Update on theFusion Energy Sciences
ProgramJames W. Van Dam
Acting Associate Director
Office of ScienceFusion Energy Sciences
University Fusion Association Meeting
59th APS DPP Annual Meeting
1October 23, 2017

1. Budget Updates

2

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/budget.pdf

Current status• FY 2018– Under a Continuing Resolution until December 8, 2017
• Bill H.R. 601 funds all programs at the FY 2017 enacted level
less a 0.6791% across‐the‐board cut– Funding actions for grants and cooperative agreements
are being processed, following a priority order based on
the starting date of their FY 2018 budget periods– Labs (and some large cooperative agreements) are
funded incrementally• FY 2019– Awaiting OMB pass‐back on proposed budget– Administration issued R&D priorities for FY 20193

Highlights from the House andSenate marks for FY 2018 budget•

From the Senate Energy and Water Development mark [July 2017]– The Committee recommends $232,000,000 for Fusion Energy Sciences.
– The Committee recommends no funding for the U.S. contribution to ITER.
– The Committee remains concerned about the timeline of facility repair and recovery actions
for NSTX‐U and directs the Department to assess science drivers for the NSTX–U to support
future planning and reconfiguration for the Fusion Energy Sciences program; DOE must
provide a briefing to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress uponcompletion.
– The Committee recommends prioritization of research and operations for DIII‐D andsupports continued research on HEDP.

•From the House Energy and Water Development mark [July 2017]– The Committee recommends $395,000,000 for Fusion Energy Sciences, $15,000,000 above
fiscal year 2017 enacted and $85,060,000 above the budget request.
– Recognizes that “University‐led research helps further U.S. research in fusion energy andtrains the next generation of scientists” and directs DOE to summarize the fusion energy
sciences program’s current collaborations with universities and report back to the Committee– Specific marks for two programs (HEDLP & SciDAC)– The Committee recommends $63,000,000 for the U.S. contribution to the ITER project4

2. Programmatic Updates

5

FES research is carried out at
a diversity of US institutions
350

Spending $M

41

universities

300

11industry

10laboratories

82
250

200

86150LCLS

100149500

NSTX‐UFY 2017(not including ITER)
6DIII‐DNSTX‐U status•

Research operation of NSTX‐U:– Plasma operations commenced after the completionof the NSTX Upgrade project.
– However, after ten weeks of experimental operation,a series of hardware failures rendered the machine
inoperable, stopping operations prematurely in2016.

•In response, FES directed PPPL to:– Conduct an independent investigation of all policy
and procedural causes of the NSTX‐U project
difficulties– Identify all design, construction, and operational
deficiencies with the NSTX‐U facility.

•These activities led to the development by
PPPL of a corrective action plan andproposed recovery activities to effect thenecessary repairs to NSTX‐U– An external review of a preliminary schedule
prepared by PPPL for the recovery of NSTX‐U
operations was recently completed.

Extensive “Extent of Condition” assessment

A new SciDAC portfolio addresses priorities
identified in community workshops
 The FES SciDAC program accelerates progress infusion plasma science by capitalizing on SC
investments in leadership-class computing systems
and associated advances in computational science The FES SciDAC portfolio was recompeted in FY 2017
o FES and ASCR invested $24M in FY 2017 tosupport seven multi-institutional andinterdisciplinary SciDAC partnerships – an eighth
project will be supported by FES in FY 2018o 11 universities, 8 DOE national laboratories,, and5 private industry institutions (including smallbusinesses) in 13 stateso Four projects are led by university scientists;
strong university participation in others
 The new portfolio strengthens the U.S. domestic fusion
program, advances U.S. world-leadership andcompetitiveness in fusion simulations, and addresses
research opportunities identified in recent community
workshops

27 PF Titan @ OLCF

2015 community workshops on Integrated
Simulations for Magnetic Fusion Energy Sciences
and Transients in Tokamak Plasmas

Fusion presence in Exascale activities‐ An Administration priority• The upcoming Exascale era will enable transformativeadvances in predictive power for fusion systems, basedon fundamental science and high-performancecomputing• Community studies identified priorities and challenges• Two fusion-relevant multi-institutional efforts are part of
the DOE Exascale Computing Project (ECP)• University participation through subcontracts with theDOE Labs

10High-Fidelity Whole-Device Modeling ofMagnetically Confined Fusion Plasma(led by PPPL)

Molecular Dynamics at the Exascale: Spanning theAccuracy, Length and Time Scales for Critical
Problems in Materials Science(led by LANL; addresses needs of BES, FES, and NE)

Quantum Information Systems• Quantum Information Systems (QIS) has
emerged as an Administration priority– Quantum Computing was explicitly
mentioned in the recent OMB memo on theAdministration’s R&D priorities for FY 2019

