http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?&am...amp;oppId=18289

National Spherical Torus Experiment
Innovative Measurements of Spherical Torus Plasmas

Description
The Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for collaborative research employing innovative diagnostic instruments on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The NSTX program addresses two of the long term goals of the OFES program: Configuration Optimization and developing a Predictive Capability for Burning Plasmas. Applications for collaborative research must support the NSTX Program by addressing key scientific issues related to these goals, such as Macroscopic Stability, Multi-Scale Transport Physics, Plasma Boundary Interfaces, Waves and Energetic Particles, and Start-up, Ramp-up and Sustainment without a Solenoid, and Integration of Physics and Operational Requirements for Achieving Burning Plasma Conditions. To be considered for funding, applicants must have discussed their proposed research with the NSTX National Research Program Leaders and must include a Record of Discussion that specifies the benefits of proposed research to the NSTX research program and the interface support required to carry it out. Applications to renew on-going NSTX collaborative research must include a list of project goals from the previous statement of work and a summary of the actual accomplishments.

It's a $330,000 grant...

Not nearly enough money! This is an area that should be a major push, even if fusion never becomes a viable energy source the research will benefit us and the world possibly as much as the Apollo Program.

I thought I'd drop this in here...figured you'd see it and few others...
sounds like the Shaw-Westinghouse deal is moving...there's money to be made...

http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/200..._build_fac.html

Shaw, Westinghouse to build facility in Lake Charles
by Robert Travis Scott, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday August 26, 2008, 11:37 AM

Fortune 500 construction company The Shaw Group Inc. will keep its headquarters in Baton Rouge and launch a joint venture for a Lake Charles manufacturing plant after agreeing with Gov. Bobby Jindal on a $210 million state incentive package, officials announced Tuesday.

Shaw will join with Westinghouse to build a 1,400-employee facility in Lake Charles to manufacture modules for nuclear reactors and other components for chemical plants around the world. The company already is working on nuclear power plants in China and expects to provide components for new plants that could be approved in the United States.

Shaw also is pledging to increase its "professional and non-craft" jobs in Louisiana by 1,500 in the next 10 years, which includes white-collar workers associated with maintaining its headquarters in Louisiana. The state incentives are structured so that the company will receive financial benefits as it meets job targets over time.

Jindal portrayed the announcement as a way of positioning Louisiana to take advantage of the growing industrial sector of nuclear power worldwide.

"With additional efforts and other policies targeted at the nuclear power development industry, Louisiana has the opportunity to become a world leader in a high-growth, high-paying exciting job market," Jindal said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency predicts that nuclear plant power capacity worldwide will increase somewhere between 21 percent to 84 percent by the year 2030, representing up to $2 trillion in investment for expansion.

There are 435 operating nuclear reactors globally and 29 under construction. Japan, India, China and South Korea are expanding heavily. The United States leads with 103 units, providing 19 percent of the nation's electricity, followed by France with 59 units, or 78 percent of that country's electricity. About 30 new U.S. reactors have been announced, the agency reported.

To meet the demand, Westinghouse is marketing its AP1000 nuclear power plant. The Shaw-Westinghouse joint venture in Lake Charles will make modules for the system.

The workforce at the manufacturing site will earn an average salary of $50,000 plus benefits. The new professional workers will get the same average.

Jindal and Shaw Chairman Jim Bernhard, a former chairman of the state Democratic Party, made the announcement Tuesday along with other state and local officials. No one named a specific threat to steal Shaw's headquarters office. But Jindal said Shaw has major employment centers in several other states and might one day be lured to move. Bernhard would not identify other locations that might have been competing for its headquarters.

The state will support the Lake Charles facility with $32.5 million for infrastructure, workforce training and dock improvements, as well as an estimated $37.5 million over 10 years for jobs-creation incentives.

State officials had been working on the deal for a number of months. Bernhard said the module plant could have been built in many other states and the company had even considered sites in other countries.

Both the module plant and the headquarters operations would be supported in a joint package incentive deal that provides $5 million per year in state tax exemptions for 10 years and a forgivable loan of $9 million per year for 10 years.

The company's expansion would result in tax payments to the state that would exceed those amounts, Department of Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret said.

Moret's office provided a report showing that the company's expansion would result in tax revenue to the state that would exceed the state's payout in incentives after 8 years. The state incentives would add up to $62,000 to $72,000 per new job, similar to incentives offered to Union Tank Car for an Alexandria-area plant five years ago. It would be about one-sixth the value per job that was offered for ThyssenKrupp's steel plant last year, which went to Alabama.

Robert Travis Scott can be reached at rscott@timespicayune.com or 225.342.4197.