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Because the magnetic fusion process holds unique promise as a long- 

 term energy source or as a source of neutrons, efforts have persisted 

 for many years to solve its challenging scientific and engineering 

 problems. Major programs have been undertaken in the United States, 

 Europe, Japan, and the Soviet Union. As the size and complexity of 

 the experimental devices have grown, international cooperation has 

 occurred in order to produce earlier results, to share risk, to 

 minimize investment, or to acquire skills. Faced with even more 

 demanding future program requirements, officials of the U.S. 

 Department of Energy are considering whether greater levels of 

 international cooperation offer benefits. The Committee on 

 International Cooperation in Magnetic Fusion was appointed by the 

 Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems of the National 

 Research Council to address this question for the Department of 

 Energy. The committee functioned under the guidance of the Energy 

 Engineering Board of the Commission. 



The purpose of the study is to recommend a worthwhile course of 

 action in international cooperation, as measured by the criteria of 

 acceptable policy, technical merit, and practical workability. 



New and substantial undertakings in international cooperation will 

 depend in a complex and interrelated way on the perceptions of persons 

 at the technical, political, and industrial levels. Accordingly, the 

 committee obtained the viewpoints of such persons by conducting two 

 workshops in the United States and by meeting with officials in the 

 European Community and in Japan. During these meetings, instances of 

 international cooperation in both fusion and other technologies were 

 examined for the lessons they might contain. Various incentives and 

 constraints to cooperation exist, which, taken together, will 

 determine the policies of each of the three main free-world programs. 

 There are also many technical needs and opportunities, ranging from 

 minor participation in supporting experiments to joint investment in 

 costly facilities for generic technology development and the 

 sequencing, or indeed the collaborative construction and operation, of 

 a series of major experimental fusion devices. There are also many 



