The Department of Energy's (DOE's) fusion program is dangerously close to flickering out, says an advisory panel.
In March, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson appointed a task force led by physicist Richard Meserve, a Washington, D.C., attorney, to examine DOE's $230 million fusion portfolio. Battered by budget cuts, DOE's "vibrant and valuable" fusion work "is now subcritical," the panel states in a draft report scheduled for release today. All it would take to get the effort back on track, the panel suggests, is a gentle management shake-up and a budget increase of less than $20 million a year to fund a handful of promising research projects.
The report is "mostly a pat on the back" for DOE, says Stephen Dean of Fusion Power Associates in Virginia. More-critical reviews could come later this year, when a National Academy of Sciences committee and another DOE advisory panel offer their advice on fusion's future.
