@article{92f97d749b624581b2391de34a806810,
title = "Scientific challenges, opportunities and priorities for the U.S. Fusion Energy Sciences Program",
abstract = "In October 2003, Dr. Raymond Orbach, Director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science, issued a charge to the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) {"}to identify the major science and technology issues that need to be addressed, recommend how to organize campaigns to address these issues, and recommend the priority order for these campaigns.{"} The sections in this report document the results of the Panel's work. The first two sections describe the concepts of the overarching themes, topical scientific questions, and campaigns. The next six sections (Sections 3-8) describe in detail the six scientific campaigns. Section 9 describes some important enabling research activities necessary for the campaigns. Sections 10-12 describe the overarching themes, which provide a crosscutting perspective of the activities in the six campaigns. Finally, the Panel's recommendations are set forth in Section 13. The charge letter to the panel is provided as Appendix A; the FESAC response letter is provided as Appendix D.",
keywords = "Fusion energy, Fusion priorities, Fusion science",
author = "Charles Baker and Stewart Prager and Mohamed Abdou and Lee Berry and Riccardo Betti and Vincent Chan and Darren Craig and Jill Dahlburg and Ronald Davidson and James Drake and Richard Hawryluk and David Hill and Amanda Hubbard and Grant Logan and Earl Marmar and Michael Mauel and Kathryn McCarthy and Scott Parker and Ned Sauthoff and Ronald Stambaugh and Michael Ulrickson and Dam, {James Van} and Glen Wurden and Michael Zarnstorff and Steven Zinkle",
note = "Funding Information: Diagnostic development has multiple components. First, new techniques must be conceived, developed, and tested to measure quantities not previously accessible, or at a level of detail greater than previously possible. Such development tends to require longer-term, if small-scale, research and development programs, which carry some uncertainty in outcome and can take several years to progress from initial {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}proof-of-principle{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} exploration to routine diagnostics on fusion experiments. These efforts are typically funded by the U.S. Department of Energy OFES diagnostics program, through competitive selection of proposals. Equally important is the application of existing and newly developed diagnostic techniques to experimental facilities of all types and scales, so that plasma behavior in various regimes and configurations may be documented at a level of detail that will advance physical understanding. Such diagnostic applications are typically funded as part of experimental facilities, and their pace is constrained by available research budgets. This is a particular issue for smaller facilities, where the need for well-diagnosed experiments is comparable to larger devices, and the cost of diagnostics a higher fraction of the budget (Fig. 34). Funding Information: The NIF is designed to achieve thermonuclear ignition and energy gains. The output fusion energy of a single-shot will greatly exceed the laser on-target energy by factors ranging from 10 to 50. The energy density of an ignited NIF capsule will reach enormous levels in the terabar range exceeding the pressure in the solar core by over an order of magnitude. The NIF experiments will provide high energy-density-physics (HEDP) conditions never before achievable in the laboratory. The rich scientific opportunities in HEDP are described in a recent National Research Council report [10]. While NIF is primarily funded by the NNSA for defense purposes, its contribution to the understanding of burning plasma physics of inertial confinement systems will establish the foundations for the development of IFE. Since the physics of ignition and propagation of the thermonuclear burn wave is independent of the compression-driver characteristics, the results from the NIF experiment will be of general applicability to laser fusion, Z-pinch and heavy-ion fusion. A panel appointed by the DOE Fusion Energy Science Advisory Committee has recently reviewed the US Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) Program. Additional information on the NIF contribution to the development of IFE can be found in FESAC Report on A Review of the Inertial Fusion Energy Program (March 2004) [11]. Since this work is funded by NNSA, the subsequent discussion will focus on magnetically confined burning plasmas funded by OFES. Funding Information: The scientific issues for high-energy density physics are described in Section 5. High-energy density physics develops an understanding of the underlying physics governing the use of highly compressed ion beams, fast ignition with short-pulse lasers, and magnetized plasma-liner implosions for the creation of high-energy density matter. This research, in conjunction with research funded by the NNSA, provides the knowledge base to compress and heat matter to sufficiently high temperatures and densities in support of IFE. In high-energy density plasmas, of interest for IFE, not only are the times scales and spatial scales vastly different from that of magnetic fusion but the physics is as well.",
year = "2005",
month = jun,
doi = "10.1007/s10894-005-6922-z",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "24",
pages = "13--114",
journal = "Journal of Fusion Energy",
issn = "0164-0313",
publisher = "Springer New York",
number = "1-2",
}