewhat,  as are Diagnostics, Enabling Technology , and 
Materials research.

Discounting their FY08 Congressional earmark, the three major MFE 
facilities (C-Mod, D3-D, and NSTX) have small increases from FY07, 
but their projected run-time decreases from FY07 (see attachment for 
details).

While there is increased funding in some areas noted above, the 
overall FY09 budget is described as one of status quo.  The outcomes 
of strategic planning taking place within OFES and the research 
community in FY08 and beyond are likely impact the relative 
allocations in future budgets.

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2.  One-page letter for Fusion Day, Feb. 21

Congressional Fusion Day is coming up on Feb. 21, and a committee of 
fusion researchers and fusion advocates led by Mark Haynes (GA) have 
produced a 1-page document to be used on Fusion Day and at other 
appropriate opportunities as Congress attempts to pass the FY09 
budget.  I'm attaching a copy to this newsletter.  Because of the 
large increase over the actual FY08 allocation, the letter's message 
is quite simple:  we support the Administration's request for Office 
of Science funding, and it is crucial to restore funding of the US 
commitment to ITER

What I read in the newspapers tells me that federal money will be 
tight this year.   There are many other federally-supported 
scientific programs with reasonable needs, and fusion is not the only 
long-term energy source around. Fusion research and plasma science 
have no entitlement to this proposed allocation - our system requires 
that we justify our request every year. So it is important that you 
contact your congressional delegation during Fusion Day, or, barring 
that, by calling their offices.  This year is very important because 
a repeat of last year's elimination of funding for ITER could prove 
disastrous not only for our plans for participating in the science of 
ITER but subsequently for all our MFE work at home whether it is 
directly related to burning plasmas or not.  We must try to 
communicate the central message to our legislators that the US fusion 
effort consists of one program for which we need the Administration's 
recommended budget.

I've copied below a section of Mark Haynes' most recent e-mail 
describing arrangements for Fusion Day.  If you have not made 
arrangements to come, and would like to, please contact Mark at the 
phone number below, or at mark.haynes@ga.com

SCHEDULE (please note starting time)

8:00 a.m.               Breakfast at Tortilla Coast Restaurant on Capitol
                               Hill (corner of 1st and D Streets S.E.  Near
                               the Capitol South Metro stop - see attached
                               map)
                  
9:30 a.m.               Begin Congressional office visits

About Noon          Informal lunch gathering in Longworth Building Cafeteria

About 1:00 p.m.    Back to Work: Resume Congressional office visits

5:00 p.m. or so.    Probably a good quitting time

The cost of the breakfast will be $20, so please bring cash or a check and a
receipt will be provided.

MEETINGS 

A very full slate of meetings for visiting Californians has been arranged.
Wear comfortable shoes!

All others should either have your schedules in place by now or at least
have a good jump on it.


Please let us know if we can help with anything.  Thank you in advance for
your participation.

Chris Carter (Princeton U.) (202) 220-1365
Alison Fox (MIT) (202) 789-1828
Mark Haynes (General Atomics) (202) 496-8209
Christie Schomer (U of California) (202) 494-1905
Mary Toler (Battelle)  (202) 646-7863


Steve Knowlton
UFA President
-- 
Stephen Knowlton
Physics Department
Auburn University

Mailing Address:                Phone:  (334) 844-4685 (office); 844-2358 (lab)
206 Allison Laboratory  FAX:    (334) 844-6917
Auburn University               E-mail: knowlton@physics.auburn.edu
Auburn, AL 36849-5311