including budget projections, project schedule, project management, and foreign policy implementations.

The Secretary’s report was delivered to Congress in May 2016 and recommended that the United States remain a partner in the ITER project through fiscal year 2018. The report acknowledged the significant construction progress made at ITER and the substantial improvements in ITER project management. The Secretary’s report also stated that ITER appears to be technically achievable and is the best candidate today to demonstrate sustained burning plasma. Although fusion power holds the possibility of providing abundant energy, the Secretary’s report noted that significant technical and management risks remain before the project will be completed and recommended “the U.S. re-evaluate its participation in the ITER project to assess if it remains in our best interests to continue our participation.”

In addition to outlining various oversight and management reviews to ensure continued improvement in ITER project performance, the Secretary’s report requested advice from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, as follows:

To perform a study of how to best advance the fusion energy sciences in the U.S., given the developments in the field since the last Academy studies in 2004, the specific international investments in fusion science and technology, and the priorities for the next ten years developed by the community and the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) that were recently reported to Congress. This study will address the scientific justification and needs for strengthening the foundations for realizing fusion energy given a potential choice of U.S. participation or not in the ITER project, and will develop future scenarios in either case.

In response to this request, the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research was established. The committee’s statement of task is given in Appendix A. The statement of task requested the preparation of two reports.

The first, an interim report, was released on December 21, 2017, and is reprinted in Appendix I. It presented the committee’s assessment of the current status of U.S. fusion research and of the importance of burning plasma research to the development of fusion energy as well as to plasma science and other science and engineering disciplines.

For this report, the second and final report, the committee was asked to provide guidance on a strategic plan for a national program of burning plasma science and technology research given the U.S. strategic interest in realizing economical fusion energy in the long term. Strategic guidance was to be provided in two separate scenarios in which the United States is, or is not, a member in ITER. The committee was also asked to consider the health of the domestic fusion research sectors (universities, national laboratories, and industry), participation by U.S. scientists