INTERNATIONAL THERMONUCLEAR EXPERIMENTAL REACTOR (ITER)

The ITER project Information for the media

Press contact:

Mrs. Jennifer Hay

Public Relations ITER Cadarache JWS

Bat 519 CEA Cadarache

13108 Saint Paul-lez-Durance France

T: 00 33 44 22 54 657

E: jennifer.hay@iter.org

Web: www.iter.org

Additional material, documents of the ITER Débat Publique:

www.itercad.org/debat_fr.pdf (french) and www.itercad.org/debat_eng.pdf (english)

Summary

The ITER experiment (ITER means "the way" in Latin) is designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes. Following on from today's largest fusion experiments worldwide, ITER aims to provide the know-how to build subsequently the first electricity-generating power station based on magnetic confinement of high temperature plasma - in other words, to capture and use the power of the sun on earth. ITER will be constructed in Cadarache, in the South of France.

ITER will test all the main new features needed for that device - high-temperature-tolerant components, large-scale reliable superconducting magnets, fuel-breeding blankets using high temperature coolants suitable for efficient electricity generation, and safe remote handling and disposal of all irradiated components. ITER's operating conditions are close to those that will be experienced in a power reactor, and will show how they can be optimized, and how hardware design margins can be reduced to increase efficiency and control cost.

ITER began in 1985 as collaboration between the then Soviet Union, the USA, Europe (through EURATOM) and Japan. Conceptual and engineering design phases led to an acceptable detailed design in 2001, underpinned by $650M worth of research and development by the "ITER Parties" to establish its practical feasibility. These (with the Russian Federation replacing the Soviet Union and with the USA opting out of the project between 1999 and 2003) have been since joined in negotiations on the future construction, operation and decommissioning of ITER by Canada (who terminated their participation at the end of 2003), the People's Republic of China (joined in early 2003), the Republic of Korea (joined in mid-2003), and India (joined at the end of 2005). The current seven Parties are now agreeing to construct ITER.

ITER is expected to cost ~$10 billion over its complete life. The decision on the site for ITER allows the project to move on to its construction phase. The Director-General of the project, Kaname Ikeda, was nominated at the end of 2005, and his Deputy, Norbert Holtkamp, in April 2006. It has been agreed how the costs and procurements will be shared.

The project is now at the stage of signing the joint implementation agreement, which will allow the international ITER Organization to be established. This will be responsible for and technically oversee all aspects of the project, from application for construction licenses from the nuclear authorities of the host country, through hardware procurements mostly provided "in-kind" by the Parties, through operation, expected to begin 10 years later and last 20 years, with its involvement of experimental physicists and engineers worldwide, and ultimately for decommissioning of the plant at its end of life. Constructing and operating ITER is the essential step to determining whether magnetic confinement of plasma can be usefully employed by humankind for centralized electricity generation in the latter half of this century.

Figure 1: The ITER machine.

What is ITER?

ITER is a joint international research and development project that aims to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. The partners in the project - the ITER Parties or Members - are the European Union (represented by EURATOM), Japan, the People´s Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA. ITER will be constructed in Europe, at Cadarache in the South of France.

What is the relevance of the signature of the ITER Agreement?

Up to now the ITER design and R&D has been conducted as cooperation between the ITER Parties under the auspices of the IAEA. The project has had no legal powers, but has coordinated the design staff and R&D budgets of the Parties towards a common goal. With the signature of the ITER Agreement, the ITER Organization can legally take control of, and responsibility for, the project development through construction and operation to decommissioning. It does this by the creation of an international organization under international law. This organization will be created and the agreement provisionally applied following the signature, pending the entry into force of the agreement, which is expected in the course of 2007.

Who are the seven Parties to ITER?

The seven international Parties that are co-operating to develop ITER are: the European Union (represented by EURATOM, which includes also Switzerland, Romania and Hungary), the People's Republic of China, India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Korea, and the United States of America. The negotiations took place under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Why is it so important to undertake this project with all seven international Parties?

It is very important that those countries most advanced in fusion energy research work together to co-operate in the development of a major potential new technology. The challenges of the ITER project require the best technological and scientific expertise, which can best be harnessed by pooling resources globally. By working together, the Seven Parties are committing themselves to a global response to a global challenge – assuring sustainable energy resources. By ensuring the best possible knowledge is put into ITER, it will be all the more likely that a viable energy source will emerge at the end of the project.

Will other countries be able to participate?

Since its very beginning, development of ITER has taken place under the auspices of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Authority. The ITER Agreement, once finalized, will be open for accession by or co-operation with other countries that have demonstrated a capacity for specific technologies and knowledge and are ready to contribute to the project.

How much will ITER cost?

ITER construction costs are estimated at 4.57B€ (at 2000 prices), to be spread over about ten years. Estimated total operating costs over the expected operational lifetime of about twenty years are of a similar order.

How will ITER be financed?

