Department of Energy Announces $14 Million for Research on Fusion Energy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide $14 million for new research on fusion energy. Research will be based on data from one of the nation's foremost fusion energy facilities, the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility at General Atomics in San Diego.

"DIII-D is one of the world's leading tokamak or donut-shaped fusion facilities and offers excellent stead-state performance and advanced diagnostics for understanding the behavior of fusion plasmas," said James Van Dam, DOE Acting Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences. "Data accumulated through operations of DIII-D offer a rich vein to mine for new insights into fusion."

Universities, nonprofits, and private sector companies are eligible to submit applications. Funding is to be awarded competitively, on the basis of peer review, and is expected to be in the form of three-year grants ranging from $50,000 to $1.5 million per year, beginning in the current fiscal year. Total planned funding will be $14 million over three years, with outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.

Fusion energy research seeks to harness the energy that powers the sun and stars as an abundant and clean source of power on earth. The research to be performed on DIII-D data will plan an important role both in advancing the fundamental knowledge of fusion and in aiding the development of ITER, the major international fusion experiment currently under construction in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, France.

The DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement, issued by DOE's Office of Science and titled "Collaborative Fusion Energy Research in the DIII-D National Program," is to be found here.