After successful year, PPPL to receive 11-percent increase in funds

After setting a world record in December by producing a one-million-ampere plasma current with a new type of reactor, the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab received another boost in its research efforts with President Clinton's proposed 11-percent increase in federal funding for the facility, according to PPPL director Rob Goldston.

The U.S. Fiscal Year 2001 budget proposal, which calls for $70 million in federal funding for the facility, would allow the PPPL to accelerate fusion energy research, according to PPPL director Rob Goldston.

The proposed government funding also would pay for the second year of a three-year, $46-million process of dismantling the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor experiment. The removal of the TFTR experiment is projected to be completed in 2002, Goldston said.

The TFTR project, a 14-year experiment that ended in 1997, made advancements in fusion research by pioneering safer and more practical experimental techniques. It also set numerous world records in fusion power production, Goldston said. The PPPL Webpage reports that in 1994, the TFTR produced a world-record 11 million watts of fusion power, which is enough to supply power for 3,000 homes.

Information acquired through TFTR research is currently being applied to the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), which the PPPL began in February 1999. The NSTX is researching "an innovative plasma confinement concept, which could lead to smaller, more economical fusion power plants," according to a statement from the PPPL.

Federal funding

PPPL research, including the TFTR and the NSTX, depends on continued government support because federal funding comprises the majority of the PPPL budget. "We are very, very grateful to the government for holding good on its promise to get [the TFTR disassembly] done in three years and providing the money with which to do it," Goldston said.

The final amount allocated to the PPPL will be determined by the U.S. Department of Energy, which may add funds to Clinton's $70-million proposal, Goldston said.