Booker Leads Colleagues in Urging Biden Administration to Support Budget Increase for Fusion Energy Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) urged Shalanda Young, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to increase the Administration’s budget request for next year to $1.04 billion for the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences within the Department of Energy’s Office of Science.  The letter comes after scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility announced achieving “fusion ignition” – specifically, producing a nuclear fusion with a net energy gain.

“Fusion energy promises to be a safe, clean, and sustainable energy source that can provide the United States with energy independence and a nearly limitless energy supply,” wrote Senator Booker to Shalanda Young, Director of the Office of Management and Budget. “It is the ideal energy source to operate at high capacity, 24 hours a day, and year-round, regardless of weather and sunlight, and without carbon emissions or long-lived radioactive waste.  Fusion energy developed and produced in the U.S. will – and must – be a key component of the country’s near- and long-term energy security strategy.”

Booker continued, “More than ever before, the United States is ready to begin moving toward commercial fusion energy.  The field has reached important scientific and technological milestones, including the recent announcement that the National Ignition Facility achieved “fusion ignition” – a major scientific breakthrough that was decades in the making.  In addition, construction on the international ITER project is nearly 80 percent complete, and earlier this year DOE launched the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, which supports private entities – possibly teamed with national laboratories, universities, or other partners – working to achieve technical and commercialization milestones, including designs for a fusion power plant.

“The activities authorized in the “CHIPS and Science Act,” once funded, will be a critical step toward boosting the research capabilities of federal agencies, meeting the nation’s climate goals, and ensuring U.S. dominance in the industries of the future.  The FY 2024 budget request should reflect the ambition of this historic legislation and demonstrate to the world that the U.S. government is serious about advancing the research and development programs outlined within it.  We call on the Administration to fund the DOE Office of Science at $9.5 billion, as authorized in the “CHIPS and Science Act”, with $1.04 billion dedicated to fusion energy research,” concluded Senator Booker.

The letter is cosigned by Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Bob Casey (D-PA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

The full text of the letter can be viewed here and below.