Spin-off benefits

Fusion Research and Development is geared towards producing an economically viable, environmentally responsible, safe source of energy. If the programme is successful, fusion itself will be much more valuable than any spin-offs: the world energy market is close to 3 trillion Euro per year.

Figure 1:Plasma TV

During the development of fusion power, many of the leading-edge technologies involved have been pushed to new limits and in many cases the innovative solutions to the challenging problems have found applications beyond the bounds of fusion. There are numerous examples of spin-offs with other applications in industry, providing solutions to real and current problems. Examples of spin-off successes resulting from development work in the fusion programme are highlighted in a recent brochure from the European Commission titled "Fusion Energy, Moving Forward, Spin-off benefits from Fusion R&D".

An important feature of the European Fusion Programme is the constant knowledge transfer from the fusion research community to industry. Both sides benefit from this with both fundamental and applied fusion R&D leading to many spin-off technologies, the formation of new companies and, in some cases, to whole new industry sectors. As 80% of the costs of ITER will go to industry, ITER promises a wealth of additional spin-off opportunities for those involved.

The close collaboration between the European Fusion Associates and industry on resolving issues within the R&D programme has resulted in successful spin-offs in many areas, such as remote handling systems, semiconductor manufacturing, large area plasma etching and deposition, high heat-load components and materials, EUV lithography (used to produce the next generation computer chips), precision EUV optical elements and masks, ion implantation and plasma HDTV display panels.

These new technologies have found applications in many different sectors. For three sectors, the spin-off technologies from fusion research are listed below:

Figure 2:Magnetic Resonance Imaging
© Image: Siemens

Apart from the production of large scale electricity, fusion technology can be used for a number of other purposes, both near-term and long-term, including. A recent report (Nonelectric applications of fusion, K. McCarthy et al., Journal of Fusion Energy, Vol. 21, no. 3/4, p.121, Dec 2002) discusses the following examples: the production of inexpensive PET isotopes for medical diagnosis, the detection of clandestine materials such as explosives (for example, landmines), transmutation of spent nuclear fuel, hydrogen production, and space propulsion.