The Scientific Prototype, the only reasonable next step for the American MFE program*

After a tremendous triumph in about 1999, where TFTR generated ~ 15 MW of neutrons for a gain of about 0.5, the American MFE program has been floundering, the rest of the world leaving us far behind. Instead, there were multiple proposals for ignition experiments, new stellarator programs, and ST’s. The former two have been rejected, and for good reason; the latter almost certainly has a fatal flaw in the center post. With the closing of Alcator, and the long repair of NSTX, leaving only D3-D to carry the flag, it is fair to say that the American MFE program is in crisis, and possibly will not be around much longer if things continue at the present rate. There is just a single cure, and that is to unify the entire base program around “The Scientific Prototype”. This is a tokamak the size of TFTR, but run steady state in DT with a breeding blanket and breeding its own tritium. If not now, when? True steady state and tritium breeding are things ITER will not do. If both ITER and The Scientific Prototype are successful, we will have gone a long way toward fusion.