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The President’s 2013 budget proposal has called for reduced funding of fusion energy programs. At the same time, an increasing portion of the fusion budget is allocated toward ITER, which is a large reactor being built in France, a collaborative effort between many countries. Funds for remaining programs are severely cut. One of the main tokamak experiments, Alcator C-mod at MIT, is slated to be shut down. Alcator C-mod has the highest magnetic field of current tokamaks and a large number of operating modes.
The domestic programs provide essential support for ITER (whose design is being updated based on researching coming out of these smaller devices). If we cut them, we are really slowing progress toward fusion power generation.
A few sites have popped up to raise some awareness and try to lobby Congress to allocate more funding for fusion research.
http://www.fusionfuture.org/
https://sites.google.com/site/plasmaphysicsletter2013/
The domestic programs provide essential support for ITER (whose design is being updated based on researching coming out of these smaller devices). If we cut them, we are really slowing progress toward fusion power generation.
A few sites have popped up to raise some awareness and try to lobby Congress to allocate more funding for fusion research.
http://www.fusionfuture.org/
https://sites.google.com/site/plasmaphysicsletter2013/
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