The ITER Organization established by the ITER Agreement will undertake the ITER project. The Members of the Organization will bear the costs of ITER. With respect to the construction of the ITER device, the members will contribute most of the components in kind (i.e. the components themselves, rather than the financing for them). For the European Union, a new Joint Undertaking will be established in Barcelona, Spain through which contributions (in cash and in kind) will be provided to the ITER Organization. Europe will contribute in proportion up to half of the construction costs and the other six parties will each contribute up to 10%. Thus there is a 10% contingency within the present funding.

Where will ITER be built?

The process of selecting a location for ITER took a long time, and was finally successfully concluded in 2005. Canada was first to offer a site in Clarington, in May 2001. Soon after, Japan proposed the Rokkasho-Mura site, Spain offered a site at Vandellòs near Barcelona, and France proposed the Cadarache site in the South of France.

Canada withdrew from the race in 2003, and Europe decided in November 2003 to concentrate its support on a single European site, for which the French site Cadarache was chosen. From that point onwards, the choice was between France and Japan. On June 28, 2005 it was officially announced that ITER would be built in the European Union, at the Cadarache site.

As part of the deal over the sitting, it was agreed that Japan would provide 20% of the staff for the ITER project, and Europe would make a fifth of its procurements in Japan. In addition, the head of the project would be proposed by Japan, and Japan and Europe would work together on a "broader approach" including the other programmatic items which would be necessary to build a demonstration power plant in Japan after ITER, such as materials qualification, advanced plasma experimentation, plasma simulation, and the design team itself.

The construction site at Cadarache covers a total surface area of about 40 hectares with another 30 hectares, which will be used temporarily during the construction period.

Cadarache is an excellent site for ITER for various reasons:

• The site satisfies all the technical requirements specified by the international team in charge of the design of ITER.

• Cadarache already hosts what was until the recent start of the EAST experiment in China the world’s largest super-conducting fusion experiment Tore-Supra at the CEA Cadarache Research Centre, one of the biggest civil nuclear research centres in Europe. Therefore the Cadarache site has existing technical support facilities and expertise.

• France has well-established regulations for licensing groundbreaking “first of a kind” facilities such as ITER.

What is the history of the ITER project?

While significant progress has been made with large fusion experiments around the world, most of which were constructed in the 80´s, it has been clear from an early stage that a larger and more powerful device would be needed to create the conditions expected in a fusion reactor and to demonstrate its scientific and technical feasibility, and each of the fusion programmes around the world started to make their own design for it starting in the early 1980s.

The idea for ITER originated from the Geneva superpower summit in November 1985 where Premier Gorbachov, following discussions with President Mitterand of France, proposed to President Reagan that an international project be set up to develop fusion energy for peaceful purposes. The ITER-project subsequently began as collaboration between the former Soviet Union, the USA, the European Union (via Euratom) and Japan.

In 1988 the conceptual design work was started, followed in 1992 by engineering design. On July 21st, 2001, the ITER engineering design activities were successfully completed, and the ITER Parties approved the final design report. The design was underpinned by Research & Development work worth $650M, which was carried out by the ITER Parties to establish the practical feasibility of the design.

Negotiations on joint implementation of ITER then began between Canada, Europe, Japan, and the Russian Federation, and were joined by the People’s Republic of China, the United States of America and the Republic of Korea during 2003. Canada ended its involvement at the end of 2003. These Negotiations have now drawn up the international agreement for construction, exploitation and decommissioning of ITER, deciding who will pay for what, and how the project will be organized and staffed. Cadarache (South of France) has been chosen for construction from an initial choice of four sites.

At the end of 2003 the project entered “Transitional Arrangements” (ITA) leading up to the establishment of the ITER International Fusion Energy Organization (ITER Organization) which will build and run ITER. Technical work, conducted by the ITER International Team and the Participant Teams of each of the Negotiators, underpinned the Negotiations technically and prepared for construction by the writing of detailed technical specifications for the most urgent procurements, engaged licensing bodies, and put in place the necessary project infrastructure to embark on such a complicated multi-party construction.

The physics studies and technology developments on many fusion devices worldwide have provided a solid basis for predicting how ITER scale plasma should behave. During the ITER engineering phase, key prototypical high-technology equipment, such as superconducting coils, remote handling systems, and high heat tolerant components, has been developed specifically for the purpose and manufactured by industry and is now ready for production.

What is the current situation?

The top management team of ITER has been named. The Director-General of the project will be Kaname Ikeda, formerly Ambassador for Japan in Croatia. The Project Construction Leader will be Norbert Holtkamp, a German, and former director of accelerator systems at the Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge, USA. The senior management team of department heads has been designated. Staff is coming together to work in Cadarache, and the other joint work sites, in Garching, Germany and Naka, Japan, will close at the end of 2006. With the establishment of the ITER Organization by the end of 2006, and the provisional application of the agreement pending ratification, site clearance and leveling will begin in 2007, and an application for a license to construct will be made at the end of 2007. A public enquiry will take place in 2008, with the granting of a license to construct around the end of 2008. If this schedule is achieved, the construction process can begin in earnest in 2009, leading to the first plasma in 2016. This will be followed by an exploitation phase lasting about 20 years.

How will ITER help fusion power become a reality?

