S.D. Pushes for $1-Billion Fusion Center

After failing in past attempts to attract prestigious science consortia, this city is pulling out all the stops in its bid to become the headquarters of a planned $1-billion fusion energy research project.

For the first time in at least a decade of pursuing such projects, civic, business and university leaders from throughout California have joined to back San Diego’s bid. The hope is to erase the state’s reputation for becoming embroiled in internal bickering so divisive that it has torpedoed past ventures.

Although the city has triumphed over several other U.S. cities that had hoped to serve as headquarters for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program, it now faces stiff competition from Naka, Japan, and Garching, Germany, both of which are home to world-renowned fusion research centers.

The three cities are lobbying hard for the project, partly because of the scientific and academic prestige. But the competing bidders also are keenly aware that the victorious city will benefit from the presence of hundreds of scientists who could spend as much as $250 million in the headquarters city.

The proposed five-year ITER project--now under the auspices of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency--will be funded by the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union and the European Community. ITER will produce design and engineering plans for a commercial-scale fusion energy reactor. Construction of an actual reactor is not included in the ITER budget.

An international site selection committee that includes representatives from the funding nations is meeting in Washington. It could make a decision on ITER’s headquarters as early as today.

Similar meetings have been held in Japan and Germany. Some observers speculate that growing international political pressure will force ITER officials to divide research among the three cities--with the executive director and the lion’s share of researchers going to San Diego.

A group of ITER scientists and bureaucrats will be in San Diego on Wednesday and Thursday to assess the area’s strengths and weaknesses as a headquarters. Their hosts will be a steering committee formed by San Diego leaders to tout the city’s charms.

During the past decade, the state has failed in bids for a number of consortia, including the Microelectronics and Computer Technology consortium and an atom smasher, both of which settled in Texas, and an earthquake research facility that located in Buffalo, N.Y. In each case, observers said, Californians lost in part because they failed to unite on a single proposal.

“In the past, either the state hasn’t pulled together, the governor was lukewarm or there was all kind of (intrastate) bickering,” said Lea M. Rudee, dean of the engineering school at UC San Diego.

But an unprecedented number of Californians--including Gov. Pete Wilson, the entire congressional delegation, business leaders and the state’s university system--”coalesced on one proposal, which was the San Diego proposal,” Rudee said. “We got terrific support for the first time from all parties.”

San Diego beat out other U.S. contenders in January, when the U.S. Department of Energy ruled out proposals by groups who were promoting a headquarters location near fusion research centers in Massachusetts, Tennessee and Texas.

San Diego was placed in the running largely because of the wealth of fusion research under way at La Jolla-based General Atomics, a privately held company that has built a $400-million fusion energy research center. General Atomics has been heavily involved in fusion research since the 1950s.

Scientists have long dreamed of sustained nuclear fusion--the use of intense heat to fuse atoms and create energy. Fusion is the opposite of fission, in which atoms are split to create power.

The ITER project would allow scientists to handle the complex engineering and design work necessary to create a vessel that would not disintegrate under the intense heat. An international team of scientists working at General Atomics recently reported a significant technological breakthrough in the search for such a reactor vessel.

In an experiment replicated more than a dozen times, General Atomics doubled the previously achievable temperature without increasing the power used, according to General Atomics Vice President David Overskei.

Although the University of California submitted the formal bid to have San Diego serve as host for the research project, the bid drew strong support from UC San Diego; General Atomics; Science Applications International, a La Jolla-based company that has made a bid to be project site manager for the ITER project; and General Dynamics, which has a San Diego-based division that manufactures superconducting magnets used in fusion research.

The local steering committee will use the two-day visit by ITER officials to calm fears among foreign scientists that San Diego housing is too expensive and that the city’s cash-strapped schools are incapable of supplying top-notch educations.

“The agenda calls for tours of housing, schools and (General Atomics’) research facilities,” said Dan Pegg, president of the San Diego Economic Development Corp. “We’ll have representatives of (local) Japanese-language schools, a reception and a dinner, and a Thursday luncheon where they can talk to people.”

But the city will also rely on its considerable tourist charms to woo scientists.

“They can go golfing at Torrey Pines, visit the San Diego Zoo, Sea World and an America’s Cup (sailing) camp,” Pegg said. “Their agenda will be filled from the time they arrive until the time they depart.”

Although San Diego’s opportunities for sun and fun will be highlighted, the emphasis will be on economics and education.

“The biggest drawback we have is our schools,” Overskei acknowledged.

Foreign scientists question whether San Diego schools can cope with a wave of bright foreign students who, after five years, would return to schools in their native lands.

Japanese-language schools in San Diego evidently can absorb students from Japan. But European scientists, aware of California’s never-ending budget crises, need to be convinced that San Diego’s school system “can get their child qualified to go to the University of Munich or some other institution,” said Douglass Post, a physicist at Princeton University, one of the nation’s premier fusion research centers.

“After housing, schooling for their children is the first thing that these scientists ask about,” Post said.

Supporters of the ITER project already have raised $700,000 toward a goal of $1 million that will be used to subsidize housing for foreign scientists. The fund-raising drive has drawn substantial support from San Diego corporations, law firms and insurance brokerages, according to Joanne Pastula, an executive with John Burnham & Co., a real estate development company that is helping to secure donations.

Will the effort be enough? According to Post, San Diego and California have done a “very reasonable job” in their bid to host ITER.