http://www.er.doe.gov/Sub/Mission/Strategic_Plan/Feb-2004-Strat-Plan-screen-res.pdfOffice of Science, Department of EnergyWe envision a future where our contributions to the physical, biological, and environmental sciences have transformed the world as we know it. Our discoveries have changed forever how we provide for life’s most basic needs — and how we view our own existence within a complex, ever-changing universe. By 2023, our science will have helped us achieve a large measure of energy independence. The energy intensity of our economy decreases, and energy sources are now more plentiful and clean. There is a new, more competitive menu of renewable energy sources, a safer generation of nuclear power, a hydrogen-based energy storage utilization infrastructure, and an efficient energy distribution network that is greatly enhanced by breakthroughs in nano-designed materials, computation, and other relevant fields of science. Having completed key experiments, the promise of fusion power — lean, almost limitless energy — is closer than ever. We see a world where our science provides enduring solutions to the environmental challenges posed by growing world populations and energy use. New, cost-effective approaches, some based on the use of engineered microbes, enable us to tackle some of our most intractable cleanup problems. On a global scale, we have a clearer picture of the complex process of climate change, and we have solutions in hand made possible through the biological and environmental sciences, and in particular, through genomics. Through 2023, our science will sustain critical growth and strength in the U.S. economy. During this period, entirely new industries will be created, and virtually all industries will benefit through the enormously broad reach of breakthroughs in energy and the physical sciences. Our mastery of catalysis, nano-assembly, self-replicating, and complex systems will not only increase our industrial efficiency, but it will create entirely new opportunities for harnessing the power of our material world. Science fiction will give way to science fact as medical miracles unfold and a new set of promises arises to fill the void. DOE will continue to capitalize on its strengths at the nexus of the physical and life sciences, delivering the nanoscience, biology, precision engineering, and advanced computation that will “close the deal” in these developments and secure our valued contributing role in medical science. Restoring sight to the blind with microassembled retinal implants will start the journey, with the next stop, hope for those with spinal cord injuries. As the future unfolds, not only do our citizens enjoy an improved quality of life, but they are more secure. Our Nation is more secure. DOE science will have provided the science behind innovations in monitors, sensors, computational analysis, structures, materials, and countless areas that help to provide early threat detection and protect those that we serve. In the not-too-distant future, our universe will seem more familiar to us, and the mysterious properties of matter and energy less complex. Our pursuit of answers to some of the most persistent questions of science will have revealed important secrets and assured U.S. intellectual leadership in key areas of science and mathematics. At the end of the day, we envision a future where our discoveries have resulted in improved benefits to mankind,whether it was to light the night, heat a home, transport food, cure an illness, or to see and understand the beginning of time itself.To deliver the remarkable discoveries and scientific tools that transform our understanding of energy and matter and advance the national, economic, and energy security of the United States1Advance the Basic Sciences for Energy IndependenceProvide the scientific knowledge and tools to achieve energy independence, securing U.S. leadership and essential breakthroughs in basic energy sciences.1.1Core DisciplinesAdvance the core disciplines of the basic energy sciences, producing transformational breakthroughs in materials sciences, chemistry, geosciences, energy biosciences, and engineering.The Office of Science will advance leading-edge research programs in the natural sciences, emphasizing fundamental research in materials sciences, chemistry, geosciences, and aspects of biosciences encompassed by the DOE missions, and it will provide world-class, peer-reviewed research results that are responsive to our Nation’s energy security needs as well as the needs of the broad scientific community. As part of a thorough program of fundamental research, the Office of Science will implement a comprehensive plan based on the findings and recommendations of the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee workshop, Basic Research Needs to Assure a Secure Energy Future. For example, new materials will be developed that impact solid-state lighting, smart windows, vehicular transportation, thermoelectric conversion, hydrogen storage, electrical storage, and improved fuel cells, leading to significant increases in efficiency. In addition, new catalysts will be designed that exert exquisite control over chemical reactions so as to specify the reaction products and the rates at which they form. The ability to simulate accurately the behavior of a system under many different conditions can enhance the effectiveness of experimental investigation and can even replace experiments in cases where they are too difficult or too expensive. There are a large number of areas of research in the natural sciences where simulation could have an enormous impact. Our ability to simulate has lagged behind what we can see experimentally, mostly due to major bottlenecks in the application of theory and computation in modeling the behavior of single atoms and molecules within a larger, more complex system. To help realize this strategy, the synchrotron radiation light sources, electron-beam microcharacterization centers, and neutron scattering facilities will help reveal the atomic details of metals and alloys; glasses and ceramics; semiconductors and superconductors; polymers and biomaterials; proteins and enzymes; catalysts, sieves, and filters; and materials under extremes of temperature, pressure, strain, and stress. Using these powerful probes of science, we will be able to design new materials, atom-by-atom, and observe their creation as they unfold. Once the province of specialists, mostly physicists, these facilities are now used by thousands of researchers annually from all disciplines. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Using the foundation of programs in materials sciences, chemistry, geosciences, energy biosciences, and engineering, create new options for the production, storage, distribution, and conservation of energy with basic research in areas such as hydrogen, nano-designed materials, nuclear fuel cycles and actinide chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, novel membrane assemblies, and innovative energy conversion pathways. • Remove simulation bottlenecks in order to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery, for example, bridge electronic-throughmacroscopic length and time scales; simulate opto-magnetoelectronic properties of materials; understand chemical reactivity in solutions, solids, and turbulent flows; and explore a systems approach to molecular recognition, self-assembly, and chemical reactivity. • Complete construction of the Spallation Neutron Source, which will be the world’s most intense pulsed neutron source, and which will enable the study of materials that were previously not accessible to study. It is scheduled for commissioning in 2006. • Design and construct the revolutionary x-ray light source called the LCLS to provide laser-like radiation in the x-ray region of the spectrum that is 10 billion times greater in peak power and peak brightness than any existing source. The high brilliance of the ultra-short pulses from the LCLS might make it possible to obtain the structure of a single molecule using only one pulse of light, a vast improvement over current methods. • Explore new concepts in electron microscopy that will allow previously unimaginable studies of materials structure, chemistry, and the effect of external forces on materials during deposition, reaction, and deformation at the subnanometer level.1.2Nanoscale ScienceLead the nanoscale science revolution, delivering the foundations and discoveries for a future built around controlled chemical processes and materials designed one atom at a time or through self-assembly.The main elements of the Office of Science nanoscale research program are the establishment of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs) and the support for nanoscale research in targeted areas addressing forefront science and DOE mission needs. The NSRCs are a new way of doing business for the dispersed cottage industry of researchers currently working on the ORNL Spallation Neutron Source (SNS): This accelerator-based neutron source facility will provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. Neutron research helps scientists and engineers improve materials used in high-temperature superconductors; powerful lightweight magnets; aluminum bridge decks; and stronger, lighter plastic products. The SNS is currently being built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, and will be completed in 2006. enormous set of problems that together define “nanoscale science.” The ability to fabricate complex structures using chemical, biological, and other synthesis techniques; characterize them; assemble them; integrate them into devices; and do all this in one place will change the way materials research is done. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Attain a fundamental understanding of phenomena unique to the nanoscale. • Achieve the ability to design and synthesize materials at the nanoscale to produce materials with desired properties and functions, using as necessary the tricks and tools of Nature’s assemblies, both living and nonliving. • Integrate nanoscale objects into microscale assemblies and macroscale devices. • Develop experimental characterization tools and theory/modeling/ simulation tools to advance nanoscale science.1.3Energy-Relevant SystemsMaster the control of energy-relevant complex systems that exhibit collective, cooperative, and/or adaptive behaviors, i.e., systems that cannot be described as the sum of their parts.Entering this century, we find science and technology at yet another threshold: the study of simplicity will give way to the study of “complexity” as the unifying theme. The triumphs of science in the past century, which improved our lives immeasurably, can be described as elegant solutions to problems reduced to their ultimate simplicity. The new millennium is taking us into the world of complexity. Here, simple structures interact to create new phenomena, assembling themselves into devices that begin to answer questions that were, until the 21st Century, the stuff of science fiction. Understanding collective, cooperative, and adaptive phenomena and emergent behavior takes many forms. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Understand interactions among individual components that lead to coherent behavior that often can be described only at higher levels than those of the individual units. This can produce remarkably complex and yet organized behavior. • Explore electrons interacting with each other and with the host lattice in solids that can give rise to magnetism and superconductivity. • Investigate chemical constituents interacting in solution that can give rise to complex pattern formation and growth. • Research and learn to synthesize and adapt the processes that underlie living systems, whereby they self-assemble their own components, self-repair as necessary, and reproduce; explore how they sense and respond to even subtle changes in their environments.Executive Summary: Much of our progress to reduce the energy intensity of our economy has come from advances in chemistry and materials science. We will build on this progress as we begin to design and assemble structures at the molecular level, learn to precisely predict and control chemical reactivity, and understand the behavior of complex systems. We will deliver new science that improves the reliability of our electric grid, makes our transportation system cleaner and more efficient, and enables new generation technologies, from fuel cells to hydrogen power. Detailed Commentary: The growth of our economy over the past halfcentury has derived in substantial part from steady improvements in our energy technologies. In each subsequent decade, we have produced more goods and services with a given amount of energy, and we have produced that energy more efficiently and with less environmental impact. Much of this progress has come from advances in the materials and chemical sciences such as new magnetic materials; high strength, lightweight alloys and composites; novel electronic materials; and new catalysts, with a host of energy technology applications. We are now in the early stages of two remarkable explorations—observing and manipulating matter at the molecular scale and understanding the behavior of large assemblies of interacting components. Scientific discoveries in these two frontiers alone will accelerate our progress toward more efficient, affordable, and cleaner energy technologies. They pose some of the most