The long-term objective of fusion research is to harness the nuclear energy provided by the fusion of light atoms to help meet mankind’s future energy needs. This research, which is carried out by scientists from all over the word, has made tremendous progress over the last decades. The fusion community is now ready to take the next step, and have together designed the international ITER experiment. The aim of ITER is to show fusion could be used to generate electrical power, and to gain the necessary data to design and operate the first electricity-producing plant.

In ITER, scientists will study plasmas in conditions similar to those expected in a electricity-generating fusion power plant. It will generate 500 MW of fusion power for extended periods of time, ten times more then the energy input needed to keep the plasma at the right temperature. It will therefore be the first fusion experiment to produce net power. It will also test all the key technologies, including the heating, control, diagnostic and remote maintenance that will be needed for a real fusion power station.

ITER is a tokamak, in which strong magnetic fields confine a torus-shaped fusion plasma. The device’s main aim is to demonstrate prolonged fusion power production in deuterium-tritium plasma. Compared with current conceptual designs for future fusion power plants, ITER will include most of the necessary technology, but will be of slightly smaller dimensions and will operate at about one-sixth of the power output level, and will not generate electricity.

The programmatic goal of ITER is "to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power for peaceful purposes". After extensive discussions with the scientific community at large, this general goal is now interpreted into a number of specific technical goals, all concerned with developing a viable fusion power reactor.

First of all, ITER should produce more power than it consumes. This is expressed in the value of Q, which represents the amount of thermal energy that is generated by the fusion reactions, divided by the amount of external heating. A value of Q smaller than 1 means that more power is needed to heat the plasma than is generated by fusion. JET, presently the largest tokamak in the world, has reached Q=0.65, near the point of "break even" (Q=1). ITER has to be able to produce Q=10, or Q larger then 5 when pulses are stretched towards a steady state. This is done so that, in the "burning plasma", most of the plasma heating comes from the fusion reactions themselves, and so that the plant efficiency can be sufficiently high to have a chance of leading to an economically viable power plant.

Secondly, ITER should implement and test the key technologies and processes needed for future fusion power plants - including superconducting magnets, components able to withstand high heat loads, and remote handling. Lastly, ITER should test and develop concepts for breeding tritium from lithium-containing materials inside thermally efficient high temperature blankets surrounding the plasma. Tritium self-sufficiency of a fusion power plant is a necessary prerequisite, as tritium is not available in nature.

What is fusion?

Fusion is the energy source of the sun and the stars. When the nuclei of light atoms come together at very high temperatures, they fuse and this produces enormous amounts of energy. In the core of the sun or a star, the huge gravitational pressure allows this to happen at temperatures of around 10 million degrees Celsius. At the much lower pressures that we can produce on Earth, temperatures to produce fusion need to be much higher – above 100 million degrees Celsius. To reach these temperatures there must first be powerful heating, and keeping the hot fuel particles away from the walls of the container must minimize thermal losses. This is achieved by creating a magnetic “cage” made by strong magnetic fields, which prevent the particles from escaping. The development of the science and technology involved in this process is the basis of the European fusion programme.

What are the attractions of fusion as an energy source?

The key advantages are:

• It could provide a large-scale energy source with basic fuels which are abundant and available everywhere.

• Very low global impact on the environment – no CO2 greenhouse gas emissions

• Day-to-day-operation of a fusion power station would not require the transport of radioactive materials

• Power Stations would be inherently safe, with no possibility of “meltdown” or “runaway reactions”.

•There is no long-lasting radioactive waste to create a burden on future generations.

Is fusion safe?

A fusion reactor is like a gas burner – the fuel, which is injected into the system, is burnt off. There is very little fuel in the reaction chamber at any given moment (about 1g in a volume of 1000 m 3) and if the fuel supply is interrupted, the reactions only continue for a few seconds. Any malfunction of the device would cause the reactor to cool and the reactions would stop. The basic fuels - deuterium and lithium – and the reaction product - helium - are not radioactive.

The intermediate fuel – tritium – is radioactive and decays relatively quickly, producing a very low energy electron (Beta radiation). In air, this electron can only travel a few millimeters and cannot even penetrate a piece of paper. Nevertheless, tritium would be harmful if it entered the body, so the facility will have very thorough safety facilities and procedures for the handling and storage of tritium. As the tritium is produced in the reactor chamber itself, there are no issues regarding the transport of radioactive materials, except at startup and closure.

Extensive safety and environmental studies have led to the conclusion that a fusion reactor could be designed in such a way to ensure that any in-plant incident would not require the evacuation of the local population.

What will be the environmental impact of fusion energy?

The energy generated by the fusion reactions will be used for the same purposes as current sources of energy, such as generation of electricity, heat for industrial use or the production of hydrogen. The fuel consumption of a fusion power station will be extremely low. A 1 GW fusion plant will need about 100 kg of deuterium and 3 tonnes of natural lithium to operate for a whole year, generating about 7 billion kWh, with no greenhouse gas or other polluting emissions. To generate the same energy, a coal-fired power plan (without carbon sequestration) requires about 1.5 million tonnes of fuel and produces about 4-5 million tonnes of CO2.