The President’s proposed budget for the Department of Energy in 2019 removes 168 full time Ph.D.’s from the fusion research program (page number 178). This 22% reduction is about 4 people from every hallway at our lab. This is a proposed budget ?
mostly fusion
The President’s proposed budget for the Department of Energy in 2019 removes 168 full time Ph.D.’s from the fusion research program (page number 178). This 22% reduction is about 4 people from every hallway at our lab. This is a proposed budget ?
If I heard right, it seems that got averted: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nuclearpower-fusion-iter/iter-nuclear-fusion-project-avoids-delays-as-u-s-doubles-budget-idUSKBN1H2286
Because of the intricacies of Federal support, this does not help as much as it seems. The budget that I was talking about is for Fiscal Year 2019, but these new funds are only good for Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018), which ends in 5 months. These FY2018 funds cannot be carried over to future years unless they are tied to a particular project, and they cannot be used for future labor, i.e., people. The actual result is that the U.S. fusion program will be able to fully fund a few upgrades that had been delayed, but my concerns about people remain.