Congress axes U.S. ITER funding.Congress has passed, and the President has signed, the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, funding most agencies of the U.S. government through September 30, 2008. Under the appropriations bill, the Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Sciences will receive $286.6 million (after a 0.91 percent general rescission from an appropriated $289.2 million). The President had requested $428M, including $160M for the ITER ITER. A foot way. Vide Way. project and $268M for the domestic fusion program. Congress appropriated $10.7M for "Enabling R&D for ITER" and $278.5M for the domestic program. Within the $278.5M, Congress earmarked $162.9M for fusion "science" (including $12.3M for "High Energy Density Physics"), $93.5M for "facility operations," and $22 M for "enabling R&D," The Congress specifically stated it was providing "$0 for the U.S. contribution to ITER." Subsequent press reports (see article posted at http://fire.pppl.gov) quote the President's science advisor, John Marburger, as saying, "I can't see the U.S. not living up to its (ITER) obligations. The department (of Energy) will have to use its money to stay in the project, so (the language) really just amounts to another earmark earmark taking a piece out of the edge or center of the ear with a punch as an identification mark. The shape of the mark may be registerable under local legislation. ." Such Congressional language, however, usually is considered to have the force of law unless the Executive Branch goes back to Congress and requests a "reprogramming Reprogramming refers to erasure and remodeling of epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation, during mammalian development[1]. After fertilization some cells of the newly formed embryo migrate to the germinal ridge and will eventually become the germ cells " of existing funds. The Congressional language accompanying the bill specifically states, "Funding may not be reprogrammed from other activities within Fusion Energy Sciences to restore the U.S. contribution to ITER." Many other (non-fusion) projects and programs were slashed in the appropriations bill as Congress was forced to reduce the total price tag of the bill in the face of a veto threat from the President. The bill also funds the inertial confinement fusion Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a process where nuclear fusion reactions are initiated by heating and compressing a fuel target, typically in the form of a pellet that most often contains a mixture of deuterium and tritium. program within the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration. The bill provides $474.4M for that program, compared to $412.3M requested by the President. Increases above the President's request are provided to "accelerate target development and fabrication ($15M), high average power lasers ($14M), Naval Research Laboratory Noun 1. Naval Research Laboratory - the United States Navy's defense laboratory that conducts basic and applied research for the Navy in a variety of scientific and technical disciplines NRL ($15M), University of Rochester The University of Rochester (UR) is a private, coeducational and nonsectarian research university located in Rochester, New York. The university is one of 62 elected members of the Association of American Universities. ($9M), and Sandia National Laboratories Sandia National Laboratories, which is managed and operated by the Sandia Corporation (a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation), is a major United States Department of Energy research and development national laboratory with two locations, one in Albuquerque, New Z Machine ($13M). |
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