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The United States 



The United States has a strong experimental tokamak program that has 

 established many of the world record plasma physics parameters. Two 

 of these experiments, Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) and Doublet 

 III D, should continue to extend the knowledge of plasma physics for 

 the next five years or so. The United States also has the leading 

 experimental program in the tandem mirror confinement concept, which 

 is the most advanced alternative concept. Smaller programs are going 

 forward in other, less advanced alternative confinement concepts, for 

 example, stellarator, reversed-f ield pinch, and compact toroid. The 

 United States has a strong program in basic fusion science and has the 

 broadest and longest-established fusion technology program. For the 

 past decade the United States has been the overall world leader in 

 magnetic fusion, although upon occasion other programs have led in 

 particular areas. 



The European Community 



The EC program is perceived by its participants to be on the threshold 

 of assuming world leadership in fusion on the basis of a new 

 generation of tokamak experiments, (commonly known by their acronyms 

 as JET, TORE SUPRA, ASDEX-U , and FTU) , that will be operating over the 

 next decade. This view is shared by many in the United States. The 

 EC program managers believe that they should maintain their progress 

 toward leadership by constructing a major new tokamak experiment. Next 

 European Torus (NET), to operate in the mid to late 1990s. NET has 

 physics objectives of achieving an ignited plasma and a long-burn 

 pulse and, in addition, ambitious technological objectives. Planning 

 and preconceptual design work for NET has been authorized by the 

 Council of Ministers of the European Community and initiated at the 

 technical level; decisions as to whether to proceed to engineering 

 design and to construction are scheduled for 1988 and 1992, 

 respectively. The EC has programs in the less advanced stellarator 

 and reversed-f ield pinch alternative concepts. Fusion technology 

 programs are expanding in support of the NET activity. The EC fusion 

 program is carried out in the various national fusion laboratories of 

 its member countries and is partly funded directly by each nation and 

 partly funded by the EC, with only minor participation by European 

 universities. 



Japan 



The Japanese fusion program is relatively newer than the other three 

 major programs, but it is moving rapidly toward full parity. The 

 program of the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) , 