fascinating and far-reaching scientific challenges of our time: • What new, useful properties do materials display as we move from the classical or macroscopic world to objects composed of a few to a few thousands of atoms or molecules? • What range of optical, mechanical, catalytic, electrical, tribological, and other properties can be achieved by designing devices and materials at the molecular scale? • How can we efficiently assemble molecular-scale structures? How do living organisms construct complex assemblies, and can we apply these approaches to engineer useful devices and materials? • How can we control chemical reactivity—the making and breaking of chemical bonds—to produce energy and desired materials while eliminating unwanted byproducts? Our Timeline and Indicators of Success: Our commitment to the future, and to the realization of Goal 1: Advance the Basic Sciences for Energy Independence, is not only reflected in our strategies, but also in our Key Indicators of Success, below, and our Strategic Timeline for Basic Energy Sciences (BES), at the end of this chapter. Our BES Strategic Timeline charts a collection of important, illustrative milestones, representing planned progress within each strategy. These milestones, while subject to the rapid pace of change and uncertainties that belie all science programs, reflect our latest perspectives on the future— what we hope to accomplish and when we hope to accomplish it— over the next 20 years and beyond. Following the science milestones, toward the bottom of the timeline, we have identified the required major new facilities. These facilities, described in greater detail in the DOE Office of Science companion report, Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, reflect time-sequencing that is based on the general priority of the facility, as well as critical-path relationships to research and corresponding science milestones. Additionally, the Office of Science has identified Key Indicators of Success, designed to gauge our overall progress toward achieving Goal 1. These select indicators, identified below, are representative long-term measures against which progress can be evaluated over time. The specific features and parameters of these indicators, as well as definitions of success, can be found on the web at www.science.doe.gov/ measures. Key Indicators of Success: • Progress in designing, modeling, fabricating, characterizing, analyzing, assembling, and using a variety of new materials and structures, including metals, alloys, ceramics, polymers, biomaterials, and more— particularly at the nanoscale— for energy-related applications. • Progress in understanding, modeling, and controlling chemical reactivity and energy transfer processes in the gas phase, in solutions, at interfaces, and on surfaces for energy-related applications, employing lessons from inorganic, organic, selfassembling, and biological systems. • Progress in developing new concepts and improving existing methods for solar energy conversion and other major energy research needs identified in the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee workshop report, Basic Research Needs to Assure a Secure Energy Future. • Progress in conceiving, designing, fabricating, and using new instruments to characterize and ultimately control materials.2Harness the Power of Our Living WorldProvide the biological and environmental discoveries necessary to clean and protect our environment, offer new energy alternatives, and fundamentally alter the future of medical care and human health.2.1Genomics and Microbial SystemsTap the power of genomics and microbial systems for solutions to our Nation’s energy and environmental challenges.After launching the Human Genome Project in the 1980s, the Office of Science was part of an international collaboration that recently finished sequencing the entire human genome. Yet, we have only begun to understand how complex biological systems work— going from single genes to genetic networks to complex biological functions and characteristics, whether in humans or single-celled microbes. We continue to push the frontiers of biology, including the complex systems interactions, by studying microbes that can be used to help us solve DOE mission needs. Microbes have been found in every conceivable environment on Earth, from boiling deep-ocean thermal vents to Arctic ice flows to toxic environments. The remarkable ability of microbes to flourish in extreme conditions demonstrates that they long ago developed systems for novel energy conversion and environmental cleanup. Our challenge is to put those microbes—and their systems of molecular machines that allow them to survive—to work for us. Nature has designed remarkable arrays of multiprotein molecular machines with exquisitely precise and efficient functions and controls. With the help of the DOE Joint Genome Institute, and the future Genomics: GTL facilities, we will uncover the mysteries of biological systems that will enable our Nation’s scientists to harness the power of genomics and microbial systems. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Decode and compare the genetic instructions of diverse microorganisms by unraveling their DNA sequences to reveal their capabilities for energy production, carbon sequestration, and environmental cleanup. • Discover the molecular machines encoded in each microbe’s genetic instructions, determining what molecular machines are present, what proteins they are made of, where they are found in cells, and how they do their work. • Produce computational models of molecular machines in action to understand the fundamental principles controlling the function of molecular machines and thus biological systems, providing us with knowledge to use or even redesign these machines. • Examine genetic regulatory networks to understand the genetic circuitry in a cell that controls the molecular machines. • Explore the biochemical capabilities of complex microbial communities to fully utilize the potential found in natural microbial communities. • Develop predictive models of complete microbial communities to anticipate how they will behave and change in response to various signals from their environment.2.2Climate ChangeUnravel the mysteries of Earth’s changing climate and protect our living planet.We are making progress in measuring and modeling changes in climate. This is no simple matter given the complex interactions of air, land, and ocean processes that affect climate. Despite our progress, we still cannot definitively distinguish between natural and human-caused climate changes, we do not fully understand the effects and roles of clouds and aerosols on climate, and we have limited ability to predict regional effects. More importantly, we have only begun to explore ways to mitigate and/or adapt to these effects. Ultimately, we need to be able to understand the factors that determine Earth’s climate well enough to predict climate and climate impacts decades, or even centuries, in the future. We are developing the novel research tools, models, and integrated experiments and computational science to find the answers. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Determine the effects of clouds and aerosols on climate, in particular their interactions with long-wave radiation, how and where clouds form and dissipate in the atmosphere, and how changes in clouds and aerosol distributions alter the Earth’s radiation balance. • Predict future climate at regional scales, advancing mathematics and computation to simulate the dynamics, chemistry, and biology of the Earth system on decade to century time scales. • Distinguish natural and humancaused climate change based on improved climate models that more accurately reflect changes in radiative forcing due to increases in greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere. • Understand and enhance Nature’s processes for sequestering atmospheric carbon from fossil fuel use, including the capacity of terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems and opportunities to capitalize on the biophysical and biochemical mechanisms that control uptake in plants, soils, and ocean plankton. • Determine how ecosystems respond to environmental change, developing a theoretical and empirical basis spanning molecular interactions to whole ecosystems. • Predict and assess the effects of climate change based on models of human actions and costs and benefits of alternatives for mitigation and adaptation.2.3Environmental RemediationUnderstand the complex physical, chemical, and biological properties of contaminated sites for new solutions to environmental remediation.As a legacy of DOE’s nuclear security mission over the last half century and extending through the Cold War, large tracts of land surrounding DOE weapons production and other sites became contaminated. The magnitude of some of these problems is enormous, and many cannot be addressed using current technology. Despite progress on many fronts, efficient, effective, and affordable solutions to environmental contamination continue to elude us, whether the contaminants are radionuclides, toxic metals, or organic compounds. There is much we need to learn. How do contaminants interact with minerals, plant materials, and microbes in soils? How do they move to the groundwater or other locations where they can adversely affect human health? This poor understanding of how contaminants behave in Nature restricts the development of costeffective cleanup strategies and, in some cases, our ability even to recognize problems. Our challenge is to understand natural cleanup methods, put them to work, and improve cleanup decisions in the future. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Predict the fate and transport of contaminants with improved tools and understanding of interdependent biological, chemical, and physical processes. • Take laboratory experiments and theory to the field, testing our theoretical predictions and models of the complex natural environment over considerable distances and time scales. • Provide the next generation of computational and experimental capabilities for detailed understanding of contaminant behavior, including synchrotron light sources and the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. • Use Nature’s own tool kit and rely on new understanding of the biology of microbes and microbial communities, geochemistry, plants and ecosystems, biomimetic agents, and nanomachines to explore innovative options for cleaning up the environment. • Develop a basic understanding of complex chemical behavior of stored radioactive wastes to enable the discovery of novel separations and other treatment methods that can dramatically reduce the costs and risks of radioactive waste treatment and disposal.2.4Health and Medical ApplicationsMaster the convergence of the physical and the life sciences to deliver revolutionary technologies for health and medical applications.The Office of Science has been at the center of medical technology innovations, with a focus on energy’s impact on human health and the powerful imaging and radioisotope tools that have been the foundation of nuclear medicine. The future of technology development appears even brighter with the availability of micro- and nano-structured materials and the emerging capability to actually “see” genes and networks of genes in action in living tissues. This makes possible the ability to track the progression of disease as it unfolds at the genetic level. Also, new radiotracers and imaging concepts will explore both normal and abnormal health, from the development of cancer to brain function. On a larger physical scale, medical imaging may be possible for patients in motion, such as infants. