696 



111 



For managing a large facility, a "lead country" is needed. Putting 

 decisions to "middle-level" bueaucrats is to be avoided; they are 

 reluctant to take initiative. 



Our £inal meeting, with representatives of the Nuclear Fusion 

 Council of the Atomic Energy Commission, was particularly useful. 

 That group was much more positive about fusion than we had been led to 

 expect. The group also seemed positive about cooperation with the 

 United States. In particular, it was said that starting some joint 

 discussion now on TFCX would be good. One working group would be 

 needed to discuss the best concept for TFCX. Another working group 

 would be needed to discuss how to implement collaboration. It was 

 suggested that the TFCX concept be addressed at the forthcoming May 

 1984 meeting of the U.S. -Japan Joint Coordinating Committee. Japan 

 would participate in the early TFCX planning without any prior 

 commitment to collaborate on construction. U.S. ideas on TFCX would 

 be disclosed by preparing a report available to Japanese scientists. 

 An intention was expressed to convey an interest in Japanese 

 participation in early TFCX planning to an appropriate U.S. progreun 

 leader. 



There was a general consensus that discussions of options should 

 continue on a long-term basis and that any large-scale collaboration 

 would require considerable joint discussions and planning at a 

 technical level as well as a firm commitment at a high level. 



Certainly at the subministerial level of the agencies with which we 

 spoke (STA, Monbusho, and MITI) there was an obvious (and 

 well-prepared) reluctance to discuss any alternative that extended 

 beyond the explicit policies expressed in the Atomic Energy Commission 

 planning document of 1982. 



SUMMARY IMPRESSIONS 



The visiting members of the committee greatly impressed with the 

 Japanese research efforts in nuclear fusion. The committee believes 

 the United States has much to gain from cooperation with Japan. It 

 seems timely to launch a serious well-organized joint planning 

 effort. It is unlikely that any agreement toward future joint effort 

 on a billion-dollar scale will result without such a base. 



It is necessary to deal separately with the STA-JAERI complex and 

 the Monbusho-university complex on cooperative or collaborative 

 programs. Major next-step tokamak experiments and technology 

 development are within the purview of the former agencies, while basic 

 research and alternative confinement concept experiments come under 

 the jurisdiction of the latter. 



The existing U.S. -Japan cooperative agreement machinery is an 

 adequate mechanism for definition and implementation of cooperation 

 with the Monbusho-university programs. 



A new mechanism is needed for definition and implementation of 

 large-scale collaboration on next-step tokamak experiments and the 



