History of the ITER project

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 and to demonstrate its scientific and technical feasibility.

The idea for ITER originated from the Geneva superpower summit in November 1985 where Premier Gorbachov, 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, the Republic of Korea and to India.

In 1988 the conceptual design work was started, later followed by engineering design. On July 21st, 2001, the ITER engineering design activities were successfully completed, and the final design report was made available to the ITER parties. The design was underpinned by Research & Development work worth $650M, which was carried out by the ITER parties to establish the practical feasibility of the design.

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.

The physics and technology experiments conducted in many fusion devices worldwide have provided a solid physics base for extrapolation to the ITER scale. A number of key high-technology components, such as superconducting coils, have been developed specifically and manufactured by industry and are ready for production.

A number of changes occurred in the partners participating to the ITER project. Following the collapse of the Sovjet Union, the Russian Federation took its place as ITER partner. The USA temporarily opted out of the project in 1999, to return in 2003. Canada become a partner in 2001, and left the project at the end of 2003. The People´s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea both joined the project in 2003, and finally India joined in December 2005. Presently, the partners are 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.

Current situation

The recent decision to construct ITER in Cadarache in the South of France allows the project to move on to its construction phase. In the mean time, agreement has been reached on the sharing of the costs and the in-kind contributions to the project between the different Parties. The way is now open for the signing of a joint implementation agreement, which will allow the international ITER Organisation, based in Cadarache, to be established. The ITER organisation will be responsible for all aspects of the project: the licensing procedure, hardware procurements mostly provided in kind by the Parties, the twenty-year operation period, and ultimately for decommissioning of ITER at the end of its lifetime.

In the first months of 2006, the top management team of ITER has been named. The Director-General of the project is Kaname Ikeda, formerly Ambassador for Japan in Croatia. The Project Construction Leader will be Dr. Norbert Holtkamp, born German, and former director of accelerator systems at the Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge, USA. Current expectations are that the ITER organisation should be established around the end of 2006, and following licensing, begin construction in 2008, with a view of obtaining the first plasma in 2016. This will be followed by an exploitation phase lasting about 20 years.