Advancement of Students in Science and Technology (FASST), the Citizens Energy Project, and the L-5 Society) independently summarized 20 SPS reports and distributed them to their constituents with a request for feedback. Feedback responses resulted in 44 composite questions. These concerns and questions were then presented to the principal investigators at universities national laboratories, private contractors and government agencies responsible for the specific assessment and research to answer. Thus, both the interested individuals and the investigators learned of the ideas and concerns of the other and communications were enhanced. To obtain a completely independent overview of the CDEP, as an aid in insuring that the key areas are being assessed, the National Academy of Sciences was requested to conduct a review of the work and results of the SPS project. This is being accomplished through the National Science Foundation. The CDEP three-year assessment of SPS will be completed late this summer. Through review of current literature, analyses, assessments and experiments a solid appreciation of what is known, unknown and uncertain about the many aspects of SPS is being developed. Although many problems and concerns remain to be solved, none at this time appears to be insurmountable. The SPS assessment has and is proceeding at a logical pace commensurate with our understanding of the issues. In facing the challenge of energy requirements for the expanding world population, we should not, as history has taught us, be timid. Nor should we, as history again has taught us, rush to embrace a technology that may lock us into environmentally or economically unsound concepts. We should, rather, aggressively insure that the essential requirements demanded by our maturing society be the foundation stones for new technologies: o Technical excellence o Economic viability o Environmental acceptability o Social acceptability
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