日期:2022/09/26 IAE
美國白宮為商業核融合聚變（Fusion）能源制定大膽的願景 / Developing a Bold Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy THE WHITE HOUSE 2022 年 3 月 15 日
•拜登-哈里斯政府致力於打造一個清潔能源的未來，創造高薪工作，降低能源費用，並通過為所有美國人的利益製造和部署清潔能源來支持通往美國能源獨立的道路。拜登總統正在加倍努力降低成本的最佳方式是加快而不是放慢我們向清潔能源的過渡。他已承諾使用所有可用的工具來減輕泵的痛苦，同時加速當今已經可用的廉價清潔能源解決方案。從清潔能源和能源效率改進中抓住經濟機會將降低家庭和企業的水電費，解決氣候危機，並幫助確保我們的社區呼吸清潔的空氣。
當我們衝刺部署今天的清潔能源時，我們也在為未來投資新的選擇，這將為美國工人提供開發新技術的機會，並使美國成為 21 世紀的能源領導者。
今天，拜登-哈里斯政府宣布，它正在製定一個大膽的十年願景來加速聚變——一種清潔能源技術，它使用與太陽和恆星相同的反應。
聚變能——通過結合原子來產生更重的原子——長期以來被認為具有作為安全、豐富、零碳可靠電力的巨大潛力。一旦開發，聚變將使用鋰和氫的組合作為燃料，並且不會產生長壽命的放射性廢物。 Fusion還將為製氫、工業熱能、碳捕獲和海水淡化提供熱能和動力的組合來源。
聚變可以提供豐富、可靠、無碳的能源，以推進拜登總統到 2050 年實現淨零排放的目標，同時提高能源安全並增強美國的技術競爭優勢。商業聚變能源技術有可能徹底改變能源行業，幫助應對氣候危機，同時滿足美國和世界不斷增長的電力需求。
由於這些好處，美國幾十年來一直投資於由能源部國家實驗室領導的自己的聚變計劃，以及重大的國際合作。今天，美國研究計劃的一個主要焦點是 ITER，這是一個 35 個國家的合作項目，一個國際科學家團隊正在合作建造世界上最大的託卡馬克，這是一種磁聚變裝置，旨在證明聚變能的可行性。參與這一重要的國際科學合作已經產生了顯著的額外好處，例如增加了從其他國家獲得經驗豐富的人員、數據和建模軟件、組件設計、同行評審以及美國無法提供的設施的機會。
七十年的聚變研究公共資金導致了最近的重大科學進步和私人投資的快速增長。現在是加速商業聚變能源發展的時候了，同時確保我們的社區以公平公正的方式分享聚變的好處。
拜登-哈里斯政府將聚變視為一種潛在的改變遊戲規則的清潔能源技術，並正在採取以下步驟來加速可行的商業聚變能源：
由白宮科技政策辦公室 (OSTP) 和美國能源部 (DOE) 共同主辦，於 2022 年 3 月 17 日舉行白宮融合峰會，召集廣泛的利益相關者討論探索技術的承諾和剩餘的挑戰。這一投入將為製定大膽的十年戰略提供信息，以加速實現商業融合。未來幾個月的進一步研討會將以這些初步討論為基礎。
美國能源部將發起一項全機構範圍的計劃，在計劃辦公室之間進行協調，以製定十年戰略，以與私營部門合作加快商業聚變能源的可行性。 2021 年美國國家科學院、工程院和醫學院 (NASEM) 報告將 Fusion 帶入美國電網作為新計劃的指導文件。該倡議將由一位新的能源部首席融合協調員向科學與創新部副部長報告。
聚變科技正處於轉折點
產生的能量多於消耗的能量的聚變反應似乎總是在未來幾十年。美國能源部國家實驗室和其他機構、大學和工業界在 70 年突破性聚變科學技術的基礎上取得的最新進展表明，我們比以往任何時候都更接近於可行的反應。就在過去的一年裡，媒體報導了許多技術成果。例如：
一家私人資助的美國聚變公司展示了其原型 20 特斯拉高溫超導磁體，為商業聚變能源開闢了一種激動人心的新型高場、緊湊型方法，
第一個中央螺線管磁鐵交付給 ITER，展示了美國工業的聚變規模製造能力，
英國的聯合歐洲圓環 (JET) 以 5 秒的高功率脈衝將其 24 年的記錄翻了一番，僅受實驗硬件的限制，不受等離子體穩定性的限制，
位於加利福尼亞州的勞倫斯利弗莫爾國家實驗室的國家點火裝置 (NIF) 的能量產量比之前的記錄高出八倍，並達到了點火的尖端，為我們提供了與託卡馬克具有相似物理性能的第二種聚變方法，並且
中國的實驗先進超導託卡馬克（EAST）在 1.26 億華氏度（比太陽熱五倍）下持續了 17 分鐘的聚變反應。
商業融合的市場吸引力也在迅速增長。 2021 年，私營部門在聚變技術開發方面的投資超過 25 億美元（絕大多數集中在美國聚變公司）。此外，聚變公司現在正在美國建造幾個大型實驗設施，希望在本世紀末之前為幾種不同類型的聚變發電廠展示概念驗證。
由於這些發展和其他發展，美國能源部聚變能源科學諮詢委員會和 NASEM 等科學諮詢小組一致認為，現在是加速商業聚變能源的時候了。
商業融合的競賽正在進行中
