Fusion budget request.

US President George W. Bush has sent his Fiscal Year 2003 budget request to Congress. The President asked for $257.3 million for the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, compared to $247.5 M appropriated in FY 2002 and $242.0 appropriated in FY 2001. The President also asked for $451.8 M for inertial confinement fusion in DOE's weapons budget as part of the nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship program. This compares to $505.4 M in FY 2002 and $428.5 M in FY 2001. The largest fraction of the latter program is for construction of the laser-based National Ignition Facility (NIF), which would be fully funded at $214 M in FY 2003, compared to $245 M in FY 2002 and $197.3 M in FY 2001. As in the past, the DOE did not request continuation of funding for the congressionally-mandated high average power laser (HAPL) program, which received $24 M in FY 2002 and $24.8 M in FY 2001. The DOE also did not request funds to continue the congressionally mandated effort on fast ignition, which was funded at $5.5 M in FY 2002.

In addition to the $9.8 M increase to the OFES fusion budget, that effort will have available to it an additional $19.6 M for new work due to the completion of decommissioning of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) facility at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The OFES will use that $29.4 M of additional funding to increase operating time on its three major experimental facilities (DIII-D at General Atomics, Alcator C-Mod at MIT, and NSTX at Princeton) to near maximum capacity. These facilities have been underutilized for years due to budget shortfalls. The OFES will also allocated $11 M to begin fabrication of a new National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) at Princeton. No mention of a possible return of the US to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project is made in the budget request. This possibility is currently under consideration by the Secretary of Energy but presumably would require additional funds. OFES funding for inertial fusion energy and non-toroidal alternate concepts would be kept level or slightly reduced in the request.

The budget submission indicates that, within the weapons inertial confinement fusion program, "reductions have been made in program funded activities in NIF diagnostics, cryogenics and other areas that will delay the NIF experimental program, including some ignition related work." These preparations for operations programs would be funded at $34.4 M in FY 03, compared to $41.5 M in FY 02.

The DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) states that the budget will allow for a near doubling of the operating time on its major facilities (NSTX, DIII-D and Alcator C-Mod), with 21 weeks of run time planned at each facility, 85% of full single shift operations. The budget also allows for the initiation of a new project: the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NSCX). Decommissioning of the TFTR facility at Princeton will be completed in FY2002 and of the Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) facility at Los Alamos in FY2003. The OFES says that other elements of the research program will remain about level with the FY 2002 level.

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory remains the highest funded fusion research center in the US, at a projected $64.1 million compared to $68.8 million in FY 2002. General Atomics in San Diego is projected to receive $48.3 million compared to $44.1 million in FY 2002, while Oak Ridge National Laboratory would receive $46.9 million compared to $44.3 million in FY 2002. MIT would receive $26.0 million compared to $23.9 million in FY 2002; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory would receive $14.4 million compared to $14.3 million, while Los Alamos National Laboratory would receive $7.3 million compared to $7.4 million. Universities would receive $46.9 million compared to $44.3 million, while Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory would receive $5.8 million compared to $5.9 million. All others would receive $26.0 million compared to $23.9 million.

The DOE weapons program, now managed within the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), states that the FY 2003 budget maintains the NIF schedule but takes reductions in other parts of the inertial confinement fusion program. They state that they are eliminating both the High Average Power Laser Program, the petawatt initiative and the University of Nevada-Reno petawatt laser programs.