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BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 31, 2006 (Refocus
Weekly)
An international consortium will construct an
experimental nuclear fusion reactor, marking the formal
establishment of the International Thermonuclear Experimental
Reactor (ITER).
The United States, Japan, China, Russia, India, South Korea and
the European Union will sign a formal agreement on building ITER in
November. The reactor was first proposed by the U.S. and Russia in
1985, to provide “a clean and limitless source of energy that can
replace fossil fuel.”
The reactor is expected to be completed by 2015 and to operate for
20 years. Consortium members will determine the effectiveness to
create energy for commercial use and, if the experiment is
successful, will advance the process to use fusion to generate
electricity.
“As partners in ITER, we are pursuing the promise of unlimited,
clean, safe, renewable and commercially available energy from
nuclear fusion, which has the potential to significantly strengthen
energy security, at home and abroad,” says U.S. energy secretary
Samuel Bodman. “Fusion is renewable; commercial fusion reactors
would use lithium and deuterium, both readily available natural
resources.”
Talks on building of the ITER started in 2001 and the reactor will
be built in Cadarache, southern France. Total construction costs
will be US$5 billion, of which Europe, as host, will contribute
45.4% while the six other partners each provide 9.1%.
"Fusion has several attractions as a large-scale energy source,”
says the European Commission, including the availability of basic
fuels and no emissions of GHG, while the reactors are inherently
safe power stations, which cannot melt-down or emit long-lasting
radioactive waste.
“Initialling this agreement brings us one step closer to a viable
source of fusion power, with the potential to free the quickly
growing global economy and population from the looming constraints
of conventional energy supplies and their associated environmental
effects,” says Raymond Orbach of the U.S. Department of Energy’s
Office of Science. “This is the first stand alone, truly
international, large-scale scientific research effort in the history
of the world. It is quite striking that the seven parties to the
agreement represent more than half of the world's population.”
Fusion energy is a major component of the Advanced Energy Initiative
proposed by president George Bush, “given fusion’s potential to
become an attractive long-range option for the U.S. clean energy
portfolio,” he adds. DOE allocated $25 million to ITER in the last
fiscal year and Bush has asked for $60 million next year.
Fusion energy is created when light atomic nuclei are fused together
at temperatures greater than those of the interior of stars and
higher than the melting point of any solid container. The process is
expected to provide significant amounts of electricity and generate
hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles of the future.
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