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Restore sight to the blind using the microelectronics, material science technologies, and specialized expertise of the national laboratories to design and fabricate an implantable artificial retina. • Enable medical imaging of moving patients with modified PET and MRI technology, capitalizing on advances in mathematics, computation, and detectors from high-energy physics to compensate for motion. • Develop highly selective, ultrasensitive biosensors based on the national laboratories’ expertise in miniaturized optical systems and single-molecule detection, for medical, environmental, and national security applications. • Image genes as they are turned on and off in any organ of the body by forming fluorescent or radioisotopic images, giving us new capabilities for the diagnosis of disease. • Develop new radiotracers and molecular tags to image the chemistry of life and disease, built around our capabilities in structural genomics, proteomics, radiochemistry, and more generally, the physical sciences. • Determine the health risks of exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation to adequately and appropriately protect DOE nuclear workers and the general public while making effective use of our national resources.Executive Summary: After two decades of research leadership in genomics, we can now search for molecular-level insights into cellular function, beginning with the characterization of multiprotein complexes. With that knowledge, we will employ the extraordinary efficiency of microbes to meet human needs and develop new approaches to medical care. In addition, through a systems-level understanding of our Earth’s climate system, carbon cycle, and biogeochemistry, we will enable regional scale prediction of climate change and the design of mitigation and adaptation measures. Detailed Commentary: Over billions of years of evolution, Nature has created life’s machinery—from molecules, microbes, and complex organisms to the biosphere—all displaying remarkable capacities for efficiently capturing energy and controlling precise chemical reactions. The natural, adaptive processes of these systems offer important clues to designing solutions to some of our greatest challenges. In the next decade, science will reveal the mechanisms and genetic secrets by which microorganisms develop, survive, and function in different environments. We will be able to manipulate matter at the micro, nano, and molecular scales; and we will be able to model and predict biological and environmental interactions on a regional and global basis. Such capabilities will provide us unprecedented opportunities to forge new pathways to energy production, environmental management, and medical diagnosis and treatment. To realize this vision, many challenging scientific questions will have to be answered: • What are the fundamental genetic processes, structures, and mechanisms that living systems use to control their responses to their environment, and how can we predict and repeat those processes to put Nature to work for us? • How do we design new and revolutionary technologies and processes, using and combining principles of biological and physical systems that offer new solutions for challenges from medicine to environmental cleanup? • How do clouds influence climate change, and how does human activity affect the behavior of clouds? How sensitive is climate to different levels of greenhouse gases and aerosols in the environment? Answers to these and other questions will come only through effective convergence of the physical, life, and computational sciences. We have the track record and infrastructure to conduct the large-scale, complex, and interdisciplinary research to meet the challenge. Already, the Office of Science has delivered genome sequencing, protein crystallography, advanced tools for understanding the environment at the molecular level, integrated climate modeling, and advanced imaging tools. With anticipated new facilities, such as those for Genomics: GTL, as well as high-performance computational platforms and cutting-edge measurement tools, we are prepared to harness the power of our living world for a secure, environmentally sound, and energy-rich future. As an integral part of this Strategic Plan, and in Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, we have identified the need for four future facilities to realize our Biological and Environmental Research vision and to meet the science challenges described in the following pages. Two of the facilities are nearterm priorities: the Protein Production and Tags facility and the Characterization and Imaging of Molecular Machines facility. The Protein Production and Tags facility will use highly automated processes to mass produce and characterize tens of thousands of proteins per year, create “tags” to identify these proteins, and make these products available to researchers nationwide. The facility for Characterization and Imaging of Molecular Machines will build on capabilities provided by the Protein Production and Tags facility to provide researchers with the ability to isolate, characterize, and create images of the thousands of molecular machines that perform the essential functions inside a cell. All four facilities are included in our Biological and Environmental Research Strategic Timeline at the end of the chapter and in the facilities chart in Chapter 7 (page 93), and they are discussed in detail in the Twenty-Year Outlook. Our Timeline and Indicators of Success: Our commitment to the future, and to the realization of Goal 2: Harness the Power of O ur Living World, is not only reflected in our strategies, but also in our Key Indicators of Success, below, and our Strategic Timeline for Biological and Environmental Research (BER), at the end of this chapter. Our BER Strategic Timeline charts a collection of important, illustrative milestones, representing planned progress within each strategy. These milestones, while subject to the rapid pace of change and uncertainties that belie all science programs, reflect our latest perspectives on the future— what we hope to accomplish and when we hope to accomplish it— over the next 20 years and beyond. Following the science milestones, toward the bottom of the timeline, we have identified the required major new facilities. These facilities, described in greater detail in the DOE Office of Science companion report, Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, reflect time-sequencing that is based on the general priority of the facility, as well as critical-path relationships to research and corresponding science milestones. Additionally, the Office of Science has identified Key Indicators of Success, designed to gauge our overall progress toward achieving Goal 2. These select indicators, identified below, are representative long-term measures against which progress can be evaluated over time. The specific features and parameters of these indicators, as well as definitions of success, can be found on the web at www.science.doe.gov/ measures. Key Indicators of Success: • Progress in characterizing the multi-protein complexes (or the lack thereof ) that involve a scientifically significant fraction of a microbe’s proteins. Develop computational models to direct the use and design of microbial communities to clean up waste, sequester carbon, or produce hydrogen. • Progress in delivering improved climate data and models for policymakers to determine safe levels of greenhouse gases. By 2013, reduce differences between observed temperature and model simulations at subcontinental scales using several decades of recent data. • Progress in developing science-based solutions for cleanup and long-term monitoring of DOE contaminated sites. By 2013, a significant fraction of DOE’s long-term stewardship sites will employ advanced biology-based cleanup solutions and sciencebased monitors.3Bring the Power of the Stars to EarthAnswer the key scientific questions and overcome enormous technical challenges to harness the power that fuels a star, realizing by the middle of this century a landmark scientific achievement by bringing fusion power to the U.S. electrical grid.3.1Fusion EnergyDemonstrate with burning plasmas the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy.Our goal is to demonstrate a sustained, self-heated fusion plasma, in which the plasma is maintained at fusion temperatures by the heat generated by the fusion reaction itself, a critical step to practical fusion power. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • As decided by the President, we will participate in negotiations that could lead to participation in the international magnetic fusion experiment, ITER project, with the European Union, Japan, Russia, China, South Korea, and perhaps others, as partners. • For inertial fusion, we depend on DOE’s National Nuclear Safety Administration’s (NNSA’s) National Ignition Facility, which is expected to achieve its full energy within five years, demonstrate target ignition in about a decade, and, combined with other experiments, lead to a future inertial fusion Engineering Test Facility.3.2Plasma BehaviorDevelop a fundamental understanding of plasma behavior sufficient to provide a reliable predictive capability for fusion energy systems.Basic research is required in turbulence and transport, nonlinear behavior and overall stability of confined plasmas, interactions of waves and particles in plasmas, the physics occurring at the wall-plasma interface, and the physics of intense ion beam plasmas. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Conduct basic research through individual-investigator and research-team experimental, computational, and theoretical investigations. • Launch a major effort to advance state-of-the-art computational modeling and simulation of plasma behavior in partnership with the Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program. • Support basic plasma science, partly with the National Science Foundation, connecting both experiments and theory with related disciplines such as astrophysics.3.3Practical Fusion Energy SystemsDetermine the most promising approaches and configurations to confining hot plasmas for practical fusion energy systems.Both magnetic and inertial confinement approaches to fusion have potential for practical fusion-energy producing systems. Within each of these two broad approaches, there are many possible configurations and designs for practical fusion systems, almost certainly including some yet to be conceived. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • In line with the recommendations of the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Council, we will continue vigorous investigation of both magnetic and inertial confinement approaches. • Innovative magnetic confinement configurations will be explored through experiments, such as the National Spherical Torus Experiment at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and a planned compact stellarator experiment, as well as smaller experiments at multiple sites, and through advanced simulation and modeling. • Heavy ion beams, dense plasma beams, lasers, or other innovative approaches (e.g., fast ignition) to produce high-energy density plasmas will be explored for potential applications to inertial fusion energy. • Research in high-energy density physics will be supported in coordination with other Federal agencies. • The NNSA’s National Ignition Facility, along with other experiments and simulations in the U.S., will provide definitive data on inertial fusion target physics.3.4New Materials, Components, and TechnologiesDevelop the new materials, components, and technologies necessary to make fusion energy a reality.The environment created in a fusion reactor poses great challenges to materials and components. Materials must be able to withstand high fluxes of hot neutrons and endure high temperatures and high thermal gradients, with minimal degradation. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Design materials at the molecular scale to create novel materials that posses the necessary highperformance properties, leveraging investments through our Fusion Energy Sciences program with the materials research of our Basic Energy Sciences program. • Create additional facilities, as may be needed, as a follow-on to the ITER project, for testing materials and components for high duty-factor operation in a fusion power plant environment. • Explore “liquid first-wall” materials to ameliorate firstwall requirements for both inertial fusion energy (IFE) and advanced magnetic fusion energy (MFE) concepts.Executive Summary: We believe fusion will become a practical energy technology within three to four decades, through either magnetic confinement of plasmas or one of several inertial approaches. Over the next decade, we will resolve critical scientific uncertainties and select the most promising technical approach, including participating in an international burning plasma experiment called ITER. Detailed Commentary: When fusion power becomes a commercial reality, current national concerns over imported oil, rising gasoline prices, smokestack pollution, and other problems associated with our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels will largely disappear. We will have achieved energy independence. Fusion power plants will provide economical and abundant energy without greenhouse gas emissions, while creating manageable waste and little risk to public safety and health. Making fusion energy a part of our national energy solution is among the most ambitious scientific and engineering challenges of our era. The following are some of the major scientific questions we will answer: • Can we successfully control a burning plasma that shares the characteristic intensity and power of the sun? • How can we use nanoscale science to construct radically new materials that will withstand the temperatures and forces needed for commercial fusion power? • To what extent can we use scientific simulation to model the behavior of the fusion fuel that is found at the center of the sun—or in the confines of a functioning commercial prototype? Our ultimate success in answering these questions requires that we understand and control remarkably complex and dynamic phenomena occurring across a broad range of temporal and spatial scales. We must also develop materials, components, and systems that can withstand temperatures exceeding those that are typical of a star. The experiments required for a commercially viable fusion power technology constitute a complex scientific and engineering enterprise that must be sustained over several decades. We can now define the specific challenges that must be overcome, see promising approaches to addressing those challenges, and confidently anticipate the availability of even more powerful computational and experimental measurement capabilities. As an integral part of this Strategic Plan, and in Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, we have identified the need for four future facilities to realize our Fusion Energy Sciences vision and to meet the science challenges described in the following pages. One of the facilities, ITER, is a near-term priority. ITER