UNIVERSITY FUSION ASSOCIATION

http://depts.washington.edu/ufa


E-mail Newsletter
Sept. 21, 2008
sent by S. Knowlton, UFA President

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Items:

1. Program news from OFES about ReNeW workshop
2. Announcement of Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting


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1.   ReNeW workshop

About 3 weeks ago, I sent you a newsletter describing OFES' plan to 
hold the first of several Research Needs Workshops (ReNeW) to further 
discuss and prioritize activities of the US fusion program.  This 
plan follows from the process set in motion by former OFES AD Fonck. 
Attached to the newsletter is the OFES document describing this 
activity, and several illustrative slides. (1) (2)

As I mentioned before, the 1st workshop focused on MFE research needs 
will take place in June, but the work of the 5 research theme groups 
to be integrated in this workshop is expected to start almost 
immediately.  OFES management is hoping to have theme groups' leaders 
selected by the first week in October, and is seeking further 
suggestions for these positions by Sept. 26, 2008.

I believe many of these chairs or co-chairs should come from the 
university community, and I urge you to send your suggestions for 
chairs and co-chairs for (A) the workshop as a whole; (B) the 5 
themes listed in Attachment 3 ("Themes and Panels"); and (3) 
sub-panels under each theme.  I have already nominated a number of 
you.  I hope you will do the same.  Send your suggestions to Albert 
Opdenaker at OFES (albert.opdenaker@science.doe.gov)

You will note that the first theme of "Burning Plasmas" has no 
sub-panels listed.  OFES management intends that the USBPO take the 
lead in organizing this theme; suggestions for this theme should 
probably also be sent to Jim Van Dam and/or Amanda Hubbard: 
vandam@physics.utexas.edu, hubbard@psfc.mit.edu

One motivation for this workshop and others to follow on plasma 
science and HEDLP/IFES is to follow the model set by BES in holding 
workshops to determine short and long term research needs as well as 
explicitly identifying important cross-cutting issues.  FYI, you can 
find the BES Basic Research Needs workshop reports (dating from 
2005-2007) at

http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/list.html

A subtext for the upcoming Research Needs workshops is to develop a 
compelling and credible strategic plan for fusion energy science 
research that could positively influence federal allocations for ITER 
plus the supporting and base  activities that constitute our domestic 
research program. As suggested in the OFES "Dear Colleague" letter, 
this specific workshop is intended to produce an MFE strategic plan 
in time for the Budget Planning exercises in Mar. 2010 to impact the 
FY2010 budget.

OFES presented this letter to program leaders in a conference call on 
Sept. 19, 2008.  There was discussion over some statements in the 
letter, but I believe this latest draft is identical to the one 
presented to us.

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2. Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting

Stephen Dean of FPA has announced the details of the annual meeting 
of Fusion Power Associates to be held at LLNL, Dec. 3-4, 2008.  The 
latest announcement is attached to this newsletter.  I'm also copying 
a portion of his e-mail regarding the necessity of security badging:

A portion of the meeting will be held on-site at the lab and will 
include a tour of the National Ignition Facility (NIF). LLNL badging 
requirements mean that all US citizens must register not only with us 
but also with the lab at:
https://www.regonline.com/fpa_annual_mtg

Registration with the lab must be completed no later than November 1.