Submitted White Papers & Public Links

Public links will be made available as authors approve public distribution

Request for Community Input

An important part of the FESAC Decadal Plan charge is to address the alignment of the current DOE Fusion Energy Sciences program to the FESAC Long Range Plan (LRP) and the White House's Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy (BDV), which is embodied by the NASEM “Bringing Fusion to the US Grid Report:”

“...re-assess the program elements and their alignment with the FESAC LRP science drivers and the BDV… identify opportunities or current plans to contribute to the FESAC LRP FM&T and fusion plasma science gaps establishing the basis of an FPP in the context of the BDV, taking into consideration the diversity in FPP concepts represented in the Milestone Program awardees…”

Further charge language specifies that the subcommittee is to focus on existing research programs and facilities operations (and not current facilities construction or potential future facilities).  The community has already put tremendous effort into developing the Community Planning Process (CPP) Report and the FESAC LRP.  The DP Subcommittee feels that these reports provide ample guidance to answer the charge questions pertaining to the alignment of the current FES research program.  Note that all input into and the output of the FESAC Facilities Construction Projects (FCP) subcommittee will also be available to the DP subcommittee.  We reserve the right to issue targeted requests to the community for additional information if a need arises during our work on this part of the charge.  

However, there is another piece of the charge that we feel calls for new input from the community.  This piece reads: 

“In addition, the subcommittee should identify the role of the public sector and the FES user facilities (National Spherical Torus Experiment - Upgrade and Doublet III) in addressing the FM&T gaps and advancing commercial fusion applications going forward. Throughout the process, please take the full FESAC LRP into account and consider sustainable support for foundational research as synergies between discovery plasma science and fusion energy development (e.g., spin-off plasma technology applications from fusion) are valued.”

Since the FESAC LRP and NASEM reports were completed, there has been a significant change in the fusion energy landscape; in particular private investment in fusion has more than tripled to over $6B.  We view this part of the charge as an opportunity to provide input to DOE on the role of the public program in this context and on possible new public-private partnership mechanisms.  We also recognize the chance to call out new synergies and opportunities for interactions between fusion science and technology R&D and broader plasma science and technology R&D.   

To that end, we are requesting two kinds of input:

1. We are planning to bring guests to talk with the subcommittee on relevant topics (e.g. Private-Public Partnership (PPP) activities in other sectors).  We welcome suggestions for speakers/guests using this form. 

2. Concise (< 5 pages) white papers addressing this piece of the charge are welcome, including proposals for new PPP mechanisms, proposals for approaches for better coupling between the private and public efforts, and opportunities for synergies with fundamental and applied plasma science.  You can submit such white papers here.  We would appreciate receiving any white papers by May 31 June 7.

Please keep white paper input focused on answering the questions raised in the DP charge to FESAC, specifically the second quoted section above (as we are not seeking input at this time on the first quoted section on alignment).