is an international collaboration to build the first fusion science experiment capable of producing a self-sustaining fusion reaction, called a “burning plasma.” It is the next essential and critical step on the path toward demonstrating the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. All four facilities are included in our Fusion Energy Sciences Strategic Timeline at the end of this chapter and in the facilities chart in Chapter 7 (page 93), and they are discussed in detail in the Twenty-Year Outlook. Our Strategies: Given the substantial scientific and technological uncertainties that we know exist, we will employ a portfolio strategy that explores a variety of magnetic and inertial confinement approaches and leads to the most promising commercial fusion concept. Advanced computational modeling will be central to guiding and designing experiments that cannot be readily investigated in the laboratory, such as testing the agreement between theory and experiment and exploring innovative designs for fusion plants. To ensure the highest possible scientific return on limited resources, we will extensively engage with and leverage other DOE programs and the investments of other agencies in such areas as materials science, ion beam physics, and laser physics. Large-scale experimental facilities will be necessary to test approaches for self-heated (burning) fusion plasmas, for inertial fusion experiments, and for testing materials and components under extreme conditions. Where appropriate, the rewards, risks, and costs of major facilities will be shared through international collaborations. The overall Fusion Energy Sciences effort will be organized around a set of four broad goals. Our Timeline and Indicators of Success: Our commitment to the future, and to the realization of Goal 3: Bring the Power of the S tars to Earth, is not only reflected in our strategies, but also in our Key Indicators of Success, below, and our Strategic Timeline for Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) at the end of this chapter. Our FES Strategic Timeline charts a collection of important, illustrative milestones, representing planned progress within each strategy. These milestones, while subject to the rapid pace of change and uncertainties that belie all science programs, reflect our latest perspectives on the future— what we hope to accomplish and when we hope to accomplish it— over the next 20 years and beyond. Following the science milestones, toward the bottom of the timeline, we have identified the required major new facilities. These facilities, described in greater detail in the DOE Office of Science companion report, Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, reflect time-sequencing that is based on the general priority of the facility, as well as critical-path relationships to research and corresponding science milestones. Additionally, the Office of Science has identified Key Indicators of Success, designed to gauge our overall progress toward achieving Goal 3. These select indicators, identified below, are representative long-term measures against which progress can be evaluated over time. The specific features and parameters of these indicators, as well as definitions of success, can be found on the web at www.science.doe.gov/ measures. Key Indicators of Success: • Progress in developing a predictive capability for key aspects of burning plasmas, using advances in theory and simulation benchmarked against a comprehensive experimental database of stability, transport, waveparticle interaction, and edge effects. • Progress in demonstrating enhanced fundamental understanding of magnetic confinement and in improving the basis for future burning plasma experiments through research on magnetic confinement configuration optimization. • Progress in developing the fundamental understanding and predictability of high energy density plasma physics, including potential energy producing applications.4Explore the Fundamental Interactions of Energy, Matter, Time, and SpaceUnderstand the unification of fundamental particles and forces and the mysterious forms of unseen energy and matter that dominate the universe, search for possible new dimensions of space, and investigate the nature of time itself.4.1Unification PhenomenaExplore unification phenomena.Unification is simplicity at the heart of matter and energy. The complex patterns of particles and forces we see today emerged from a much more symmetric universe at the extremely high energies of its first moments. Indications of this simpler world must occur at energies just beyond the reach of current accelerators. A principal strategy is to find out how our complex patterns merge into a unified picture at higher energies. The Standard Model of particles and forces asserts that all matter is made of elementary particles called fermions. These are of two types: quarks and leptons, each of which comes in six “flavors.” Four fundamental interactions are known: strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational, which vary substantially in strength and range. The first three interactions are carried by another class of particles called gauge bosons. No quantum theory of gravity has been established and gravity is not included in the Standard Model. At energies above one trillion electron volts (1 TeV), the electromagnetic and weak interactions are unified into the electroweak interaction, and two of its bosons are massless. At about 1 TeV, this electroweak symmetry is broken and the bosons acquire mass. The Standard Model attributes this to a new field called the Higgs, but the Higgs boson has not yet been observed. Three of the leptons are neutrinos, which feel only the weak interaction, were thought to be massless, and barely interact with matter. Recent experiments have shown that a neutrino produced in one flavor oscillates among all three flavors as it travels. This can only happen if neutrinos do have mass, which has important consequences for the Standard Model and for the universe. The Standard Model explains many observations at the energies our particle accelerators can reach today, but is known to have problems at higher energies. The theory requires 18 arbitrary and independent parameters whose values are unexplained. It is clear that the Standard Model must be substantially extended. Physicists are striving to develop a quantum field theory for gravity, using “string theories,” which explain particles as vibration modes of a tiny string-like bit of energy. String theories involve supersymmetry, a deep connection between fermions and bosons at high energies. Supersymmetry predicts that every known fermion has a boson partner and vice versa. Some of these partners must have masses low enough to be created at the TeV energy scale. Thus, our highest energy accelerators should be able to test supersymmetry by searching for the lightest supersymmetric particles. All string theories require several extra spatial dimensions beyond the three we now observe. These may be detected at accelerators by giving particles enough energy that they feel the effects of extra dimensions. A direct discovery of extra dimensions would be an epochal event. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Use the Tevatron protonantiproton collider at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to make detailed studies of the top quark discovered there in 1995. • Search for evidence of unification at the Tevatron, such as the Higgs boson, supersymmetric particles, and extra dimensions. • Use the B-Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center to improve our knowledge of the weak interactions of quarks. • Study neutrino oscillation and double beta decay to learn more about lepton flavor mixing and neutrino masses. • Develop a string theory that explains the observed particles and includes a quantum theory of gravity. • Continue our collaboration with the CERN laboratory in Switzerland to complete construction of the Large Hadron Collider there and then use it to study unification. When it begins operations in 2007, this proton-proton collider will extend the energy frontier well beyond the reach of the Tevatron. • Participate in the development of an international linear electron-positron collider for research at the TeV energy scale. Such a facility has been recommended by HEPAP and by expert panels in Asia and Europe as an essential tool for exploring unification. • Pursue advanced accelerator development aimed at finding better ways to accelerate particles, with the promise of increasing their energies beyond one TeV.4.2The CosmosUnderstand the cosmos.The universe began in an extremely hot, dense condition and has undergone a tremendous expansion, greatly reducing its energy density. The early universe can be described by a unified picture of particles and forces. As it expanded and cooled, however, this simpler universe “froze out” into the complexity we see today. In 1998, we learned that the expansion of the universe is now accelerating rather than decelerating. This means that some unknown source is producing an antigravity force stronger than gravity. This mysterious dark energy now composes 73% of the total matter and energy content of the universe. The second largest fraction, 23%, is called dark matter and it has not been identified either. Ordinary matter, including all the stars and galaxies, amounts to around 4%. Since the science of the very large and the very small are intertwined, we will develop joint research programs with NASA and other partners to combine high energy physics research with related programs in astrophysics and cosmology. Identify dark energy. Explaining the dark energy that is pulling the universe apart is crucial for understanding its evolution. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Work in partnership with NASA to observe distant supernovae using a dedicated telescope in earth orbit. The JDEM will precisely measure the emission of light from supernovae located at a wide range of distances, providing a history of accelerating and decelerating periods in the life of the universe. • Develop a theoretical understanding of dark energy. Our best attempts to calculate the vacuum energy density give results that are much too large. Identify dark matter. The nature of dark matter has not yet been determined, but we suspect that it consists of weakly interacting massive particles. A prime candidate is the lowest mass supersymmetric particle, left as a remnant of a very early stage of the universe. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Search for weakly interacting massive particles in cosmic rays. • Search for supersymmetric particles produced in accelerator experiments. • Study the large-scale structure of the universe and infer the distribution of dark matter. Explain the matter/antimatter puzzle. There appears to be no antimatter in the universe now, although equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created in the early universe. This is one of the great mysteries of physics. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Use the SLAC B-Factory to provide sensitive measurements of a minute asymmetry in the weak interactions of quarks that may help explain the absence of antimatter. • Conduct an experiment on the International Space Station to search for antimatter in cosmic rays. Study the cosmic role of neutrinos. Neutrinos permeate the universe and hardly interact with matter, yet play a key role in the explosion of stars. The recent discovery of neutrino mass has important consequences for these supernovae. Our strategic emphases in this section overlap with those listed in section 4.1, for exploring unification phenomena: • Study neutrino masses and mixing in much more detail using new accelerator beams and detectors. • Search for neutrino-less double beta decay to provide an absolute scale of neutrino masses. Investigate high energy astrophysics. High energy physics research can help solve important problems in astrophysics—the origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays, corecollapse supernovae and the associated neutrino physics, and galactic and extragalactic gamma-ray sources. Our strategy includes the following emphasis: • Develop detectors on the ground and in space that will be used to study high-energy cosmic rays and gamma rays.Executive Summary: With next-generation accelerators, we will test and extend our views of the most basic constituents of matter, and perhaps see the validation of a grand unifying theory of the fundamental forces that govern our world — the goal of particle physics for decades. On the cosmological scale, we hope to reveal the nature and behavior of the enigmatic dark matter and dark energy that we believe account for the bulk of the mass of our universe, and that are responsible for the very startling recent discovery that the expansion of our universe is accelerating. Detailed Commentary: Led by great physicists like Galileo, Einstein, and Heisenberg, we have learned much about the universe. In the early 20th Century, we learned that it is expanding and that space-time is curved. We discovered the quantum nature of matter, a profound advance with many practical benefits. We learned that all matter is built of just 12 types of particles interacting by four basic forces. Nevertheless, we are continually humbled by what we do not understand. For example, we learned recently that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, not slowing