21 st Executive Committee Meetings of IEA Large Tokamak and Poloidal Divertor IAs

1. U.S. Department of Energy’sOffice of Science U.S. Fusion Energy Sciences Program 21st Executive Committee Meetings of IEA Large Tokamak and Poloidal Divertor IAs Cadarache, France; June 28-29, 2006 Dr. Erol Oktay Chair, IEA LT Vice-Chair, IEA PD www.ofes.fusion.doe.gov

2. OFES Management Changes • Anne Davies and Michael Roberts have retired • Dr. Jim Decker is acting as the Associate Director, OFES until a new director is named. (Possibly Fall 2006) • Erol Oktay, Steve Eckstrand and Gene Nardella are sharing (2 month rotation) the position of the Acting Director, Research Division • Warren Marton, is the Acting Director, ITER and International Division

3. ITER is the centerpiece of the U.S. MFE Program • A new era begins in MFE with the expected completion of the ITER Agreement to proceed with the ITER construction; • ITER will investigate burning plasmas for the first time, • Involves complex integration and optimization of multitude of physics and technology issues to achieve net power output from plasmas; • Among the unique research topics in burning plasmas are: • the role of energetic particles in plasma heating and stability; • coupling of core plasma to edge plasma and power exhaust; • Control of burning plasma for long pulses • The U.S. participation in ITER supports the FES mission: • Advance plasma science, fusion science, and fusion technology, the knowledge base needed for an economically and environmentally attractive fusion energy source; • ITER will provide experimental results and validated suite of codes for design of future fusion facilities such as DEMO.

4. ITER is on the verge of becoming a reality • We are making great progress with the realization of ITER: • Agreement was initialed in Brussels on May 24; senior management team is being formed. • Five year budget plan for Fusion Energy Sciences budget includes full funding of ITER with sufficient funding for the ‘base program’ • The OFES managers and the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee are developing the details of the Program for the next 10 years.

5. The US MFE program • Most ongoing research in the following programs during the ITER construction will directly contribute to the preparations for U.S. experiments on ITER, coordinated by the U.S. Burning Plasma Organization (USBPO): • Major tokamak facilities (DIII-D, C-MOD, NSTX) and collaborations on international tokamaks • Theory and modeling • Diagnostics development • Enabling and Fusion Technologies • The U.S. MFE program is well integrated to include: • the US ITER Project Office (USIPO) to manage the U.S. contributions to the international partnership (hardware, cash, and personnel) and the USBPO for scientific support to ITER; • The construction of National Compact Stellarator Experiment for future research on confinement optimization, and • Continuing research on enduring fusion topics on stability, transport, plasma-wave and plasma-particle interaction.

6. The US MFE program (cont.) • This integrated program is carried out in diverse programs and facilities : • Small scale experiments, mostly at universities • Larger scale experiments both at universities, laboratories, and industry • High speed computation facilities • Most research activities are carried out collaboratively by national and international teams • The goals of this integrated program are to understand and advance: • Burning plasma physics and technology • Steady state physics and technology • Confinement optimization • Basic Plasma Physics • Selected Technologies for DEMO and Power Plants

7. Major Operating MFE Facilities • The three major U.S. facilities provide research results in complementary areas: • The DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics (Shaping, medium field and aspect ratio, flexible heating and control tools, diagnostics…) • The C-MOD tokamak at MIT (high field, high density, high pressure, metal walls…) • The NSTX spherical tokamak at PPPL (small aspect ratio, low field, high ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure…) • Experiments on these facilities are major contributors to joint experiments of the International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA), in close cooperation with the ITER team; • International collaborations on foreign facilities provide additional resources to the U.S. scientists forresearch opportunities.

8. U.S. Prepares Domestically for ITER • The U.S. ITER Project Office, a partnership of ORNL and PPPL, has prepared the preliminary cost and schedule ranges to reflect resolution of uncertainties associated with the international ITER Project. • The U.S. domestic program has continued to support the domestic technical preparations for the ITER project and has begun to plan for the operation of ITER. These activities are being promoted and coordinated through the community-based U.S. Burning Plasma Organization (USBPO) established in 2005 for this purpose. • The USBPO will coordinate and facilitate a coherent burning plasma-related work program and ITER supporting research. The USBPO organized a national workshop at ORNL on December 7-9, 2005 to review the developments in the U.S. program on burning plasma related topics since the Snowmass 2002 study that formulated the technical basis for the U.S. to join ITER. • The USBPO, working together with the FESAC, will produce a 'Plan for U.S. Scientific Participation in ITER' with technical details in mid 2006. This Plan will guide the U.S. preparations for the ITER experiments in the ongoing U.S. fusion program, and will contribute to the detailed planning by all ITER Parties of the ITER experiments.

9. U.S. Burning Plasma Organization Comprised of 3 Elements Council [Community Governance] Directorate [Coordination, Support] Topical Groups Task Groups [Implementation: Working Groups] Entry: Join Topical Groups of Interest

10. U.S. BPO: Help Apply Community Activities & Expertise to BP-Relevant Issues USBPO Campaigns, Tasks (E.G.) Tritium Retention Disruption Mitigation BP Planning Alternates’ Implications Diagnostics Pedestal RWM ETC… Problems to Address…. Burning Plasma Regime Large Scale Long-Pulse Alpha Particles Strong Couplings Macroscopic Stability Diagnostics Self-Heated Exothermic Wave-Plasma Interactions Simulation & Modeling Operations, Control Transport & Confinement Energetic Particles Technology Plasma-Boundary Interfaces Knowledge Base & Capabilities Integrated Scenarios Plasma and Engineering Science Topical Areas

11. Technical Highlights from U.S.