雖然聚變能研究界最近取得的突破代表著在實現商業聚變方面取得了相當大的進展，但仍然存在重大的科學和技術挑戰。最重要的是，我們還沒有證明我們可以超過收支平衡點，即聚變系統釋放的能量超過了創造聚變反應發生條件所需的能量。一個可行的聚變發電廠還需要一致、安全和可靠的運行，以及改進的穩定等離子體安全殼、燃料循環充足性，包括繁殖氚（氫的同位素）、能夠承受連續運行的材料、集成的排熱解決方案，並將聚變裝置耦合到先進的熱提取和功率轉換系統。
美國政府擁有廣泛的科學和技術基礎設施，包括實現這一願景所需的經驗豐富的研究人員和世界級的科學和計算設施。因此，它在幫助解決實現商業融合的關鍵技術障礙方面具有獨特的優勢。國際競爭正在迅速加劇。中國和英國等國家正在大力投資以擴大其聚變研發工作，目標是展示可行的聚變能源生產。
美國政教育和培訓，以建立多元化的勞動力。
美國能源部和私營部門正在尋求多種融合方法，以分散科技風險和潛在的市場影響。因此，對美國聚變產業的大量私人投資為擴大公共資金以創建美國商業聚變產業提供了重要手段。公私合作夥伴關係 (PPP) 在技術研究、開發和示範 (RD&D) 方面的其他主要好處包括：
確保與商業市場拉動保持一致，
降低納稅人的風險和成本，
利用公共和私營部門以及其他重要利益相關者的綜合優勢，
在新行業創造良好的就業機會，以及
確保美國的科技創新轉化為美國在商業聚變能源方面的領導地位。
在全球 30 多家聚變公司中，三分之二的總部位於美國，而且大多數是在過去十年中成立的。美國政府在核聚變方面的行動表明了我們共同努力發展美國私營核聚變產業的雄心。通過與這些公司合作，我們有機會讓這些公司在我們的境內不斷發展壯大，並鞏固美國在核聚變方面的技術領先地位。
白宮融合峰會
OSTP 和 DOE 將於 2022 年 3 月 17 日共同舉辦白宮聚變峰會，旨在為商業聚變能源製定大膽的十年願景。該活動將召集來自政府、工業界、學術界和其他利益相關者團體的聚變能源領導人，以：
展示能源部和私營部門在融合方面取得的進展，
向公眾、美國政府和私人團體宣傳更新戰略以實現聚變發電的必要性，
為各種聚變利益相關者（包括能源正義和環境倡導者）提供機會，表達他們現有和預期的需求，以及
了解美國政府如何最好地加速聚變試驗設施的開發和示範。
公平和包容是拜登-哈里斯政府能源創新方法的核心，本次活動的一個關鍵目標是讓廣泛的聲音出現在桌面上，以便就聚變技術的未來進行包容性的早期對話。
活動中討論的主要議題包括：
描述聚變技術的現狀及其對氣候、能源安全和美國全球競爭力的好處，
確定建立一個支持能源和環境正義、能源倫理、環境可持續性、多樣性和有效公眾參與的聚變產業所需的步驟，以及
概述聚變行業的願景和挑戰，以及美國政府如何加速聚變技術。
完整的活動議程可在此處獲得。
我們站在一個關鍵時刻，有機會從數十年的投資中獲益。 聚變是一種潛在的無碳、豐富的清潔能源，將加強美國的領導地位，加強能源安全，並實現持續的能源獨立。 充滿活力的美國聚變計劃還將使美國能夠利用參與 ITER 項目的機會，探索新的國際合作，進一步加快聚變能的發展。
隨著我們繼續朝著全面的十年願景和商業融合戰略邁進，更多的公告即將發布。
MARCH 15, 2022
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PRESS RELEASES
The Biden-Harris Administration is focused on building a clean energy future that creates good-paying jobs, lowers energy bills, and supports a path toward U.S. energy independence by manufacturing and deploying clean energy for the benefit of all Americans. President Biden is doubling down on the strategy that the best way to bring down costs is to speed up – not slow down – our transition to clean energy. He has pledged to use every tool available to reduce pain at the pump while accelerating the already-available, cheap, clean energy solutions today. Capturing the economic opportunity from clean energy and energy efficiency improvements will lower utility bills for families and businesses, address the climate crisis, and help ensure our communities breathe clean air.
