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Technical Leaders 



The technical coitmunity in the U.S. fusion area, at least as 

 represented by the consensus of the Magnetic Fusion Advisory Conunittee 

 (MFAC) , strongly supports international cooperation on a general 

 basis. MFAC made the following declaration: 



The U.S. fusion program and the development of fusion on a 

 worldwide basis have benefited significantly from the active 

 exchange of information and ideas. International cooperation in 

 fusion reseach should continue to receive strong emphasis in the 

 U.S. program. The planning of national fusion facilities and 

 programs has been guided to considerable extent by a policy of 

 avoiding international duplication and instead addressing 

 complementary technical issues. This policy is both cost-effective 

 and conducive to rapid technical development. It encourages 

 broader coverage of options in the area of alternate concepts and 

 allows larger steps to be taken in the main-line approaches within 

 existing budgetary constraints. 



— Magnetic Fusion Advisory Committee, 1983 



MFAC goes on to note that within each confinement approach, U.S. 

 effort has been largely complementary to activities in other nations. 

 For example, each of the four large tokamak projects that were 

 undertaken in the mid 1970s — Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) in the 

 United States, JET in Europe, JT-60 in Japan, and T-15 in the Soviet 

 Union — has a distinct set of characteristics and objectives. The MFAC 

 report continues: 



While maximum effective use should be made of research facilities 

 abroad, to supplement U.S. capabilities, the overall priorities of 

 the U.S. program should continue to emphasize the most promising 

 reactor approaches. The international fusion effort will benefit 

 from increased consultation in program planning and from the 

 initiation of coordinated — or even jointly supported — research 

 projects. 



The thrust of MFAC's recommended U.S. program and strategy for the 

 coming years, however, has a central theme of "going it alone" with 

 regard to major new steps. The MFAC recommendations have been for 

 maintenance and continuation of the U.S. base program in magnetic 

 fusion and for early initiation of a major new facility, the Tokamak 

 Fusion Core Experiment (TFCX) , with an increase in the U.S. fusion 

 budget ramping up over several years to a new level 25 to 40 percent 

 above the present one in constant dollars. Present international 

 cooperative ventures would presumably be continued and opportunity 

 sought for additional exchanges, at least on an information sharing 

 basis; but there is no suggestion in the MFAC plan of more ambitious 

 collaborative ventures. 



