While writing about the new U.S. budget last week, and its deep cuts for high-energy physics projects, I skipped one important project that is worth coming back to.
Along with deep cuts for Fermilab and the U.S. contributions to the International Linear Collider, the budget just passed by Congress strips out the country's funding for an important international nuclear fusion collaboration called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
The cuts – about $149 million over the next year – won't kill the project. The other partners, including Europe, Japan, China, India, Russia and South Korea, are still ponying up. But it will hurt, and it will certainly hurt the United States' role in this field.
Maybe there was concern about sharing this kind of technology with so many other nations. I hope that wasn't the case, although Congress did allow funding for fusion research on three homegrown projects to continue. Maybe there was the sense that the payoff for fusion research is so far off that it's expendable today.
Whatever the case, it's embarrassing. The U.S. and the Soviet Union started the effort leading to this project all the way back in 1985.
The U.S. dropped out once before, in 1998, before rejoining in 2003.
It's still not impossible (although technically banned by Congress)
that the Department of Energy will somehow find funds to fulfill at least part of the U.S. commitment. It's laudable that Congress is funding renewable energy sources well, but this kind of international cooperation on research should not be overlooked.
U.S. Wavers Again on ITER [ScienceNow]
(Image: A superconducting coil being lowered into its cryostat, as part of the R&D for the ITER project. Credit: ITER)
