Senator Craig Introduces ITER project Bill

S. 600. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Energy to cooperate in the international magnetic fusion burning plasma experiment, or alternatively to develop a plan for a domestic burning plasma experiment, for the purpose of accelerating the scientific understanding and development of fusion as a long term energy source; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, there should be no doubt that energy is vital to our economy and that it contributes to our wealth and strength as a nation. While it is true that human intelligence, a skilled workforce, and the human spirit are essential to our economy and to our future, without useable energy, these virtues are not, of themselves, tools to make a physical difference.

As we look out decades and centuries into the future, determining whether we will have enough energy and finding the sources from which we will get it are extremely important endeavors. Will we get our energy from oil or from coal? Will it come from solar collectors and wind farms? Will it come from nuclear fission? I submit that the answer we work to provide to this question today will have a profound effect on the future quality of life for our children and grandchildren. This is part of the reason why energy policy is so controversial. It is because the stakes are so high.

Although fossil fuels will last for many decades yet—perhaps centuries—the reality is that we must begin to plan for the time when fossil fuels might not be so plentiful. Taken together, fossil fuels provide us with well over 70 percent of the energy we consume in this country. Much of that energy is imported. When you take oil, coal and natural gas out of the equation, what are our options for the long term future?

The significant potential contributors to our energy picture that are not fossil fuels are likely to be nuclear, hydropower, renewables such as solar, wind and geothermal, and fusion energy. We must pursue all of these options as if our future depended on it, because it does. It is in this context, that I want to focus my colleagues' attention today on the subject of fusion energy.

Fusion energy is the power of the sun and the stars and has been the subject of a decades-long research effort in the United States and around the world. The bad news is that the ultimate goal of practical fusion energy here on earth has proven to be far more difficult than the early pioneers of fusion research ever envisioned. But the good news is that there has been fantastic progress in the past decade, to the point where now there is almost no doubt that large excess amounts of fusion energy can be created in the laboratory. The question is: Can fusion energy be made practical and affordable?

When proven practical, fusion will be capable of producing huge amounts of base-load energy for our cities and our economy with no air or water pollution. Its fuel is virtually inexhaustible. It cannot blow up or melt down. Perhaps most tantalizingly, given our present circumstances, no nation or region will have a monopoly because everyone will have the fuel—a common component of water.

I am very proud today to stand with my good friend from California, Senator FEINSTEIN and introduce the Fusion Development Act of 2003. The Fusion Development Act of 2003 is meant to hasten the day when we can answer the question of practical and affordable fusion energy in the affirmative.

Last month, President Bush announced that the United States would be joining international negotiations on a major next step experiment on the road to fusion energy, known as the ITER project. One of the primary purposes of this bill is to authorize the Secretary of Energy to participate fully in this international magnetic fusion burning plasma experiment called ITER.

ITER is intended to establish once and for all that magnetically-controlled fusion energy reactions can produce power plant-sized amounts of fusion energy and establish the scientific basis for doing so. Further, ITER will demonstrate some of the technologies necessary to construct a fusion power plant such as large superconducting magnets and plasma control systems. ITER will be an international science experiment of a scale and importance second to none.

The siting and financing of ITER are currently being negotiated between Europe, Japan, Russia, Canada and China. This bill will help give the Administration the license it needs to move forward and stake out a good place at the table of the ITER experiment. The importance of the ITER experiment dictates that the United States must have a strong position as the project moves forward.

In addition, our bill sets as a goal that the United States should develop the scientific, engineering and commercial infrastructure necessary to be competitive with other nations in this new frontier of energy. In this regard, it requires the Secretary of Energy to submit to Congress a plan to strengthen our existing fusion research efforts and to address the critically important issues of fusion materials and technology.

I ask that my colleagues devote their time to the extraordinarily important subject of our present and future energy supply. The deeper one delves into this subject, the more self-evident it becomes that fusion is a must-have technology for the future.

The bill we are introducing today will help bring us closer to the time when energy is less of a global political issue and energy production has minimal impact on our natural environment. Fusion is an important part of this vision and this goal. I therefore urge my colleagues to support this legislation.