down as we had thought. This astonishing fact is attributed to “dark energy” that accounts for nearly three-quarters of the energy of the universe. Nearly a quarter of the energy is made up of another mysterious substance dubbed “dark matter.” Only around 4% is ordinary matter. These are a few of the basic questions yet to be answered: • How were the patterns of particles and forces we see today unified in the early universe? • What is the nature of dark energy? Of dark matter? Why do they make up most of the universe? • Are there more than four dimensions of space-time? If so, how can we detect them? Answering these questions will reveal much about the creation and fate of our universe. Computing resources that dwarf current capabilities will be unleashed on challenging calculations of subatomic structure, while new accelerators will be needed to investigate unification at high energies. Understanding unification and the cosmos is a challenge, but one that is well suited to the large-scale research teams and international partnerships that we bring together. As an integral part of this Strategic Plan, and in Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, we have identified the need for four future facilities to realize our High Energy Physics vision and to meet the science challenges described in the following pages. Two of the facilities are near-term priorities: the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) and the BTeV. JDEM is a space-based probe, developed in partnership with NASA, designed to help understand the recently discovered mysterious “dark energy,” which makes up nearly three quarters of the universe and evidently causes its accelerating expansion. BTeV (“Bparticle physics at the TeVatron”) is an experiment designed to use the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (currently the world’s most powerful accelerator) to make very precise measurements of several aspects of fundamental particle behavior that may help explain why so little antimatter exists in the universe. All four facilities are included in our High Energy Physics Strategic Timeline at the end of the chapter and in the facilities chart in Chapter 7 (page 93), and they are discussed in detail in the Twenty-Year Outlook. Our Strategies: In developing strategies to pursue these exciting opportunities, the Office of Science has been guided by long-range planning reports: The Way to Discovery (2002), High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP); and Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos (2003), National Research Council. Our Timeline and Indicators of Success Our commitment to the future, and to the realization of Goal 4: Explore the Fundamental Interactions of Energy, Matter, Time, and Space, is not only reflected in our strategies, but also in our Key Indicators of Success, below, and our Strategic Timeline for High Energy Physics (HEP), at the end of this chapter. Our HEP Strategic Timeline charts a collection of important, illustrative milestones, representing planned progress within each strategy. These milestones, while subject to the rapid pace of change and uncertainties that belie all science programs, reflect our latest perspectives on the future— what we hope to accomplish and when we hope to accomplish it— over the next 20 years and beyond. Following the science milestones, toward the bottom of the timeline, we have identified the required major new facilities. These facilities, described in greater detail in the DOE Office of Science companion report, Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, reflect time-sequencing that is based on the general priority of the facility, as well as critical-path relationships to research and corresponding science milestones. Additionally, the Office of Science has identified Key Indicators of Success, designed to gauge our overall progress toward achieving Goal 4. These select indicators, identified below, are representative long-term measures against which progress can be evaluated over time. The specific features and parameters of these indicators, as well as definitions of success, can be found on the web at www.science.doe.gov/ measures. Key Indicators of Success: • Progress in measuring the properties and interactions of the heaviest known particle (the top quark) in order to understand its particular role in the Standard Model. • Progress in measuring the matter-antimatter asymmetry in many particle decay modes with high precision. • Progress in discovering or ruling out the Standard Model Higgs particle, thought to be responsible for generating the mass of elementary particles. • Progress in determining the pattern of the neutrino masses and the details of their mixing parameters. • Progress in confirming the existence of new supersymmetric (SUSY) particles, or ruling out the minimal SUSY “Standard Model” of new physics. • Progress in directly discovering or ruling out the existence of new particles that could explain the cosmological “dark matter.”5Explore Nuclear Matter — from Quarks to StarsUnderstand the evolution and structure of nuclear matter, from the smallest building blocks, quarks and gluons; to the elements in the universe created by stars; to unique isotopes created in the laboratory that exist at the limits of stability, possessing radically different properties from known matter.5.1The NucleonUnderstand the structure of the nucleon.Protons and neutrons, collectively called nucleons, are the building blocks of nuclear matter and thus form the heart of every atom in the universe. But nucleons are themselves composed of quarks bound together by gluons, the carriers of the strong force. This strong force is responsible for the structure of nucleons and their composite structures, atomic nuclei, as well as neutron stars. The nucleus is an ideal system to study the strong interaction, which can be described by a strongly coupled quantum field theory called QCD. To understand nucleon structure, we will pursue several approaches. Probe the mechanism of quark confinement inside the nucleon. Although protons and neutrons can be separately observed, their quark and gluon constituents cannot, because they are permanently confined inside the nucleons. While the mechanism of quark confinement is qualitatively explained by QCD, a quantitative understanding remains one of our great intellectual challenges. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Use high-intensity polarized electron beams at the TJNAF to measure properties of the proton, neutron, and simple nuclei for comparison with theoretical calculations to provide an improved quantitative understanding of their quark structure. • Use high-energy polarized proton-proton collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory to determine the proton structure—how the quarks and particularly the gluons, the carriers of the strong force, assemble themselves to give the proton's properties. • Upgrade TJNAF to provide higher-energy electron and photon beams to probe quark confinement and nucleon structure in a regime that will allow a more complete determination of the quark properties. Search for gluon saturation. Recent calculations suggest that, in high-energy collisions, nucleons and nuclei can behave in a completely new way, as if filled or “saturated” with many gluons. These gluons have remarkable properties, analogous both to spin glasses and to the Bose-Einstein condensates studied in condensed matter and atomic physics. This gluonic system may have universal properties, independent of the nucleus in which it resides, whose study could greatly increase our understanding of the quark-gluon structure of matter at high energy. Our strategy includes the following emphasis: • Explore the development of an electron-nucleus collider that would allow the gluon saturation of nuclear matter to be seen.5.2Nucleonic MatterUnderstand the structure of nucleonic matter.Nuclei are the core of atoms and account for almost all the observable matter in the world around us. The naturally occurring stable nuclei are but a small fraction of the nuclei that can possibly exist. Most of the unstable nuclei (those that undergo radioactive decay) cannot be created for study by existing experimental facilities. Investigating these nuclei, and in particular those at the extreme limits of stability, offers a rich opportunity for major scientific discovery. Unbalanced neutron and proton numbers decrease the stability of a nucleus. For example, there is a limit to the number of neutrons that can be added to a nucleus of a given proton number (the nucleus of a given element). A similar stability limit for nuclei is reached if the number of protons is increased relative to a fixed neutron number. Experiments have established which combinations of protons and neutrons can form a nucleus only for the first eight of the more than 100 known elements, but little is known about the limits of stability for the heaviest nuclei. The coming decade in nuclear physics may reveal nuclear phenomena and structure unlike anything known in the stable nuclei making up the world around us. New theoretical tools will be developed to describe nuclear many-body phenomena, with important applications to condensed matter and nuclear astrophysics. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Investigate new regions of nuclear structure and develop the nuclear many-body theory to predict nuclear properties. • Develop a next-generation facility with forefront experimental instrumentation that will use beams of rare isotopes to study nuclei at the very limits of stability. This facility will provide the tools for understanding nuclear structure evolution across the entire landscape of the chart of the nuclides.5.3Quark-Gluon PlasmaSearch for quark-gluon plasma.The quarks and gluons that compose each proton and neutron are normally confined within these nucleons. However, if nuclear matter is heated sufficiently, quarks will become deconfined and individual nucleons will melt into a hot, dense plasma of quarks and gluons. Such plasma is believed to have filled the universe about a millionth of a second after the “Big Bang.” The discovery and characterization of this new state of matter formed at extreme conditions never before available in the laboratory will yield new insight into the early phases of the universe. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Use colliding beams of atomic nuclei at RHIC to explore new states of matter at high-energy density, recreating brief, small samples of quark-gluon plasma and characterizing its properties. • Increase the beam luminosities at RHIC and upgrade the detectors to allow more detailed studies of this primal state of matter. Investigate the emission of particles at high transverse momentum to better understand the behavior of jet transmission through the plasma, using the Large Hadron Collider.5.4Nuclear AstrophysicsInvestigate nuclear astrophysics.Nuclear physics research is essential if we are to solve important problems in astrophysics—the origin of the chemical elements, the behavior of neutron stars, core-collapse supernovae and the associated neutrino physics, and galactic and extragalactic gamma-ray sources. Almost all the chemical elements in the universe were generated by nuclear reactions in stars or in cataclysmic stellar explosions. Given the high temperatures and particle densities in stellar objects and explosions, the relevant nuclear reactions typically occur among radioactive or exotic nuclei. