Techniques have been developed to improve the uniformity of the laser focal profile, to reduce the ablative Rayleigh-Taylor instability, and to suppress the various laser-plasma instabilities. There are now three direct-drive ignition target designs that utilize these techniques. Evaluation of these designs is still ongoing. Some of them may achieve the gains above 100 that are necessary for a fusion reactor. Two laser systems have been proposed that may meet all of the requirements for a fusion reactor.

Alpha particle physics experiments were done on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) during its deuterium-tritium (DT) run from 1993-1997. These experiments utilized several new alpha particle diagnostics and hundreds of DT discharges to characterize the alpha particle confinement and wave-particle interactions. In general, the results from the alpha particle diagnostics agreed with the classical single-particle confinement model in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) quiescent discharges. Also, the observed alpha particle interactions with sawteeth, toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAE), and ion cyclotron resonant frequency (ICRF) waves were roughly consistent with theoretical modeling. This paper reviews what was learned and identifies what remains to be understood.

The national standards and state derivatives must be reinforced by models of curricular reform. In this paper, ARISE presents one model based on a set of principles--coherence, integration of the sciences, movement from concrete ideas to abstract ones, inquiry, connection and application, sequencing that is responsive to how people learn.