Remarks
on behalf of the United States Government
by Dr. Raymond L. Orbach
Director, Office of Science
U.S. Department of Energy
at
the ITER Ministerial Meeting
Moscow, Russia
June 28, 2005
Thank you.
Here in Moscow today, the six
Parties to the ITER negotiations have reached
a very important milestone en route to the objective
of fundamental international import: harnessing
the energy that powers the sun and stars here
on earth in order to promote enhanced global
energy security.
Moments from now, we will formally
agree that the ITER test facility will be located
at the EU site in Cadarache, thereby resolving
the question of site in these negotiations.
This is the culmination for the
United States of numerous negotiating sessions
over the 30 months since President Bush announced
in January 2003 that we would join the multilateral
negotiations for the construction and operation
of ITER.
On behalf of U.S. Secretary of
Energy Samuel W. Bodman, I am pleased to announce
that the United States supports the decision
of the ITER Parties to site the ITER reactor
at Cadarache.
The United States looks forward
to getting ITER construction underway as soon
as practicable.
To be successful, however, the
ITER negotiations must resolve not only the
siting of the project, and an agreed-upon financial
and procurement arrangement, but also critical
management and oversight arrangements.
In these negotiations, the U.S.
will continue to strive for a robust management
structure and an oversight program based on
the principles of equity, accountability and
transparency to ensure both the success of the
project and the best use of American taxpayer
dollars.
* * *
Recent advances in computer simulations,
and in our understanding of fusion science,
give us confidence that ITER will successfully
provide the scientific understanding to move
to commercially viable fusion energy.
As noted in its National Energy
Policy, the Bush Administration considers fusion
a key element in U.S. long-term energy plans.
Furthermore, before the U.S. took any decision
to participate in the ITER talks, we commissioned
three important reviews:
First, the fusion community held
a meeting in Snowmass, Colorado during the summer
of 2002, where fusion scientists unanimously
endorsed moving ahead with ITER; the Fusion
Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) of
the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office
of Science agreed. This community consensus
will be crucial to the success of the U.S. participation
in ITER.
Second, the DOE Office of Science
conducted a review of ITER costs and management
structure at the International Team site in
Garching, Germany, led by Daniel Lehman, renown
for the thoroughness and rigor of his project-management
oversight.
Finally, the National Research
Council, an arm of the U.S. National Academies,
addressed questions about the importance of
a burning plasma experiment for fusion energy
and the scientific and technical readiness to
undertake a burning plasma experiment. The NRC
endorsed the ITER effort as a necessary next
step in the U.S. fusion energy research program.
These reviews informed President
Bush’s decision to enter the ITER negotiations,
which he announced with these words on January
30, 2003:
The results of ITER will advance
the effort to produce clean, safe, renewable,
and commercially available energy by the middle
of this century. Commercialization of fusion
has the potential to dramatically improve
America’s energy security while significantly
reducing air pollution and emissions of greenhouse
gases…. We welcome the opportunity to
work with our [ITER] partners to make fusion
energy a reality.
The importance of ITER has also
been recognized by the U.S. House and Senate,
which are considering the Energy Bill containing
language authorizing U.S. participation in ITER.
ITER will allow scientists to
explore the physics of a burning plasma, the
critical next step in our attempts to harness
fusion energy to produce and deliver commercially
viable electricity to the grid.
Another benefit of fusion energy
is that it can produce emission-free hydrogen.
Thus, ITER can contribute to a hydrogen-based
economy of the future.
* * *
In November 2003, 10 months after
the United States entered these negotiations,
then-U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham
went to the National Press Club in Washington,
DC to deliver a major speech and release an
historic roadmap for future scientific facilities
to support the Department’s basic science
and research missions.
In a recent publication called,
Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year
Outlook, the Department of Energy proposed a
portfolio of 28 prioritized new scientific facilities
and upgrades of current facilities spanning
the scientific disciplines to ensure the U.S.
retains its primacy in critical areas of science
and technology well into this century. This
DOE roadmap identified ITER as priority one.
As Energy Secretary Abraham said,
First on our list is fusion.
The prospect of a limitless source of clean
energy for the world leads with our commitment
to join the international fusion energy experiment
known as ITER. This is a Presidential priority
with enormous potential. Successful negotiations
among the international partners will lead
to the first-ever fusion science experiment
capable of producing a self-sustaining fusion
reaction. If we reach agreement, ITER will
be our top facility.
Eight months later, the Department
of Energy made another announcement that clearly
indicates the United States takes ITER –
and our role in ITER – very seriously.
In July 2004, we announced that, after a national
competition and careful review, the Princeton
Plasma Physics Laboratory and Oak Ridge National
Laboratory were selected to run the U.S. ITER
Project Office at PPPL in New Jersey.
The Department of Energy’s
commitment to its facilities roadmap –
and to ITER – has been reinforced by Secretary
Bodman.
Soon after he was sworn in, Secretary
Bodman testified before the House Science Committee
this past February:
The priorities we have set are
clear. …[W]e will complete … on
time and within budget … unique scientific
facilities that will maintain and enhance
research in areas we believe offer the greatest
potential for broad advances in future energy
technologies. These scientific facilities
were prioritized in our 20-year facilities
outlook, announced in November 2003.
… We are … carrying
forward with U.S. participation in the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor to pursue
the potential of energy from nuclear fusion.
As President Bush has said, ITER
is “an incredibly important project,”
and the United States is intent on working with
our ITER partners “to build a fusion test
facility and create the largest and most advanced
fusion experiment in the world.”
This critically important experiment
represents a crucial step to harnessing the
potential of fusion energy as a viable source
of electricity and hydrogen.
* * *
Today we celebrate
an important agreement determining where ITER
will be built. In months to come, the Parties
to the ITER negotiations still must resolve
many difficult issues. Fusion energy holds out
the promise of playing a key role in U.S. long-term
energy plans and independence because it offers
the potential for plentiful, safe and environmentally
benign energy.
Fulfilling this promise
will require continued international collaboration
and cooperation such as that demonstrated by
the six Parties to the ITER talks in arriving
at today’s agreement. The United States
remains committed to this promise. Thank you
very much.
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