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Using exotic beams of nuclei that have many neutrons, study interactions in nuclear matter like those that occur in neutron stars and those that create the nuclei of most atomic elements inside stars and supernovae. • Develop computer simulations for the behavior of supernovae, including core collapse and explosion, which incorporate the relevant nuclear reaction dynamics. • Develop a unique nextgeneration facility with forefront experimental instrumentation that will provide new species of exotic beams at unprecedented intensities to advance science at the intersection of nuclear physics and astronomy. This facility is similarly described in section 5.2.5.5Standard ModelInvestigate the fundamental symmetries that form the basis of the Standard Model.Neutrinos are produced by nuclear reactions in the sun, in supernovae, and in reactors. Understanding their properties is essential for understanding stellar dynamics and supernova explosions. Studies with neutrinos generated in nuclear reactors are complementary to those produced by high-energy accelerators. Similarly, precise measurements of the weak (radioactive) decay of the neutron are complementary to measurements of weak interaction properties at high energies using particle accelerators. Both could require refinements of the Standard Model. Our strategy includes the following emphasis: • Further investigate neutrino mixing using neutrinos from the sun, cosmic-ray interactions, and nuclear reactors. • Measure the decays of tritium nuclei and search for neutrinoless double beta decay to provide essential information about the absolute scale of neutrino masses. • Using new cold and ultra-cold neutron facilities at the Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center and the Spallation Neutron Source, improve on existing measurements of the decay properties of the neutron and search for the electric dipole moment of the neutron. • Using advanced laser trapping techniques, search for the electric dipole moment of radium-225.Executive Summary: Great strides in our understanding of nuclei and nuclear reactions have led to such profound influences on society as the discovery of fission and fusion and the development of the now vast field of nuclear medicine. With technological advances in accelerators, instrumentation, and computing, we will explore new forms of nuclear structure and matter, and at last unlock the mystery of how protons and neutrons, the basic building blocks of matter, are put together. This knowledge is vital to research in energy and national security, and to understanding the stellar processes that give rise to the known elements in the universe. Detailed Commentary: Nucleons were born in the first minutes after the “Big Bang” and their subsequent synthesis into nuclei goes on in the ever-continuing process of nuclear synthesis in stars and supernovae. Nuclear matter makes up most of the mass of the visible universe. It is the stuff that makes up our planet and its inhabitants. Nuclear matter was once inaccessible for humans to study, but in the first half of the 20th Century, great strides in our understanding of nuclei and nuclear reactions were rapidly made, leading to such profound influences on society as the discovery of fission and fusion and the development of the now vast field of nuclear medicine. Today, understanding nuclear matter and its interactions has become central to research in nuclear physics and important to research in energy, astrophysics, and national security. However, only with the development of the theory of the strong interaction, a strongly coupled quantum field theory called Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), in just the last few decades, has a quantitative basis emerged to describe nuclear matter in terms of its underlying fundamental quark and gluon constituents. We have only recently acquired more sensitive tools to make the measurements and calculations needed to fully explore this quark structure of the nucleon, of simple nuclei, of nuclear matter, and even of the stars, opening an exciting new era in nuclear physics. The field of nuclear physics can be described in terms of five broad questions: • What is the structure of the nucleon? Relating the observed properties of protons, neutrons, and simple nuclei to the underlying fundamental quarks is a central problem of modern physics. • What is the structure of nucleonic matter? A central goal of nuclear physics is to explain the properties of nuclei and nuclear matter. • What are the properties of hot nuclear matter? When nuclear matter is sufficiently heated, QCD predicts that the individual nucleons will lose their identities and the quarks and gluons will become “deconfined” into quark-gluon plasma; nuclear physicists are searching intensely for this new state of matter at high-energy density. • What is the nuclear microphysics of the universe? How the nuclei of the chemical elements we find on earth were formed in stars and supernovae is a puzzle that relates to our very being. • What is to be the new Standard Model (the current theory of elementary particles and forces)? Precision experiments deep underground and at low energies provide essential complementary information to searches for new physics in high-energy accelerator experiments. Answering these questions will reveal important discoveries about how the visible matter of the physical world around us is put together, how the early universe developed from its initial extremely hot and dense state, the dynamics of stars and other cosmic objects, and how the very elements that we are made of came to be. Vast computing resources will be used to perform the challenging calculations of subatomic structure needed to address these questions, while new accelerators will be needed to study rare nuclei and nuclear reactions at high-energy densities. This research will primarily be performed by international research teams that are a hallmark of Office of Science physics, and will provide world leadership in all the major thrusts of nuclear physics. As an integral part of this Strategic Plan, and in Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, we have identified the need for five future facilities to realize our Nuclear Physics vision and to meet the science challenges described in the following pages. Two of the facilities are near-term priorities: the Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) and the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) Upgrade. The RIA will be the world’s most powerful research facility dedicated to producing and exploring rare isotopes that are not found naturally on Earth. The upgrade to the CEBAF at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF) is a cost-effective way to double the energy of the existing beam, and thus provide the capability to study the structure of protons and neutrons in the atom with much greater precision than is currently possible. All five facilities are included in our Nuclear Physics Strategic Timeline at the end of the chapter and in the facilities chart in Chapter 7 (page 93), and they are discussed in detail in the Twenty-Year Outlook. Our Strategies: In developing strategies to pursue these exciting opportunities, the Office of Science has been guided by the long-range planning report, Opportunities in Nuclear Science (2002), prepared by its advisory panel, the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC); and by Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos (2003), a report prepared by the National Research Council Committee on Physics of the Universe. Our Timeline and Indicators of Success: Our commitment to the future, and to the realization of Goal 5: Explore Nuclear Matter—from Quarks to Stars, is not only reflected in our strategies, but also in our Key Indicators of Success, below, and our Strategic Timeline for Nuclear Physics (NP), at the end of this chapter. The NP Strategic Timeline charts a collection of important, illustrative milestones, representing planned progress within each strategy. These milestones, while subject to the rapid pace of change and uncertainties that belie all science programs, reflect our latest perspectives on the future— what we hope to accomplish and when we hope to accomplish it— over the next 20 years and beyond. Following the science milestones, toward the bottom of the timeline, we have identified the required major new facilities. These facilities, described in greater detail in the DOE Office of Science companion report, Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, reflect time-sequencing that is based on the general priority of the facility, as well as critical-path relationships to research and corresponding science milestones. Additionally, the Office of Science has identified Key Indicators of Success, designed to gauge our overall progress toward achieving Goal 5. These select indicators, identified below, are representative long-term measures against which progress can be evaluated over time. The specific features and parameters of these indicators, as well as definitions of success, can be found on the web at www.science.doe.gov/ measures. Key Indicators of Success: • Progress in realizing a quantitative understanding of the quark substructure of the proton, neutron, and simple nuclei by comparison of precision measurements of their fundamental properties with theoretical calculations. • Progress in searching for, and characterizing the properties of, the quark-gluon plasma by recreating brief, tiny samples of hot, dense nuclear matter. • Progress in investigating new regions of nuclear structure, study interactions in nuclear matter like those occurring in neutron stars, and determining the reactions that created the nuclei of atomic elements inside stars and supernovae. • Progress in determining the fundamental properties of neutrinos and fundamental symmetries by using neutrinos from the sun and nuclear reactors and by using radioactive decay measurements.6Deliver Computing for the Frontiers of ScienceDeliver forefront computational and networking capabilities to scientists nationwide that enable them to extend the frontiers of science, answering critical questions that range from the function of living cells to the power of fusion energy.6.1Complex SystemsAdvance scientific discovery through research in the computer science and applied mathematics required to enable prediction and understanding of complex systems.New computational methods are needed to make possible the simulation of the most complex physical and biological systems and to gain efficiency on multiprocessor terascale computers. Effective application of supercomputers requires sophisticated, scalable, operating systems; large-scale data management tools; and other computer science tools. We will support individual investigators and teams to develop new methods and tools, and encourage their transition to advanced computational science applications. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Develop new and improved mathematical methods for addressing the challenges of multi-scale problems. • Create methods and capabilities to address large-scale data management. • Develop and apply middleware tools that enable researchers to focus on science while obtaining effective computational performance.6.2Computers, Collaboratory Software, and Computational ModelsExtend the frontiers of scientific simulation through a new generation of computational models that fully exploit the power of advanced computers and collaboratory software that makes scientific resources available to scientists anywhere, anytime.Scientific discovery in many areas requires computational models that incorporate more complete and realistic descriptions of the phenomena being modeled than are possible today. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Create, in partnerships across the Office of Science, new generations of models for fusion science, biology, nanoscience, physics, chemistry, climate, and related fields that provide highfidelity descriptions of the underlying science. • Incorporate the new models into scientific simulation software that achieves substantially greater performance from terascale supercomputers than we can achieve today. • Build on the successes of the SciDAC program.6.3Supercomputing ArchitecturesBring dramatic advances to scientific computing challenges by supporting the development, evaluation, and application of supercomputing architectures tailored to science.Major improvements in scientific simulation and analysis can be obtained through advances in the design of supercomputer architectures. Most of today’s supercomputers were designed for commercial applications. However, computational science places stringent requirements on supercomputer designs that are often quite different from what arise in commercial applications. To meet the need for effective computing performance in the 100-teraflop range and beyond, we will support the evaluation, installation, and application of new very high-end computing architectures for computational science. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Develop partnerships with U.S. industry in the near term to adapt current and nextgeneration products to more Computing test beds: Advanced Computing Research test beds evaluate new computing hardware and software, such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s IBM Power4 Cheetah (pictured left) and Cray Xl, and Argonne National Laboratory’s IBM/Intel/ Cluster. ORNL fully meet the needs of visionary computational science. • Develop partnerships with the Department of Defense, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and other Federal agencies to evaluate long-term architecture developments at the scale needed for Office of Science computation. • Advance the focused research and development of systems software for radical increases in performance, reliability, manageability, and ease of use.6.4Computing Resources and Network InfrastructureProvide computing resources at the petascale and beyond, network infrastructure, and tools to enable computational science and scientific collaboration.Work at the forefront of science can require the dedicated availability of the most advanced supercomputers for extended periods of time. Furthermore, it is likely that at least a few different supercomputer designs will offer significant advantages for different classes of problems. