621 



STATUS OF THE PROGRAMS 



The comparative status of the U.S., EC, and Japanese programs may be 

 seen in broad perspective from Table 1. All are of comparable, 

 although not identical, magnitude as measured by funding rates and 

 personnel levels. The tokamak configuration is one of the mainline 

 elements of the U.S. program and the only mainline element of the EC 

 and Japanese programs. The second mainline effort in the United 

 States is the magnetic mirror configuration. One or more of the 

 alternative confinement concepts, such as the stellatator, reversed- 

 field pinch, compact toroid, and bumpy torus, are being pursued in 

 each program. The development of a number of advanced technologies, 

 necessary for magnetic fusion energy, is being pursued most 

 extensively in the United States and increasingly in the EC and 

 Japan. These technologies include superconducting magnets, plasma 

 heating by radio-frequency energy and energetic particle beams, and 

 methods of safely handling the radioactive isotope tritium. Other 

 technologies include the development of materials able to withstand 

 both surface and bulk effects of a reacting plasma and the 

 investigation of blankets to absorb the energetic neutrons that carry 

 away the energy produced in the reacting plasma and convert it to a 

 useful form. (See National Research Council, 1982, for further 

 discussion of the above topics.) 



In the United States, major program efforts are located in the 

 laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), mainly Lawrence 

 Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) , Plasma Physics Laboratory (at 

 Princeton University), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge 

 National Laboratory (ORNL) , Argonne National Laboratory, Sandia 

 National Laboratory, and Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory. 

 In addition, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other major 

 universities have significant programs. A ma3or DOE-funded tokamak 

 program is also located at GA Technologies, Incorporated, in San 

 Diego, California. 



The physics of plasma confinement will be studied using the 

 existing Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) at the Princeton Plasma 

 Physics Laboratory. Plans for a variety of follow-on machines, one of 

 which is called the Tokamak Fusion Core Experiment (TFCX) , have been 

 discussed; but there is no commitment at present. Magnetic mirror 

 confinement will be studied by the Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF) , 

 under construction at LLNL. The pace of the U.S. program is to be 

 determined by technical results, available resources, and perceived 

 programmatic benefit. 



In the EC the major installation, the Joint European Torus (JET) , 

 is located near Abingdon, in Oxfordshire, England. Work that is a 

 part of the EC program is also being Conducted by the United Kingdom 

 at Culham Laboratory; by the Federal Republic of Germany at Garching, 

 Karlsruhe, and Julich; by France at Fontenay-aux- Roses, Grenoble, and 

 Cadarache; and by Italy at Milan, Frascati, and Padua. Smaller 

 activities are located in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, 

 and Switzerland. The European program is managed as an entity by the 