As we sprint to deploy today’s clean energy, we are also investing in new options for the future that will provide U.S. workers the opportunity to build the new technologies and position America to be energy leaders in the 21st century.
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that it is developing a bold decadal vision to accelerate fusion – a clean energy technology that uses the same reaction that powers the Sun and stars.
Fusion energy – produced by combining atoms to create heavier ones – has long been recognized to have great potential as a safe, abundant, zero-carbon source of reliable electricity. Once developed, fusion will use a combination of lithium and hydrogen as fuel, and create no long-lived radioactive waste. Fusion will also provide a combined source of thermal energy and power for hydrogen production, industrial heat, carbon capture, and desalination.
Fusion could provide abundant, reliable, carbon-free energy to advance President Biden’s goal to get to net-zero emissions by 2050, while increasing energy security and enhancing America’s technological competitive edge. Commercial fusion energy technology has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry, helping combat the climate crisis while meeting the growing electricity needs of the U.S. and the world.
Because of these benefits, the U.S. has invested for decades in its own fusion program led by the Department of Energy National Laboratories, as well as in major international collaborations. Today, a major focus of the U.S. research program is ITER, a 35-country collaboration where an international team of scientists is working together to build the world’s largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion power. Participation in this important international scientific collaboration has yielded significant additional benefits, such as increasing access to experienced personnel from other countries, data and modeling software, component design, peer review, and facilities with capabilities unavailable in the U.S.
Seven decades of public funding for fusion research have led to major recent scientific advances and rapid growth in private investment. Now is the time to accelerate development of commercial fusion energy, while ensuring that the benefits of fusion are shared in an equitable and just way across our communities.
The Biden-Harris Administration views fusion as a potential game-changing clean energy technology, and is taking the following steps to accelerate viable commercial fusion energy:
Holding a White House Fusion Summit on March 17, 2022, co-sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), to convene a broad group of stakeholders to initiate discussions exploring the promise of the technology and the remaining challenges. This input will inform the development of a bold decadal strategy to accelerate the realization of commercial fusion. Further workshops in the upcoming months will build on these initial discussions.
The DOE will launch an agency-wide initiative, coordinating across program offices, to develop a decadal strategy to accelerate the viability of commercial fusion energy in partnership with the private sector. The 2021 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid serves as a guiding document for the new initiative. The initiative will be facilitated by a new DOE Lead Fusion Coordinator reporting to the Undersecretary for Science and Innovation.
Fusion Science and Technology are at a Turning Point
A fusion reaction in which more energy is produced than is consumed always seemed to be decades in the future. Recent advances, building on 70 years of groundbreaking fusion science and technology by DOE National Laboratories and other agencies, universities, and industry, demonstrate that we are closer than ever to a viable reaction. Just in the past year, there have been many technical achievements reported in the media. For example:
a privately-funded U.S. fusion company demonstrated its prototype 20-tesla high-temperature-superconducting magnet, opening up an exciting new high-field, compact approach to commercial fusion energy,
the first central-solenoid magnet was delivered for ITER, illustrating fusion-scale manufacturing capability of U.S. industry,
the Joint European Torus (JET) in the UK doubled its 24-year-old record with a five-second, high-power pulse, limited only by the experimental hardware and not the plasma stability,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California achieved an energy yield eight times higher than its previous record and reached the cusp of ignition, providing us a second fusion approach with similar physics performance as the tokamak, and
China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) sustained fusion reactions for 17 minutes at 126 million degrees Fahrenheit – five times hotter than the sun.
The market pull for commercial fusion is also growing rapidly. In 2021, the private sector invested over $2.5 billion in fusion technology development (with the overwhelming majority focused on U.S. fusion companies). Further, fusion companies are now building several large experimental facilities in the U.S., with the aspiration of demonstrating a proof-of-concept for several different types of fusion power plants before the end of the decade.
As a result of these developments and others, scientific advisory groups such as the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee and NASEM agree that now is the time to accelerate commercial fusion energy.
The Race is On for Commercial Fusion
While recent breakthroughs by the fusion energy research community represent considerable progress toward achieving commercial fusion, significant science and technology challenges remain. Most importantly, we have yet to demonstrate we can exceed the break-even point, where the fusion system releases more energy than is needed to create the conditions where the fusion reactions occur. A viable fusion power plant also requires consistent, safe, and reliable operation, as well as improved stable plasma containment, fuel-cycle sufficiency including breeding tritium (an isotope of hydrogen), materials that can withstand continuous operation, integrated heat-exhaust solutions, and coupling the fusion device to advanced thermal extraction and power conversion systems.