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Provide sustained, highbandwidth access to the highest possible performance computers for the most demanding applications at the scientific frontiers. • Upgrade the network and data management infrastructure supporting these resources to enable computational scientists to manage the extraordinarily large volumes of data often generated by large-scale scientific computing and modern experiment. • Create supporting resources, grid nodes, and tools that enable teams of scientists to collaborate effectively at a distance.Executive Summary: Each of the previous goals, and progress in many other areas of science, depends critically on advances in computational modeling and simulation. Crucial problems that we can only hope to address computationally require us to deliver orders of magnitude greater effective computing power than we can deploy today. Detailed Commentary: Computer-based simulation enables us to predict the behavior of complex systems that are beyond the reach of our most powerful experimental probes or our most sophisticated theories. Computational modeling has greatly advanced our understanding of fundamental processes of Nature, such as fluid flow and turbulence or molecular structure and reactivity. Through modeling and simulation, we will be able to explore the interior of stars and learn how protein machines work inside living cells. We can design novel catalysts and high-efficiency engines. Computational science is increasingly central to progress at the frontiers of almost every scientific discipline and to our most challenging feats of engineering. The science of the future demands that we advance beyond our current computational abilities. Accordingly, we must address the following challenges: • What new mathematics are required to effectively model systems such as the Earth’s climate or the behavior of living cells that involve processes taking place on vastly different time and/or length scales? • Which computational architectures and platforms will deliver the most benefit for the science of today and the science of the future? • What advances in computer science and algorithms are needed to increase the efficiency with which supercomputers solve problems for the Office of Science? • What operating systems, data management, analysis, model development, and other tools are required to make effective use of future-generation supercomputers? • Is it possible to overcome the geographical distances that often hinder science by making all scientific resources readily available to scientists, regardless of whether they are at a university, national laboratory, or industrial setting? The Office of Science will deliver models, tools, and computing platforms to dramatically increase the effective computational capability available for scientific discovery in fusion, nanoscience, highenergy and nuclear physics, climate and environmental science, and biology. We will develop new mathematics and computational methods for modeling complex systems; work with the scientific community and vendors to develop computing architectures tailored to simulation and modeling; develop improved networking resources; and support interdisciplinary teams of scientists, mathematicians, and computer scientists to build sophisticated computational models that fully exploit these capabilities. Our role complements and builds on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, delivering forefront modeling capabilities for stockpile stewardship, the basic computer science and mathematics research programs conducted by the National Science Foundation, and mission-focused programs of other agencies. As an integral part of this Strategic Plan, and in Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, we have identified the need for three future facilities to realize our Advanced Scientific Computing Research vision and to meet the science challenges described in the following pages. All three of the facilities are near-term priorities: the UltraScale Scientific Computing Capability (USSCC), the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Upgrade, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) Upgrade. The USSCC, located at multiple sites, will increase by a factor of 100 the computing capability available to support open (as opposed to classified) scientific research—reducing from years to days the time required to simulate complex systems, such as the chemistry of a combustion engine, or weather and climate—and providing much finer resolution. The ESnet upgrade will enhance the network services available to support Office of Science researchers and laboratories and maintain their access to all major DOE research facilities and computing resources, as well as fast interconnections to more than 100 other networks. The NERSC upgrade will ensure that DOE’s premier scientific computing facility for unclassified research continues to provide high-performance computing resources to support the requirements of scientific discovery. All three facilities are included in our Advanced Scientific Computing Research Strategic Timeline at the end of this chapter and in the facilities chart in Chapter 7 (page 93), and they are discussed in detail in the Twenty-Year Outlook. Our Timeline and Indicators of Success: Our commitment to the future and to the realization of Goal 6: Deliver Computing for the Frontiers of Science is not only reflected in our strategies, but also in our Key Indicators of Success, below, and our Strategic Timeline for Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), at the end of this chapter. The ASCR Strategic Timeline charts a collection of important, illustrative milestones, representing planned progress within each strategy. These milestones, while subject to the rapid pace of change and uncertainties that belie all science programs, reflect our latest perspectives on the future— what we hope to accomplish and when we hope to accomplish it— over the next 20 years and beyond. Following the science milestones, toward the bottom of the timeline, we have identified the required major new facilities. These facilities, described in greater detail in the DOE Office of Science companion report, Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, reflect time-sequencing that is based on the general priority of the facility, as well as critical-path relationships to research and corresponding science milestones. Additionally, the Office of Science has identified Key Indicators of Success, designed to gauge our overall progress toward achieving Goal 6. These select indicators, identified below, are representative long-term measures against which progress can be evaluated over time. The specific features and parameters of these indicators, as well as definitions of success, can be found on the web at www.science.doe.gov/ measures. Key Indicators of Success: • Progress toward developing the mathematics, algorithms, and software that enable effective scientifically critical models of complex systems, including highly nonlinear or uncertain phenomena, or processes that interact on vastly different scales or contain both discrete and continuous elements. • Progress toward developing, through the Genomics: GTL partnership with the Biological and Environmental Research program, the computational science capability to model a complete microbe and a simple microbial community.7Provide the Resource Foundations that Enable Great ScienceCreate and sustain the discovery-class tools, 21st Century scientific and technical workforce, research partnerships, and management systems that support the foundations for a highly productive, world-class national science enterprise.7.1Discovery-Class ToolsProvide the discovery-class tools required by the U.S. scientific community to answer the most challenging research questions of our era.Scientific advancements cannot be made without similar advances in the tools used to make discoveries. Just as the telescope enabled Galileo to see the stars and planets in an entirely new way, new tools being developed by the Office of Science will enable researchers to view our physical world at its extremes—from the tiniest bits of matter to the limits of the cosmos. We call these tools “discovery-class” because they are the best of their kind—they attract the greatest scientific minds in the world and enable the type of discoveries that truly change the face of science. For more than half a century, the Office of Science has envisioned, designed, constructed, and operated many of the premier scientific research facilities in the world. Today, more than 18,000 researchers and their students from universities, other government agencies, private industry, and abroad use these facilities each year—and this number is growing. For example, the light sources built and operated by the Office of Science now serve more than three times the total number of users they served in 1990. An indication of the ability of these research tools to build bridges between disciplines and open new vistas for research is seen in the dramatic increase—more than 20-fold in the last decade—of life science users at the light sources, once the sole domain of materials and physical science researchers. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Work with the Office of Science programs’ advisory committees and the broader scientific community to implement the recommendations of the companion document, Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, and continue to identify and champion those critical facilities that will ensure the U.S. position at the forefront of scientific discovery. • Build and operate the next generation of large-scale, discovery-class national research facilities to support the vitality and excellence of U.S. science, which will attract and retain top students and lead to new discoveries. • Develop partnerships with other Federal agencies, universities, and the U.S. scientific community to fully exploit the extraordinary capabilities and interdisciplinary nature of our user facilities. • Fully integrate scientific computation and other information technology tools into the fabric of scientific discovery. Our Timeline for Future Facilities: In the Fall of 2002, the DOE’s Office of Science began a major effort to evaluate facility needs and priorities. The process and results are contained in the companion document, the Twenty-Year Outlook. Choosing major facilities is one of the most important activities of the DOE’s Office of Science. It requires prioritization across fields of science, a difficult and unusual process. The set of facilities must be phased to conform to scientific opportunities, and to a responsible funding strategy. The largest facilities will often be international in character, requiring both planning and funding from other countries and organizations, together with the U.S. The 28 proposed facilities are listed by priority in the chart on page 93. Some are noted individually; however, others for which the advice of our advisory committees was insufficient to discriminate among relative priority are presented in “bands.” In addition, the facilities are roughly grouped into near-term priorities, mid-term priorities, and far-term priorities (and color-coded red, blue, and green respectively) according to the anticipated research and development timeframe of the scientific opportunities they would address. Each facility listing is accompanied by a “peak of cost profile,” which indicates the onset, years of peak construction expenditure, and completion of the facility. Because many of the facilities are still in early stages of conceptualization, the timing of their construction and completion is subject to the myriad considerations that come into play when moving forward with a new facility. Furthermore, it should be remembered that construction of these cost profiles was guided by an ideal funding scenario. Appropriate caveats and explanation are provided in the Twenty-Year Outlook. This facility plan represents the DOE Office of Science’s best guess today at how the future of science and the need for scientific facilities will unfold over the next two decades. We know, however, that science changes. Discoveries, as yet unimagined, will alter the course of research and the facilities needed in the future. Additionally, we recognize that the breadth and scope of the vision encompassed by these 28 facilities reflects an aggressive and optimistic view of the future of the Office. Nevertheless, we believe that it is necessary to have and discuss such a vision. Despite the uncertainties, it is important for organizations to have a clear understanding of their goals and a path toward reaching those goals. The Twenty- Year Outlook, and more broadly, this Office of Science Strategic Plan, offer just such a vision.7.2Research OpportunitiesContribute to a vital and diverse national scientific workforce by providing national laboratory research opportunities to students and teachers.Our national laboratories offer a unique setting for mentor-intensive training opportunities, helping to ensure that DOE and the Nation have a highly skilled and diverse scientific and technical workforce. These capabilities strongly complement the career development opportunities provided by the National Science Foundation and other Federal agencies. Our national laboratories provide an environment where, under the mentorship of world-class scientists, students and teachers have unparalleled opportunities to perform exciting research with the most advanced instrumentation available. This combination of mentor talent and advanced instrumentation greatly serves to attract, develop, and retain a diverse and capable workforce. