Whither the ARIES Industrial Advisory Committee?

1
Whither the ARIES Industrial Advisory Committee?

• ARIES Meeting
• 21 Januay, 2009

2
ARIES Charter is unchanged What do we need to
do to go from ITER to an attractive power plant?

• What are the remaining major RD areas?
• What are the data bases needed to field a
  commercial power plant (e.g., licensing,
  operation, reliability, etc.)?
• What is the impact of each RD item on the
  attractiveness of the final product. (metrics
  for prioritization of RD).
• Which of the remaining major RD areas can be
  explored in existing devices or simulation
  facilities (i.e., fission reactors)?
• What other major facilities are needed (CTF, Fast
  track, etc.)
• What are the possible embodiments for CTF and
  what are the their cost/performance attributes.
• These are detailed technical issues, not general
  policy issues or technology acceptance issues to
  which outside advisors could meaningfully
  contribute

3
Logical Questions

• Can an advisory committee be useful to ARIES
  Pathways?
• No. Outside advisors arent knowledgeable enough
  to be of value.
• Do we need an advisory committee enough to spend
  the time, effort and money necessary to make it
  happen?
• No.
• What type of committee do we need?
• Outside utility/industry types? No.
• Inside senior guru types? Maybe as reviewers of
  our final recommendations.
• Has DOE weighed in on any of this?
• ??
• What do we want a committee to do?
• At most, we could use knowledgeable fusion
  experts to review our recommendations.
• How do we get from where we are now (with an IAC
  of outside folks, but one that's dead in the
  water) to where we want to go?
• Thank the IAC for their help
• When we have something to review, ask a few
  senior fusion folks to review it

4
ARIES doesnt need an Advisory Committee -- but
Fusion may.

• ARIES knows what to do and how to do it to
  complete our task
• We could -- should -- get senior fusion folks in
  to review our results (before theyre cast in
  stone)
• The challenge is implementing our conclusions
• How do we get the Fusion Program, the DOE and
  indeed the Nation off of dead center to do what
  ARIES can plan?
• Wait for an external event?
• Enlist Dales ARIES Program Advisory Committee
  of Energy Policy Makers to help develop a
  community consensus (ala High Energy Physics) and
  then a national mandate for doing the first steps
  ARIES has defined?

5
Could ARIES lead the development of a consensus
to take the next steps?

• ARIES has helped the fusion community to accept
  promising technical directions
• Can we convince the fusion program players to
  adopt our recommended path forward?
• Any plan will not satisfy everyone
• Real progress will need real money
• Could an ARIES Program Advisory Committee of
  Energy Policy Makers help?
• The task is daunting
• Competition with nearer term energy sources
• Is fusion ready to move faster than ITER?
• Could we get the fusion community to agree?
• Does DOE want our help?