ITER, an acronym of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and Latin (for the way, journey, or direction). ITER is an international nuclear research and engineering mega project, building the world's largest tokamak fusion reactor in the south of France. A tokamak (Russian) is a device using a magnetic field to confine a plasma in the shape of a torus, a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in 3 dimensional space.
The goal of France's ITER project is capturing fusion energy for commercial use, in essence, creating a star. They are building a machine that can take an import of 50MW of power and produce an output of 500MW of fusion power.
The project is funded by seven member states, European Union, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and United States. EU, as host party for the ITER complex, is contributing 45% if cost, with the other 6 countries contributing approximately 9% each. The project started in 2013, and the construction phase is slated to be finished in 2019. Then, commissioning the reactor and initiating plasma experiments in 2020, with the goal of fusion experiments starting in 2027. If, and after ITER comes operational, the first commercial demonstration of a fusion power plant, called DEMO, is proposed to follow on from the ITER project.
The history of ITER started with a 1985 initiative between Reagan and Gorbachev with equal participation between the Soviet Union, European Union, Japan and United States.
Due to a bureaucratic fight that erupted in the U S government over collaboration with the Soviets, the US opted out of the project in 1999, but returned in 2003.
A consortium signed the formal agreement to build the reactor on November 21, 2006 and announced the reactor would be built in France.
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| Tokamak Diagram |
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