• SC has formed a task force to identify
SC‐wide grand challenges that will
potentially be transformed by quantum
computing applications• In early 2018, FES will be working with thecommunity to determine:2017 ASCR report– The potential of fusion and plasma science
to contribute to the development of QIS– The potential of QIS to provide
transformative advances in the scienceareas supported by FES
112015 ASCR report

U.S. remote control rooms enable full utilization ofinternational & domestic research facilities
MiT• U.S. teams at GA completed a week ofexperiments in FY17 during EAST third shift andlead experiments at KSTAR

PPPL • PPPL and collaborators lead experiments onGA

KSTAR & connect to W7‐X, DIII‐D• Remote control room at MiT is being designedwith assembly to commence in Spring FY18K‐STARW7‐XEAST

Fusion Nuclear Science: FESS liquid metal
PFC’s integrated tokamak study• Liquid metals PFCs are attracting increasing attention
due to their potential advantages over solid PFC
options, as highlighted in the 2015 Community PMI
workshop report.
• FES has commissioned the Fusion Energy SystemsStudy (FESS) group to examine this class of PFCs from asystems level perspective in order to identify the mostpromising concepts and provide feedback on highpriority, high leverage R&D on the path towards
demonstrated viability.
• This two year study, initiated in February of 2017,
includes participation of six national laboratories andfive universities.

2015 community workshop on
PMIFrontier Science on DIII‐D•In FY 2017, FES supported an initiative to carryout experiments on DIII‐D focusing on frontier
plasma science, soliciting input from theuniversity community to identify experiments notdirectly related to fusion energy issues•

Four experiments were performed:– Interaction of Alfvén/whistler fluctuations andrunaway electrons– Self‐consistent chaos in magnetic field dynamics– Self‐organization of kink‐unstable flux ropes; and– Impact of magnetic perturbations on turbulence

14•

The initiative was very successful and resulted in apost‐deadline invited paper in this meeting (D.
Spong, YI3 Session, Friday, October 27)•Plans are underway to continue this initiative inFY 2018

Whistler frequency bands showingintermittency from sawtooth andwhistler scattering

Predator-prey limit cycles between
whistler wave amplitude andelectron cyclotron emission – related
to scattering of runaways

A new intermediate‐scale facility was awarded
by FES for the first time in nearly two decades

The DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences has awarded $12.5 million
FY17 funds over five years to the University of Wisconsin–Madison todevelop an intermediate‐scale, integrated, collaborative plasma
science user facility that will expand the frontiers of plasma
astrophysics. Two existing experiments, the Big Red Plasma Ball andthe Madison Symmetric Torus, are combined into the new Wisconsin
Plasma Physics Laboratory (WiPPL). The new project will join theexpertise of more than two dozen UW–Madison scientists andtechnicians with outside plasma scientists, who will gain access to the15 facility and establish new collaboration.

“Several areas of basic
plasma science would benefit
from new intermediate‐scalefacilities.”(2010 DecadalStudy)“There is a need for creationand exploration of new
regimes in the laboratory.”(2016 PSF Report)

Recent workshop celebrated 20 years of
NSF‐DOE Partnership in basic plasma science

Millions

Annual FES Funding Profilefor the Partnership$10$8$6$4$2$0
1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015

Attendees at workshop (Jan 9‐11, 2017)• The NSF/DOE Partnership is one of the longest‐running interagency joint programs inthe federal government.
• Main objective of original Memo of Understanding (1996) was to “provide enhanced
opportunities for university‐based research in fundamental processes in plasma scienceand engineering.”• DOE funding increased from $3.5M in 1999, to $8.7M in 2016. DOE provided additional
funding in 2016 of $6.7M, which increased the award success rate to 28%.

DOE celebrates 40th Anniversary

N.J. Fisch, PRL 41(13), 873(1978)
Confining a tokamak
plasma with rf‐driven
currents
17G.B. Andresen et al.,Nature 468, 673 (2010)
Trapped antihydrogen

R.J. Groebner et al., PRL 64,3015 (1990)
Role of edge electric fieldand poloidal rotation in theL‐H transition

J.D. Strachan et al.,PRL 72, 3526 (1994)
Fusion power
production from TFTR
plasmas fueled with
deuterium and tritium

F.M. Levinton et al.,PRL 63, 2060 (1989)
Magnetic field pitch‐angle
measurements in the PBX‐
M tokamak using themotional Stark effectCommunity Input / Workshops
In FY 2017, the community had several opportunities to provide input tovarious planning activities:•FESAC subcommittee to identify the most promising transformative enabling
capabilities for the U.S. to pursue that could promote efficient advance towards
fusion energy, building on burning plasma science and technology– Report will be available soon and will be discussed at a future FESAC meeting•

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Burning Plasma Study:– Two community workshops on magnetic fusion research strategic directions inorder to provide input to NAS:
• July 24‐28, at the University of Wisconsin‐Madison• December 11‐15, at The University of Texas at Austin– Meetings organized by NAS:••••

