SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fueling the U.S.A. 
Through Unlimited Reliable Energy (FUTURE) Act of 
2003’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Economic prosperity is closely linked to an 
affordable and ample energy supply. 
(2) Environmental quality is closely linked to 
energy production and use. 
(3) Population, worldwide economic develop-
ment, energy consumption, and stress on the envi-
ronment are all expected to increase substantially in 
the coming decades. 
(4) The few energy options with the potential to 
meet economic and environmental needs for the 
long-term future should be pursued aggressively 
now, as part of a balanced national energy plan. 
(5) Fusion energy is an attractive long-term en-
ergy source due to a virtually inexhaustible supply of 
fuel available to all nations, its potential as a large 
base-load electric and hydrogen energy source re-
quiring relatively little land mass, and its inherent 
safety and promise of minimal environmental im-
pact.
(6) The National Research Council, the Presi-
dent’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Tech-
nology, and the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board 
have each reviewed the Fusion Energy Sciences Pro-
gram and each strongly supports the fundamental 
science and creative innovation of the program and 
has confirmed that progress toward the goal of pro-
ducing practical fusion energy has been excellent, al-
though much scientific and engineering work re-
mains to be done. 
(7) Each of these reviews and the opinions of 
other fusion scientists have stressed the need for a 
magnetic fusion burning plasma experiment to ad-
dress key scientific issues and as a necessary step in 
the development of fusion energy. 
(8) The United States fusion research commu-
nity has developed a strong consensus that the first 
option for United States involvement in a burning 
plasma experiment should be through the inter-
national project known as ‘‘ITER’’, and, that should 
the ITER project fail to go forward, then the con-
struction of a domestic burning plasma experiment 
known as the Fusion Ignition Research Experiment 
or ‘‘FIRE’’ should be pursued aggressively.
(9) The United States scientific community has 
also developed a corresponding consensus that the 
eventual success of fusion power will require, concur-
rent with a burning plasma experiment, strength-
ened effort in fundamental fusion science, develop-
ment of advanced technology, and innovation and 
optimization of configurations for an eventual fusion 
demonstration facility. 
(10) The Fusion Energy Sciences Program 
budget is inadequate to support the necessary 
science and innovation for the present generation of 
experiments, and cannot accommodate the cost of 
participation in or construction of a burning plasma 
experiment 
SEC. 3. PLAN FOR FUSION EXPERIMENT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—
(1) PRIORITY
FOR
INTERNATIONAL
BURNING 
PLASMA
PROJECT.—The Secretary of Energy (in 
this Act referred to as ‘‘the Secretary’’) is author-
ized to undertake full scientific and technological co-
operation in the international burning plasma 
project known as ITER. 
(2) ALTERNATIVE
PROJECT.—If at any time 
during the negotiations on the ITER project, the 
Secretary determines that construction and oper-
ation of the ITER project is unlikely or infeasible, 
the Secretary shall send to Congress, as part of the 
budget request for the following year, a plan for im-
plementing the domestic burning plasma experiment 
known as FIRE, including costs and schedules for 
such a plan. The Secretary shall refine such plan in 
full consultation with the Fusion Energy Sciences 
Advisory Committee and shall also transmit such 
plan to the National Research Council for review. 
(b) UNITED STATES POLICY WITH RESPECT TO FU-
SION ENERGY SCIENCE.—
(1) DECLARATION OF POLICY.—It shall be the 
policy of the United States to develop the scientific, 
engineering, and commercial infrastructure nec-
essary to ensure that the United States is competi-
tive with other nations in providing fusion energy for 
its own needs and the needs if other nations, includ-
ing, by demonstrating electric power or hydrogen 
production for the United States energy grid uti-
lizing fusion energy at the earliest date possible. 
(2) FUSION ENERGY PLAN.—Within 6 months 
of the date of enactment of this act, the Secretary 
shall transmit to Congress a plan for carrying out 
the policy set forth in paragraph (1), including cost 
estimates, proposed budgets, potential international
partners, and specific programs for implementing 
such policy. 
(A) REQUIREMENTS OF PLAN.—Such plan 
shall also ensure that—
(i) existing fusion research facilities 
are more fully utilized; 
(ii) fusion science, technology, theory, 
advanced computation, modeling, and sim-
ulation are strengthened; 
(iii) new magnetic and inertial fusion 
research facilities are selected based on sci-
entific innovation, cost effectiveness, and 
their potential to advance the goal of prac-
tical fusion energy at the earliest date pos-
sible; 
(iv) such facilities that are selected 
are funded at a cost-effective rate; 
(v) communication of scientific results 
and methods between the fusion energy 
science community and the broader sci-
entific and technology communities is im-
proved; 
(vi) inertial confinement fusion facili-
ties are utilized to the extent practicable
for the purpose of inertial fusion energy re-
search and development; and 
(vii) attractive alternative inertial and 
magnetic fusion energy approaches are 
more fully explored. 
(B) REPORT ON FUSION MATERIALS AND 
TECHNOLOGY PROJECT.—In addition, the plan 
required by this section shall also address the 
status of, and to the degree possible, the costs 
and schedules for—
(i) the design and implementation of 
international or national facilities for the 
testing of fusion materials; and 
(ii) the design and implementation of 
international or national facilities for the 
testing and development of key fusion tech-
nologies. 
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 
As used in this Act, the following definitions apply: 
(1) The term ‘‘ITER’’ refers to the inter-
national fusion research project whose design is 
complete and whose location and financing is cur-
rently being negotiated between Japan, Europe, the 
Russian Federation, Canada, China, and the United 
States.