ITER Project potential as future energy

ITER is a large-scale scientific experiment intended to prove the viability of fusion as an energy source, and to collect the data necessary for the design and subsequent operation of the first electricity-producing fusion power plant. Launched as an idea for international collaboration in 1985, the ITER Agreement includes China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States, representing over half of the world's population.

The ITER platform in Cadarache, where construction will begin in 2010 on buildings and facilities. Photo: Agence ITER France.

ITER is an important step on the road to fusion power plants in Cadarache, Southern France. The project is being planned with great respect for the local environment, in keeping with the aim of producing an environmentally benign form of energy.Fusion has the potential to play an important role as part of a future energy mix for our planet. It has the capacity to produce energy on a large scale, using plentiful fuels, and releasing no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.

Water is essential to the ITER installation. The terrific heat generated by the fusion reaction inside the ITER machine will be evacuated by a water cooling system. Approximately 1.5 million cubic metres of water will be necessary per year during the operational phase of ITER. This water will be supplied by the nearby Canal de Provence, and transported by gravity through underground tunnels to the fusion installation. The volume of water needed for ITER represents only 1% of the total water transported by the Canal de Provence.

Electrical supply to the ITER site will be assured by an existing network that feeds the Tore Supra Tokamak - part of the adjacent CEA Cadarache research facility. A one-kilometre extension will be enough to link the ITER machine into the network, without changing the current distribution of electrical lines. Operating the ITER Tokamak will require from 120 MW to up to 620 MW of electricity for peak periods of 30 seconds. No disruption to local users is expected.

The incredibly complex ITER Tokamak will be nearly 30 meters tall, and weigh 23000 tons.The very small man dressed in blue at bottom right gives us some idea of the machine's scale.

During ITER operation, the products of the fusion process are Helium, which is inert and harmless, and neutrons, which will lodge in the vessel walls and produce heat and activation of materials. ITER is an experimental facility and is not designed to produce electricity; the heat produced by the fusion reaction will be evacuated by water circulating through the components inside the vacuum vessel and by water circulating in the vacuum vessel walls.

ITER is not an end in itself. It is the bridge toward a first plant that will demonstrate the large-scale production of electrical power and Tritium fuel self-sufficiency. This is the next step after ITER, the Demonstration Power Plant, or DEMO for short. A conceptual design for such a machine could be complete by 2017. If all goes well, DEMO will lead fusion into its industrial era, beginning operations in the early 2030s, and putting fusion power into the grid as early as 2040.

While ITER is being constructed and DEMO is in its conceptual phase, several fusion installations, with different characteristics and objectives, will be operating around the world to conduct complementary research and development in support of ITER. In Japan, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) program has begun. This installation, part of the "Broader Approach" Agreement, will test and qualify the advanced materials needed for a full-scale fusion plant.By the last quarter of this century, if ITER and DEMO are successful, our world will enter the Age of Fusion - an age when mankind covers a significant part of its energy needs with an inexhaustible, environmentally benign, and universally available resource.

you can see more information about the ITER Project through this website, http://www.iter.org/