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terials testing facilities and one with plasma physics experimenta- 

 tion. 



International cooperation on materials testing — namely, the 

 FMIT facility — has been discussed since 1974, and it was in fact 

 one of the first actions of the newly formed International Energy 

 Agency to consider cooperation in these expensive materials testing 

 facilities. 



At that time, 1974, the Atomic Energy Commission had decided 

 to construct one such facility, known as the Intense Neutron 

 Source; and a second, more powerful, facility which eventually 

 came to be known as the FMIT, was under discussion. 



By 1976, an International Energy Agency agreement to cooperate 

 on the research and development for the construction of such a fa- 

 cility had beeii signed. That was the INS agreement. However, the 

 year before that agreement was signed, the United States, in an 

 effort to establish early involvement with foreign countries, had 

 convened an international conference to consider all aspects of ma- 

 terials testing facilities. The result of that conference was the es- 

 tablishment of the idea that a more powerful facility than the INS 

 was required. 



In 1977, the United States decided to construct the FMIT facility 

 to fulfill that need. Recognizing that the United States could not 

 support the construction of two similar facilities, we terminated 

 the INS project in 1978. However, we invited the participants in 

 the research agreement on INS to participate in the new FMIT 

 project research. 



In 1980, a new lEA agreement on fusion materials development 

 was signed, and the FMIT R&D was included as an annex. 



Unfortunately, by 1982, due to budget constraints that were ex- 

 perienced in the early 1980's, it had become clear that it would not 

 be possible to finish the FMIT construction. The United States at 

 that time proposed to its lEA partners that they join us in complet- 

 ing the construction of this facility and in operating it, once com- 

 pleted. 



Since there had been 8 years of international interest in materi- 

 als testing, we thought that this interest would allow the financial 

 support required to complete the facility. To reaffirm that interest, 

 in 1983, the International Energy Agency chartered a Senior Blue 

 Ribbon Panel to consider the role of materials and materials testing 

 facilities in fusion. 



This international panel represented the highest level technical 

 judgment that could be brought to bear on the subject. The panel 

 presented a very positive recommendation, and it was endorsed in 

 this country by Presidential Science Advisor George Keyworth. 



With this panel report, the need for the FMIT was reaffirmed, 

 and we expected that the prospect for our proposal to share the re- 

 maining construction costs would be enhanced. But it was not. 



In a letter to Dr. Trivelpiece, Director of the Office of Energy Re- 

 search, EC Vice President Davignon supported the technical objec- 

 tives. However, he only expressed interest in participating in the 

 operations of such a facility and not in its construction. 



In Japan, there was vigorous informal support in the technical 

 community. However, although the Japanese Government did initi- 

 ate a review process, there was no expression of governmental sup- 



