Statement from Early Career Fusion Scientists on the Final
Report of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on aStrategic Plan for Burning Plasma Research
March 10, 2019We, the undersigned members of the Early Career Fusion Scientist (ECFS) community, arewriting to express our support for the two main recommendations of the National Academy ofScience (NAS) Final Report on a Strategic Plan for Burning Plasma Research (‘the Report’)1 :• The United States should remain an ITER partner as the most cost-effective way to gain
experience with a burning plasma at the scale of a power plant.
• The United States should start a national program of accompanying research and technology
leading to the construction of a compact pilot plant that produces electricity from fusion atthe lowest possible capital cost.
Recent polling shows that the ECFS community strongly agrees with both remaining an ITER
partner (83/10) and initiation of a national research program to construct a compact pilot plantat lowest possible capital cost (89/5). Results are given as a percentage of people who (agree /disagree); see2 for a discussion of the methodology. We commend the committee that created theReport for their consideration of the views of the ECFS community within their comprehensive
review of the U.S. fusion program.
Previous discussion and polling2 within the EFCS community shows that 1) our primary motivation for participating in magnetic fusion energy research is the goal of a fusion power plant, 2) thevision for the US program should be to develop the science and technology basis needed to stimulate
sufficient industry involvement to bring fusion to market, 3) access to a burning plasma should be amajor focus of the U.S. fusion program, and 4) a new major domestic facility is a necessary component of a U.S. strategic plan. These results demonstrate a basic alignment between the Reportand many of the views of the broader ECFS community. The polling also indicates that the ECFS
should interface with the community to help organize and develop a strategic plan. We therefore lookforward to continued participation in the ongoing community planning, and hope this endorsement
assists in the realization of the vision of the Report with a strong sense of urgency.
Sincerely,
1 Final Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research:https://doi.org/10.17226/25331
2 Perspectives
on Magnetic Fusion Energy Directions from Early Career
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/bpasite/documents/webpage/bpa 184875.pdf

1Fusion

Scientists:

The following individuals consented to having their names appear on this statement through theonline voting forum:
Lazerson, Samuel (PPPL)
Levesque, Jeff (Columbia)

Abrams, Tyler (GA)

Liu, Deyong (UCI)

Bader, Aaron (UW-Madison)

Logan, Nikolas (PPPL)

Baek, Seung Gyou (MIT)Lore, Jeremy (ORNL)

Battaglia, Devon (PPPL)

Lvovskiy, Andrey (ORAU)

Beidler, Matthew (ORNL)

Lyons, Brendan (GA)Bongard, Michael (UW-Madison)

Marinoni, Alessandro (MIT)Chrystal, Colin (GA)

McClean, Adam (LLNL)

Cianciosa, Mark (ORNL)

Meier, Eric (William & Mary)

Collins, Cami (GA)

Michoski, Craig (UT-Austin)

Diallo, Ahmed (PPPL)

Morton, Lucas (UW-Madison)

Diem, Stephanie (ORNL)

Mumgaard, Robert (CFS)Dominguez, Arturo (PPPL)

Munaretto, Stefano (GA)Donovan, David (UTK)

Parker, Jeff (LLNL)

Eldon, David (GA)Paz-Soldan, Carlos (GA)

Fox, William (PPPL)

Pueschel, M.J. (UW-Madison)

Grierson, Brian (PPPL)

Rafiq, Tariq (Lehigh)Guttenfelder, Walter (PPPL)

Schmitt, John. (Auburn)

Halpern, Federico (GA)Smith, Sterling (GA)

Hansen, Christopher (UW-Seattle)

Thome, Kathreen (GA)

Haskey, Shaun (PPPL)Van Zeeland, Michael (GA)

Hatch, David (UT-Austin)

Von der Linden, Jens (LLNL)

Holland, Chris (UCSD)

Wallace, Gregory (MIT)Howard, Nathan (MIT)Weisberg, David (GA)Howell, Eric (Tech-X)

Wilcox, Robert (ORNL)

Janhunen, Salomon (UT-Austin)

Wilks, Theresa (MIT)King, Jake (Tech-X)
Lau, Cornwall (ORNL)

2