Big Science has a Twenty-Year Plan

Earlier this week, Energy Secretary Spence Abraham laid out the Office of Science's 20-year plan for building and upgrading the U.S.'s "Big Science" facilities. Twenty-eight programs got the nod, in all. The top priorities -- fusion, and a massive supercomputer. Other goals on the wish list include studying dark energy, high-speed atomic-scale imaging with an electron laser, and fulfilling several particle-physics dreams, including a collider to rival CERN's LHC. Here's the press release and the full list (PDF). Your grandchildren may write school papers on the discoveries these tools will make...

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Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham Announces Department of Energy 20-Year Science Facility Plan
Sets Priorities for 28 New, Major Science Research Facilities
WASHINGTON, DC - In a speech at the National Press Club today, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham outlined the Department of Energy's Office of Science 20-year science facility plan, a roadmap for future scientific facilities to support the department's basic science and research missions. The plan prioritizes new, major scientific facilities and upgrades to current facilities.

The 28 facilities cover the range of science supported by the DOE's Office of Science, including fusion energy, materials science, biological and environmental science, high energy physics, nuclear physics and advanced scientific computation.

"This plan will be the cornerstone for the future of critical fields of science in America. These facilities will revolutionize science - and society," said Abraham. "With this plan our goal is to keep the United States at the scientific forefront.

"These facilities are needed to extend the frontiers of science, to pursue opportunities of enormous importance, and to maintain U.S. science primacy in the world. Investment in these facilities will yield extraordinary scientific breakthroughs - and vital societal and economic benefits."

The Office of Science priority list for new facilities will help the department plan its potential future scientific investments. The list identifies 12 facilities as near-term priorities. Priority one is ITER, an international collaboration to build the first fusion science experiment capable of producing a self-sustaining fusion reaction, called a "burning plasma." Priority two is an UltraScale Scientific Computing Capability, to be located at multiple sites, that would increase by a factor of 100 the computing capability available to support open scientific research.

Four facilities tied for Priority three: the Joint Dark Energy Mission, a space-based probe, being considered in partnership with NASA, designed to understand "dark energy" which makes up more than 70 percent of the universe; the Linac Coherent Light Source that would provide laser-like radiation 10 billion times greater in power and brightness than any existing x-ray light source; a Protein Production and Tags Facility that would mass produce and characterize tens of thousands of proteins per year; and the Rare Isotope Accelerator that would be the world's most powerful research facility dedicated to producing and exploring new rare isotopes not found naturally on earth.

Six other facilities complete the near-term priorities. Eight facilities are identified as midterm priorities and eight as far-term priorities.

"This list of 28 facilities outlines to an important extent the future of science in America - and indeed the world," Abraham said. "These facilities cover the critical areas where discoveries can transform our energy future, boost economic productivity, transform our understanding of biology, and provide revolutionary new tools to deal with disease.

"They can make major and necessary contributions to national security - and give us the ability to understand matter at its most fundamental level."

"At each stage along the process of discovery, America's economy grows stronger, with new tools to improve human health, generate new industries, improve our everyday lives, or boost efficiency - the things that help give our nation its competitive edge," he added. "And we need science to maintain that competitive edge - especially in high technology, which every day becomes more central to our economy."

DOE's Office of Science prepared the list over the last year with input from the scientific community, DOE laboratories and advisory committees. In brief, Office of Science program managers first identified 46 facilities they believed are required for world scientific leadership over the next 20 years. Six independent advisory committees re