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April 20, 2016

Subcommittee Explores the Future of Fusion Energy

(Washington, DC) – Today, the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s Subcommittee on Energy held a hearing titled, “An Overview of Fusion Energy Science.” The purpose of this hearing was to examine the status of fusion energy research, including the ITER international fusion project.

ITER is a collaboration of 35 nations working to build the world’s largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device, in southern France. This device has been designed to prove the potential for fusion to serve as a large, carbon-free energy source. ITER’s member nations include China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States.

Testifying before the Subcommittee were Dr. Bernard Bigot, Director General, ITER Organization; Dr. Stewart Prager, Director, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; and Dr. Scott Hsu, Scientist, Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Ranking Member Alan Grayson (D-FL) said in his opening statement, “Fusion energy has the potential to provide a practically unlimited supply of safe, reliable, clean energy to us all. While we have yet to achieve a viable fusion reactor, I believe that there are many paths to do so. I also do not believe that we are doing nearly enough to ensure that we are pursuing the most promising approaches to achieving this goal as quickly and as effectively as possible. Fusion energy can be an enormous global boon to every living human being, and it is going to happen. Whether it happens 5 years from now, or 50 years from now, depends on the decisions that we make and the work that you do.”

Members and witnesses spoke about the feasibility of fusion energy and what is needed to achieve the goal of a commercially competitive fusion reactor. Dr. Hsu emphasized the importance of supporting innovative approaches to fusion that may reach this goal much more quickly and with far lower capital costs than more conventional approaches. Dr. Prager highlighted the need for a robust fusion materials effort, and both he and Dr. Hsu pointed to the need for access to our nation’s most advanced computational capabilities, as well the development of exascale computing systems, to accelerate their research. All witnesses also noted the critical importance of training the next generation of scientists, researchers, and engineers

Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) said in her statement for the record, “The funding allocated to ITER in FY 2016 is only about 25% of the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences budget. ITER will solve problems that the fusion research community can build upon, and ensuring its success is crucial. While the ITER experiment has the potential to answer key scientific and engineering questions in fusion energy, the successful operation of ITER alone will not be sufficient to enable building a commercial scale fusion reactor, nor is it the only path forward.

“There are many promising fusion energy technologies and concepts worthy of further exploration, and it would be a terrible mistake if we did not find a way to better support these new innovative approaches through federally funded research and development.  The Department’s Fusion Energy Sciences program is perfectly positioned to create these opportunities, but the funds devoted to it don’t seem commensurate with the potential benefits. That is unfortunate.”