Senator John Kerry (D-MA) sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Chair Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS) as well as Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN) March 2 requesting funding for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s fusion energy research program. The program is scheduled to lose funding as a result of a proposed 16 percent cut to domestic fusion research in the president’s fiscal year 2013 budget. If the proposed cut is enacted, the C-Mod research facility will be terminated, and 130 fusion scientists, engineers, graduate students, and support personnel would be terminated.