• June 13th, 2006:

ITER pioneers receive prestigious Russian energy prize

On the 13th of June in Saint Petersburg, three pioneers of the international fusion project ITER received the Russian prize "Global Energy" from Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation. The laureates - the Russian academician Evgeniy Velikhov, the Japanese Dr. Masaji Yoshikawa and the French Dr. Robert Aymar - received the award for their contributions to the development of the scientific and technological foundation of the ITER project. They will share the prize money of 1.1 million US dollars. The prize is financed by the Russian oil companies Gazprom, UES of Russia, and Yukos, and is awarded by an international award committee. The award ceremony today was part of the tenth Economic Forum, which was opened by President Putin in Saint Petersburg earlier today.

As of 2003 the Global Energy prize has been awarded annually for outstanding theoretical, experimental and applied research, development, innovations and discoveries in the fields of energy and power generation.

During his career, Dr. Masaji Yoshikawa has played a leading role in the Japanese fusion programme. He led the construction and operation of JT-60, one of the largest and most successful fusion experiments in the world and was President of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI).

Dr. Robert Aymar became ITER director in 1994, and leader of the ITER International Team in 2001. The present design of the device was largely developed under his leadership. In 2004 Dr. Aymar left the ITER project to become Director General of CERN.

The award committee of the prize consists of thirty scientists from nine different countries, including three Nobel Laureates and other leading scientists. The oil companies are not involved in the selection process.

In a speech held at the prize ceremony in 2003, the Russian president Putin said: "This award is given for prominent scientific achievements in the field of energy. The international prize ´Global Energy´ was intended and created as an award for the new Millennium. (...) We are living in the era when the aims standing in front of mankind are of a universal, global character. They can be solved effectively only when the intellectual and technological potentials of the world´s community are united."

BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS RELEASE

ITER will be a major experimental facility to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. The construction costs of ITER are estimated at 4.7 billion Euro over ten years, a large part of which will be awarded in the form of contracts to industrial companies and fusion research institutions. Another five billion Euros are foreseen for the twenty-year exploitation period. Europe will contribute a major share of the costs, while the other six parties to this joint international venture (Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, India, and the USA), will contribute the rest.

The ITER agreement, needed to establish the ITER International Organisation, was initialled in Brussels by representatives of the ITER Parties on the 24th of May, 2006. In June 2005, the partners decided unanimously to choose the European site at Cadarache, in the South of France, as the location for the construction of ITER.

In Europe, fusion research is organised in a coordinated research programme, which provides for an intensive use of all relevant R&D resources in pan-European collaborations on all the major research topics. Around half of the hardware in the ITER construction programme will be supplied by Europe through a European Domestic Agency to be based in Barcelona, which will be, amongst other things, responsible for the supply of the European contribution to ITER and for the co-ordination of related R&D.

Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars. When light atomic nuclei fuse together to form heavier ones, a large amount of energy is released. Fusion research is aimed at developing a prototype fusion power plant that is safe and reliable, environmentally responsible, economically viable, with abundant and widespread fuel resources.