Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2023-23

U.S. Department of Energy Announces $46 Million for Commercial Fusion Energy Development

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $46 million in funding to eight companies advancing designs and research and development for fusion power plants, representing a major step in President Biden’s commitment to a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion within a decade. Fusion reactions power the stars, and research is underway to make fusion energy production on Earth possible, providing an abundant, inherently safe, non-carbon-emitting energy source for the planet. This funding from the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program will solidify U.S. leadership in fusion commercialization, a gamechanger that would help the United States meet the President’s goal of reaching a net-zero economy by 2050. 

Within five to 10 years, the eight awardees will resolve scientific and technological challenges to create designs for a fusion pilot plant that will help bring fusion to both technical and commercial viability. This program was partially inspired by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program that helped enable commercial space launch.

 The awardees are as follows: 

• Commonwealth Fusion Systems (Cambridge, MA)
• Focused Energy Inc. (Austin, TX)
• Princeton Stellarators Inc. (Branchburg, NJ)
• Realta Fusion Inc. (Madison, WI)
• Tokamak Energy Inc. (Bruceton Mills, WV)
• Type One Energy Group (Madison, WI)
• Xcimer Energy Inc. (Redwood City, CA)
• Zap Energy Inc. (Everett, WA) 

This funding is a major step to meeting the Biden Harris Administration’s goals laid out at the March 2022 White House summit on Developing a Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy. 

NSF: Partnerships for Innovation (PFI); Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST Centers); Advancing Microelectronics Education; NSF Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering (BRITE); Expanding TRIPODS through Partnerships (XTRIPODS); NSF Convergence Accelerator Phases 1 and 2 for the 2023 Cohort - Tracks K, L, M; Community Infrastructure for Research in Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CIRC)

NIH: Assessment of TBI-related ADRD Pathology Related to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Outcomes (U01); Collaborative Opportunities for Multidisciplinary, Bold, and Innovative Neuroscience (COMBINE) (RM1); NINDS Postdoctoral Mentored Career Development Award (K01)

Department of Commerce/EDA:  FY2023 Build to Scale Program; Measurement Science and Engineering (MSE) Research Grant Programs

National Endowment of Humanities: Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions; Humanities Connections

How can Congress regulate AI?: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman urged lawmakers to consider regulating AI during his Senate testimony on May 16, 2023. That recommendation raises the question of what comes next for Congress. The solutions Altman proposed – creating an AI regulatory agency and requiring licensing for companies – are interesting. But what the other experts on the same panel suggested is at least as important: requiring transparency on training data and establishing clear frameworks for AI-related risks. Another point left unsaid was that, given the economics of building large-scale AI models, the industry may be witnessing the emergence of a new type of tech monopoly. As a researcher who studies social media and artificial intelligence, I believe that Altman’s suggestions have highlighted important issues but don’t provide answers in and of themselves. Regulation would be helpful, but in what form? Licensing also makes sense, but for whom? And any effort to regulate the AI industry will need to account for the companies’ economic power and political sway. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Securing U.S. Intellectual Property ‘Top Priority’ for Federal Law Enforcement: Protecting American intellectual property in the emerging tech field is a “top priority” for leadership at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other national security offices, who cited the People’s Republic of China as a serious cybersecurity threat to U.S. research.  Testifying before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement and Intelligence, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Jill Murphy highlighted her office’s ongoing efforts to prioritize safeguarding classified American tech research.  “American people and businesses should know if you're an owner, a security official and employee of the US business—no matter the size—and you create cutting edge technology in the semiconductor quantum computing, AI, machine learning, new energy, biotech, aerospace, robotics…Your company's intellectual property and employees are targets of sophisticated nation state actors like China, both here in the United States and abroad,” she said. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Clean energy advancements hinge on steady funding, Energy official says:  The U.S. Department of Energy is looking to position itself as a major innovator in applied critical technologies, both to further clean energy development in the U.S. and establish broader global leadership in emerging tech sectors. 

Geri Richmond, Energy’s Undersecretary for Science and Innovation, outlined the agency’s research priorities during a panel discussion on Tuesday, emphasizing the funding her agency is requesting in the forthcoming fiscal year 2024 budget.   “This is a strong budget that will bolster our clean energy research, development and demonstration programs to fast track deployment for a whole wide range of energy solutions,” Richmond said. She highlighted several priorities in Energy’s budget request — totaling $52 billion — such as research and development enhancements and fortifying the nation’s energy manufacturing supply chain and overall energy security.

Question:       Can I generate budgets for multiple years from the Year-1 budget in Streamlyne?

Answer:         Yes! You only need to input the Year-1 budget and then click on the “generate all periods” button. Stremalyne will create budget sheets for the remaining periods. You can then go to “summary” under the budget tab to review budget sheets for all periods. You can also change specific budget items that you allocated in Year-1 but you do not want to continue them in the following periods.

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