A 3-year plan for beam science in the heavy-ion fusion virtual national laboratory

Abstract

In December 1998, LBNL Director Charles Shank and LLNL Director Bruce Tarter signed a Memorandum of Agreement to create the Heavy-Ion Fusion Virtual National Laboratory (HIF-VNL) with the purpose of improving the efficiency and productivity of heavy ion research through coordination of the two laboratories' efforts under one technical director. In 1999, PPPL Director Robert Goldston signed the VNL MOA for PPPL's heavy-ion fusion group to join the VNL. LBNL and LLNL each contribute about 45% of the $10.6 M/yr trilab VNL effort, and PPPL contributes currently about 10% of the VNL effort. The three labs carry out collaborative experiments, theory and simulations of a variety of intense beam scientific issues described below. The tri-lab HIF VNL program is part of the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) fusion program. A short description of the four major tasks areas of HIF-VNL research is given in the next section. The task areas are: High Current Experiment, Final Focus/Chamber Transport, Source/Injector/Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT), and Theory/Simulation. As a result of the internal review, more detailed reviews of the designs, costs and schedules for some of the tasks have been completed, which will provide more precision in the scheduled completion dates of tasks. The process for the ongoing engineering reviews and governance for the future management of tasks is described in section 3. A description of the major milestones and scientific deliverables for flat guidance budgets are given in section 4. Section 5 describes needs for enabling technology development for future experiments that require incremental funding