France to Host ITER International Nuclear Fusion Project

Negotiations between the six parties - China, EU, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. - were deadlocked since December 2003 on the issue of site location, preventing further progress in the technical negotiations relating to the project. Technical work, said the EU, can now be carried out to finalize the agreement. It is hoped that all parties will initial the text of an agreement by year-end, thereby allowing for the start of construction by the end of 2005.

According to the European Union (EU), ITER construction costs are estimated at €4.57 billion (at 2000 prices), to be spread over about 10 years. Estimated total operating costs over the expected operational lifetime of about 20 years are of a similar order. The EU and France will contribute 50% of the construction costs and the other five parties will each contribute 10%.

Cadarache, the site proposed by the EU, was supported for a number of reasons, including

• The site satisfies all the technical requirements specified by the international team in charge of the design of ITER.
• Cadarache already hosts the world's largest super-conducting fusion experiment - Tore-Supra at the CEA Cadarache Research Centre, one of the biggest civil nuclear research centers in Europe. Because of this, the Cadarache site has existing technical support facilities and expertise, which significantly reduce the risks associated with the construction of a project such as ITER, said the EU.
• France has well-established regulations for licensing ground-breaking "first-of-a-kind" facilities such as ITER.
• Cadarache is close to the second-largest city in France, with associated social, cultural, industrial and academic infrastructure, an agreeable climate and pleasant natural environment. These factors will help attract the best and brightest scientists and engineers from around the world to the ITER project, according to the EU.

In addition to the site-location resolution, the EU and Japan reached an agreement on a privileged partnership in which both partners will be able to develop a leading role in developing fusion energy. This partnership, said the EU, looks beyond the ITER project to ensure other supporting research is carried out. A list of potential "broader approach" projects were identified by all six ITER parties.

Terms of the agreement between the EU and Japan encompass the following points:

• The EU will transfer up to 10% of its procurement to Japan, so that both parties may participate on similar terms in the high-tech components of the ITER device.
• The EU will participate in projects undertaken in Japan within the "broader approach" with up to 8% of the costs of ITER construction.
• The EU will support a suitable Japanese candidate for the post of director-general of the ITER organization and will also support the right for Japan to have more staff in the group than its proportionate share.
• Some of the headquarters functions could be situated in Japan.
• If there is an international agreement to undertake the later phase - construction of a demonstration reactor - the EU will support Japan as the site.

Nuclear Fusion Technology
According to the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), nuclear fusion represents a practically unlimited source of energy. Under extremely high pressures and temperatures, light atoms – isotopes of hydrogen, such as deuterium and tritium - come together, or fuse, producing enormous amounts of energy. A prime example is the sun, where huge gravitational pressure allows fusion to take place at about 10 million degrees Celsius. At the gravitational pressure experienced on Earth, higher temperatures are required to generate fusion, and to date only tokamak-type reactors are capable of reaching the 100-million-degree-Celsius threshold where energy can be produced.

At the much lower pressures 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 thermal losses must be minimized by keeping the hot fuel particles away from the walls of the container. 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 ITER fusion program.

Key advantages of nuclear fusion as an energy source, according to the EU, include:

• The potential to 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."
• No long-lasting radioactive waste.

The EU, addressing safety concerns of nuclear fusion, said the fuel which is injected into the system is burnt off and there is very little fuel in the reaction chamber at any given moment (about 1 g in a volume of 1000 m³). If the fuel supply is interrupted, the reactions only continue for a few seconds and any malfunction of the device would cause the reactor to cool and the reactions would stop.

The EU added that the basic fuels - deuterium and lithium - and the reaction product - helium - are not radioactive. The intermediate fuel - tritium - is radioactive and decays very 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 human body, so a nuclear fusion reactor requires 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.

Additionally, the fuel consumption of a fusion power station will be extremely low, said the EU. A 1 gigawatt fusion plant will need about 100 g of deuterium and 3 tons 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 tons of fuel and produces about 4-5 million tons of CO2, according to the EU.

Sources: International Atomic Energy Agency, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), European Union.