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Provide undergraduate internships for students entering science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, including K-12 science and math teaching careers. • Provide graduate/faculty fellowships for STEM teachers and faculty. • Develop partnerships with other Federal agencies to address the long-term decline in undergraduate and graduate degrees in the physical sciences.7.3PartnershipsStrengthen national laboratory, university, and industry partnerships to work on the science challenges facing our Nation.The Office of Science manages 10 DOE national laboratories, home to many of the premier scientists and facilities the United States has to offer, and makes direct investments in over 280 universities located across the Nation through research grants and other activities. We also work with high-technology companies, such as General Motors and Cray, to explore advanced technologies and solutions that quickly find their way into the marketplace. As one of the few organizations in the world that manages such a diverse portfolio of research performers, the Office of Science has a unique opportunity to bring the power of these research teams to work at the extreme frontiers of science. Researchers at the national laboratories will benefit from these partnerships through increased access to scientific talent and capabilities that are only found in universities, while universities will benefit through greater training opportunities for students, access to scientific tools unavailable at universities, and participation in multidisciplinary teams of researchers. Industry, increasingly, is seeing the benefit of tapping into the Federal government’s deep reservoir of scientific resources to maintain U.S. economic competitiveness. In addition, the Office of Science works closely with other Federal agencies and major DOE applied research programs to fully leverage the Federal investment in science. We work with the National Institutes of Health to develop new medical technologies; with NASA to explore the cosmos; with the National Science Foundation on fundamental physics, advanced computation, and nanoscience; and with other DOE programs to develop new energy options and solutions. Overall, key scientific disciplines will be strengthened through this interchange of people and ideas. We recognize that the very nature of science and the exchange of ideas within the scientific community benefits greatly from open communications and collaborations. In the future, it will be necessary to preserve and protect the openness and strength of our scientific institutions, while at the same time exercising greater control of the free dissemination of scientific information that has important national security implications. This delicate balance will be developed carefully and in consultation with the science community to ensure that a “do no harm” philosophy is followed. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Encourage the creation of partnerships among national laboratory, university, and industrial researchers to tackle major multidisciplinary scientific challenges, such as development of new materials through nanoscience and high-end computational simulation. • Expand access and operating time at key scientific user facilities to enable national partnerships that address significant national challenges. • Strengthen relationships with minority institutions to increase the diversity of science and performers available within the U.S. scientific enterprise. • Establish high-speed information connections among teams of researchers located at diverse locations, while improving remote access to scientific user facilities. • Strengthen ties between our science programs and DOE-led national initiatives in nuclear energy, hydrogen fuel, bio-based fuels, climate change, carbon management, and nonproliferation through sustained, coordinated programs. • Foster cooperation among Federal science agencies to enhance the impact and benefit of our jointly held assets, particularly in emerging areas of national need, such as advanced computation, nanoscience, climate change, and genomics. • Build international partnerships where national resources can achieve global benefits and gain leverage from participation of collaborating nations. • Participate in the development of national policies for the sharing of scientific and technical information, achieving a careful balance between the need for scientific openness and security interests.7.4Research Enterprise ManagementManage the Office of Science’s research enterprise to the highest standards, delivering outstanding science and new discoveries that improve our Nation’s health and economy.Extraordinary discoveries depend strongly on the extraordinary management of the Nation’s science enterprise. Our management agenda is designed to ensure that the national scientific enterprise benefits as broadly and fully as possible from the decisions we make and the work we do. This means carefully managing not only the science we produce, but also the institutions and other resources that support our science programs. The Office of Science has a large workforce, a national scientific enterprise that spans state and national borders, and five decades of experience managing national scientific programs. We manage an annual budget comparable to the gross domestic product of many countries. Our national laboratory complex has no peer in the world in the size and diversity of its research. We sponsor research at universities and other institutions throughout the country. Our research programs have been very successful, yielding major advances in human knowledge, with substantial benefits to the Nation’s economy. The outstanding success of our research hinges on two key principles: 1) Long-term strategic investments in people, partnerships, and high-risk research: The Office of Science takes big scientific risks and expects and achieves high payoffs. We make long-term investments in people and research programs, while responding with agility to rapid changes at the frontiers of science. We balance our support for big science and interdisciplinary teams with a broad portfolio of projects conducted by leading university and laboratory investigators and collaborative groups. Underpinning these efforts is an uncompromising commitment to scientific excellence and integrity. We are in the business of discovery and, therefore, we value bright minds and new ideas as much as efficiency and productivity. 2) Systematic assessment of major projects, programs, and institutions: Every research activity that we support with U.S. taxpayer dollars is assessed to ensure that the quality, relevance, and performance of DOE Office of Science programs meet the highest standards. Each major construction project, all of our scientific user facilities and national laboratories, and significant elements of each Office of Science research portfolio are reviewed regularly according to established procedures, frequently with the help of external experts to ensure that we achieve our goals. Consistent with these two principles, we have adopted two distinct kinds of management practices. First, we invest in people and institutions, so we follow established business practices such as integrated safety management that would be recognized by any U.S. corporate executive as current and effective. Second, we sponsor basic research, which requires an entirely different set of management practices designed to ensure that the best scientific opportunities are pursued. These practices include the extensive use of peer and merit review to monitor the quality and relevance of the science we sponsor; a reliance on the advice and guidance of the U.S. scientific community through six independent advisory committees; and the employment of highly skilled program managers who nurture critical scientific disciplines and provide the multi-year continuity of support that is often needed to meet difficult technical challenges. These practices help ensure that the U.S. taxpayer receives the highest possible return on the science investment that our Nation makes. The intersection between traditional management practices and those that are unique to the scientific community is clearest in the way that we construct and operate the large discovery-class scientific user facilities that are a signature feature of the Office of Science. Constructing scientific facilities pushes the envelope of science and technology to the frontiers, and they are considered huge engineering projects by any standard. Improve our overall performance. The Office of Science is committed to performance. We have embarked on a comprehensive restructuring of our organization that is designed to increase performance-based management practices, reduce management layering, enhance integration, guarantee line accountability, simplify internal processes, and increase worker productivity. All of these management strategies, however, are being carefully implemented to reflect the unique nature of basic research and the long-term nature of our investments. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Consolidate and streamline financial, budgetary, procurement, personnel, program, and performance information to communicate faster and at less cost. • Use new information management technologies to streamline project funding, facilitate a portfolio view of R&D, and enhance communication across Federal offices and organizations. • Re-engineer laboratory management contracts to improve contractor performance, enhance line management accountability, and give the Office of Science and its contractors the flexibility needed to manage for results. • Develop an integrated approach to planning, program execution, and performance management that sets the benchmark for a Federal basic research organization. • Employ a highly competent Federal workforce capable of continuing the Office of Science’s tradition of discovery into the future. Establish a modern laboratory system, fully capable of delivering the science our Nation requires. The DOE Office of Science laboratory system includes hundreds of research labs, offices, and specialized scientific facilities distributed over eight states and accessed by more than 25,000 scientists worldwide. The loss to the science community would be immense if we stopped upgrading, operating, and providing access to this incredible research complex. However, 24% of the buildings in the Office of Science laboratory system have reached or are reaching the end of their serviceable lives. In addition to making targeted investments that maximize our rehabilitation efforts, our strategy includes examining our total portfolio of facilities and seeking to expand their utility. Our strategy includes the following emphases: • Size our facilities to scientific demand, including investing in new replacement support facilities where needed and removing excess facilities. • Increase our annual laboratory maintenance investment to a level consistent with nationally recognized standards (i.e., generally 2 to 4% for conventional facilities). • Increase the overall functionality of general-purpose facilities by significantly increasing our annual capital investment. • Support greater flexibility in the use of funds for maintenance and modernization.Executive Summary: Our Nation’s research enterprise depends upon a solid foundation that has been built through careful investments in people, institutions and major scientific facilities. Of particular note are the “discovery-class” scientific tools that we construct and operate. Our goal is to continue to provide leadership, stewardship, and balance of this vital combined infrastructure. Detailed Commentary: Great leaps in the health and well being of our Nation require solid foundations of science. More than half of our national economic growth since 1945 is directly attributable to advances in energy production, energy efficiency, medicine, computation, and other technologies that have their basis in fundamental research. The Office of Science has played a major role in this national success story, contributing scientific advances in nuclear energy, nuclear medicine, advanced computation, genomics, materials science, chemistry, physics, and other areas that have resulted in 35 Nobel Prizes and thousands of industrial patents since DOE’s inception in 1977. Modern science, not to mention the scientific endeavor of the future, is different from the science of our past. Increasingly, revolutionary scientific discoveries will involve: • A complex interplay between scientists from different disciplines • Scientific tools of incredible power and scope • The ability to draw from a large pool of scientific and technical talent • A modern research infrastructure and work environment • Management practices that deliver outstanding science for each taxpayer dollar. The Office of Science is uniquely positioned to address many of these challenges, and thus to strengthen the foundations of U.S. science and help lead our Nation into a new era of scientific discovery. No other organization in the world builds and operates such a diverse array of large-scale, discovery-class scientific tools. Furthermore, our track record of envisioning, designing, building, and operating large-scale scientific facilities on time and on budget is unmatched by any other Federal agency, the private sector, or the university community. These facilities and the 10 DOE Office of Science national laboratories that we manage have become national crucibles for interdisciplinary research. In them, our programs can bring the power of thousands of researchers together in multidisciplinary teams to solve large-scale scientific challenges. The Office of Science specializes in scientific challenges that require such facilities and approaches, challenges that are high-risk and high-payoff. Furthermore, our laboratories are an ideal training ground for young researchers eager to work alongside Nobel laureates and other worldclass scientists in multidisciplinary settings. We take pride in managing for excellence in science through rigorous peer and advisory committee reviews of our research, our construction projects, and the way we operate.