History and current situation

While significant progress has been made with JET and other fusion experiments, it was clear from an early stage that a larger and more powerful device would be needed to create the conditions expected in a fusion reactor able to provide positive power balance and to demonstrate its scientific and technical feasibility.

The idea for ITER originated from the Geneva superpower summit in November 1985 where General Secretary Gorbachev, following discussions with President Mitterand of France, proposed to President Reagan that an international project be set up to develop fusion energy for peaceful purposes. The ITER-project subsequently began as a collaboration between the former Soviet Union, the USA, the European Union and Japan, and was later enlarged to China, South Korea and India.

The design was underpinned by Research & Development work worth $650M.

Figure 1:Many components and
techniques that are needed for
ITER have already been tested by
industry, such as this model of the
ITER Toroidal Coil, assembled in the
Toska facility in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Canada became a partner in 2001, and left the project at the end of 2003. The People´s Republic of China and South Korea both joined the project in 2003, and finally India joined in December 2005. Presently, the partners are the European Union, China, India, Japan, South Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA.

Site selection

The process of selecting a location for ITER took a long time, and was finally successfully concluded in 2005. Canada was first to offer a site in Clarington, in May 2001. Soon after, Japan proposed the Rokkasho-Mura site, Spain offered a site at Vandellòs near Barcelona, and France proposed the Cadarache site in the south of France.

Canada withdrew from the race in 2003, and the EU decided in November 2003 to concentrate its support on a single European site, for which the French site Cadarache was chosen. From that point onwards, the choice was between France and Japan.

On June 28, 2005 it was officially announced that ITER will be built in the European Union, at the Cadarache site. The negotiations that led to the decision ended in the EU and Japan having a "privileged partnership", entailing that Japan, which by then was expected to fund 10% of the project, was promised 20% of the research staff and the right to propose the Director General of the ITER organisation. In addition, a part of Europe´s contribution will be purchased in Japan. Another research facility for the ITER project will be built in Japan, for which the European Union has agreed to contribute about 50% of the costs.

Setting up the ITER related organisations

The international ITER agreement was signed in November 2006 by the 7 partners of the project. According to the agreement the ITER project would be undertaken by the ITER International Organisation which is responsible for all aspects of the project: the licensing procedure, hardware procurements, construction, the twenty-year operation period, and ultimately for decommissioning of ITER at the end of its lifetime. The ITER Organisation was formally established in October 2007 (although it was operational already before that) having its headquarters in Cadarache, France.

The ITER parties agreed to provide contributions to ITER through legal entities referred to as "Domestic Agencies". Europe has fulfilled its obligation by launching the European Domestic Agency called "Fusion for Energy", also called F4E, in March 2007. The other parties also established their domestic agencies.

Current situation

Both the ITER Organisation and F4E are now fully operational and have seen a significant increase in number of staff since their establishment.

The ITER construction works started with preparation of the ground of the site i.e. levelling the platform where the buildings will be constructed. This work is almost finished. The next step, the excavation of the tokamak facility, is scheduled to start in the summer 2009.

In 2007 and 2008, the ITER Organisation conducted a design review of the ITER machine. The organisation started moving from designing to procuring by signing its first procurement arrangement with the Japanese domestic agency in November 2007. F4E launched its first procurement for ITER in April 2008 unlocking new business opportunities for European industry.