The U.S. government has an extensive science and technology infrastructure, including the experienced researchers and world-class scientific and computational facilities that will be required to realize this vision. It is therefore uniquely positioned to help address key technical barriers to realizing commercial fusion. International competition is rapidly increasing. Countries such as China and the UK are making major investments to expand their fusion R&D efforts with the goal of demonstrating viable fusion energy production.
The U.S. government can help clear the path to commercialization by developing a risk-informed regulatory framework, addressing safety and security concerns, enabling technology exports through international regulatory harmonization and effective export controls, supporting essential supply chains, actively engaging the U.S. public, and providing education and training to build a diverse workforce.
DOE and the private sector are pursuing a variety of approaches to fusion, which diversifies scientific and technical risk and potential market impact. Thus, the large private investments in the U.S. fusion industry provide an essential means of amplifying the public dollars to create the U.S. commercial fusion industry. Additional key benefits of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) for technology research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) include:
ensuring alignment with commercial market pull,
reducing risk and cost to the taxpayer,
harnessing the combined strengths of the public and private sectors and other essential stakeholders,
creating good jobs in new industries, and
ensuring that U.S. scientific and technical innovations translate into U.S. leadership in commercial fusion energy.
Of the more than 30 fusion companies in the world, two-thirds are based in the U.S., and most were founded in the last decade. U.S. government action on fusion signals our ambition to work together to grow the U.S. private fusion industry. By partnering with these companies, we have an opportunity to keep these companies growing within our borders and cement U.S. technological leadership on fusion.
The White House Fusion Summit
OSTP and DOE will co-host a White House Fusion Summit on Developing a Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy on March 17, 2022. The event will convene fusion energy leaders from government, industry, academia, and other stakeholder groups to:
showcase progress made on fusion in the DOE and the private sector,
educate the public, U.S. government, and private groups about the need for an updated strategy to realize fusion energy generation,
provide the opportunity for a variety of fusion stakeholders, including energy justice and environmental advocates, to voice their existing and anticipated needs, and
understand how the U.S. government can best accelerate the development and demonstration of fusion pilot facilities.
Equity and inclusion are central to the Biden-Harris Administration’s approach to energy innovation, and a key objective of this event is to bring a wide range of voices to the table for an inclusive and early conversation about the future of fusion technology.
Key topics of discussion at the event include:
describing the state of fusion technology and its benefits to the climate, energy security, and U.S. global competitiveness,
defining the steps needed to build a fusion industry that supports energy and environmental justice, energy ethics, environmental sustainability, diversity, and effective public engagement, and
outlining the fusion industry’s visions and challenges, and how the U.S. government can accelerate fusion technology.
ensuring alignment with commercial market pull,
reducing risk and cost to the taxpayer,
harnessing the combined strengths of the public and private sectors and other essential stakeholders,
creating good jobs in new industries, and
ensuring that U.S. scientific and technical innovations translate into U.S. leadership in commercial fusion energy.
Of the more than 30 fusion companies in the world, two-thirds are based in the U.S., and most were founded in the last decade. U.S. government action on fusion signals our ambition to work together to grow the U.S. private fusion industry. By partnering with these companies, we have an opportunity to keep these companies growing within our borders and cement U.S. technological leadership on fusion.
The White House Fusion Summit
OSTP and DOE will co-host a White House Fusion Summit on Developing a Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy on March 17, 2022. The event will convene fusion energy leaders from government, industry, academia, and other stakeholder groups to:
showcase progress made on fusion in the DOE and the private sector,
educate the public, U.S. government, and private groups about the need for an updated strategy to realize fusion energy generation,
provide the opportunity for a variety of fusion stakeholders, including energy justice and environmental advocates, to voice their existing and anticipated needs, and
understand how the U.S. government can best accelerate the development and demonstration of fusion pilot facilities.
Equity and inclusion are central to the Biden-Harris Administration’s approach to energy innovation, and a key objective of this event is to bring a wide range of voices to the table for an inclusive and early conversation about the future of fusion technology.
Key topics of discussion at the event include:
describing the state of fusion technology and its benefits to the climate, energy security, and U.S. global competitiveness,
defining the steps needed to build a fusion industry that supports energy and environmental justice, energy ethics, environmental sustainability, diversity, and effective public engagement, and
outlining the fusion industry’s visions and challenges, and how the U.S. government can accelerate fusion technology.
A full event agenda is available here.
We stand at a juncture with an opportunity to reap the benefits of decades of investments. Fusion is a potential carbon-free, abundant source of clean energy that will bolster American leadership, strengthen energy security, and enable sustained energy independence. A vibrant U.S. fusion program will also enable the U.S. to take advantage of the participation in the ITER Project and explore new international collaborations to further accelerate the development of fusion energy.
More announcements will be forthcoming as we continue to take steps towards a comprehensive decadal vision and strategy for commercial fusion.