June 5‐6, at Washington, DC
August 29‐31, at Irvine, CA
December 15‐16 at Austin, TX (following the community workshop)
February 26‐28, in San Diego, CA

2020 Plasma Science Decadal Survey– Charge and Statement of Task have been finalized– NAS submitted a proposal to FES, which is under review– The Decadal Survey will be carried out over 24 months
18

2017 FES Early Career Awards

Dr. Jason TrelewiczStony Brook Univ.
Plasma‐facing materials
applications

Dr. David Green (ORNL)
Simulation of magneticallyconfined fusion plasmas
19

Dr. Julia Mikhailova
Princeton University
Attosecond light‐field controlof high‐density plasmas

Dr. Juan Trelles
U. Massachusetts‐Lowell
Plasmas in contact with liquids

Dr. Frederico Fiuza (SLAC)
Particle acceleration inHED plasmas

Dr. Adam Sefkow (U. Rochester)Hybrid fluid‐kinetic modeling
efforts for HEDP and ICF Science2 PECASE, 3 Weimer, 2 FPA , and 1 Fabreaward winners from FES in five years
Yuan Ping (LLNL)

Stephanie Hansen (SNL)

2011 Katherine E. Weimer Award

2014 PECASE Award

2011

2013

2012

Daniel Sinars (SNL)
2011 PECASE Award

Adam Sefkow (UR)2017 Fusion Power Associates Award

2017

2015

2014

2016

Anne White (MIT)Félicie Albert (LLNL)

2014 Katherine E. Weimer Award
2014 Fusion Power Associates Award

2017 Katherine E. Weimer Award
2017 Edouard Fabre PrizeThree new FES ORISE postdoctoral researchers join
existing awardees at UW‐Madison, PPPL, and MIT

Marlene Patino
Plasma Material Interaction
Studies at PISCES (UCSD)
21Anton Neff
DIII‐D Impurity Collector
Probe Analysis (ORNL)

Jacob Nichols
Whole‐Device Modeling(U. Tenn. – Knoxville)

Early Career Research Awards
institutional diversity
FY 2010 ‐ 2017
Recent new universities to the program––Stony Brook University
University of Massachusetts ‐ Lowell

University of Iowa

University of
New Hampshire
Tufts University
UMass, Lowell
MIT (2)
NYU
Stony Brook U
Columbia University

SNL/CALLNL (4)SLAC
Stanford
University
UCLA

PPPL (4)Princeton Univ (1+1)
ORNL (3+1)

UC ‐ Riverside

22

UW‐Madison (2)Purdue University

University ofWashington

University ofColorado‐Boulder

University of Minnesota

SNL/NM (2)= university= national laboratory

3. ITER Updates

23Progress of U.S. ITER project

80% of fabrication awards for U.S. ITER project remain inthe U.S.
• 600+ contracts to U.S. industry, universities, andnational laboratories in 44 states• 500+ direct jobs, 1100+ indirect jobs per year

Data as of June 30, 2017

U.S. ITER Subproject‐1 (First Plasma) is 50% doneCurrent status of ITER complex

Examples of U.S. hardware forITER

Piping fabrication in the U.S. for the Tokamak
Cooling Water System at Schulz Xtruded Productsin Robinsonville, MSU.S. Toroidal
Field Conductor
fabrication
completed andshipped to EU
winding facility

Central Solenoid Module 1 after
completing heat treatment at General
Atomics Poway, CA facility

U.S. completes Central Solenoid Assembly
Structure

U.S.
completesdelivery ofSSEN to theITER site26

4. People

27

FESAC membership updates
Departing Members

Arati Dasgupta, NRLJohn Foster, U Michigan

Chris Hegna, U Wisconsin

Val Izzo, UCSD

Linda Sugiyama, MITNew Members

Sigrid Close, Stanford U

Diane Demers
Xantho Technologies

Paul Terry, U Wisconsin

Mitchell Walker,
Georgia Tech

Anne White, MITDOE leadership updates
Mr. Dan Brouillette was sworn in as the Deputy
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy onAugust 7, 2017

Under Secretary for Science Nominee Paul Dabbar••Nomination approved by the Senate Energy andNatural Resources Committee on August 3, 2017
Senate Confirmation TBD

Dr. J. Stephen Binkley continues as Acting Directorof the Office of ScienceFES personnel changes•

The FES Associate Director since 2009, Ed Synakowski, left
federal service in August 2017 to join the University ofWyoming as the VP for Research and Economic Development• Jim Van Dam is the Acting Associate Director for FES• John Mandrekas is the Acting FES Research DivisionDirectorD. Clark

Other transitions

Sean Finnegan left
FES to join NNSA

Long‐time FES program managers Steve
Eckstrand, Al Opdenaker, and Francis Thio retired

S. Eckstrand

J. King