The Department of Energy has initiated this program to advance electric utility cell stack technology and to reduce cell stack cost. The cell stack has a nominal 10-ft/sup 2/ active area and operates at 120 psia/405/sup 0/F. The program comprises six parallel phases, which culminate in a full-height, 10-ft/sup 2/ stack verification test. Progress is reported. Program highlights include: (1) over 550 hours and four thermal cycles with performance close to the E-line goal have been accumulated on the second 10-ft/sup 2/ 28-cell stack at 120 psia and 405/sup 0/F; (2) over 12,400 hours and 35 thermal cycles have been accumulated on the 3.7-ft/sup 2/ 30-cell stack at 120 psia and 405/sup 0/F; (3) a subscale cell cut from 10-ft/sup 2/ electrodes in the same batch used for the second 10-ft/sup 2/, 28-cell stack has accumulated over 2200 hours with performance close to E-line at 120 psia and 400/sup 0/F; and (4) testing was completed on the first three builds of the 7-cell, crosspressure tolerance stack. (WHK)