EUROPEAN
COMMISSION
C o m m unity re s e a rch
On course
for Fusion power
A safe and sustainable energy
source for the world
Securing a safe future energy supply
Securing future energy supply is the major challenge for Europe and the
world. Today’s society depends on access to an abundant and reliable
supply of energy. But our main sources of fuel, such as oil and gas, are
becoming scarcer, more expensive and are, in any case, significant sources
of greenhouse gas emissions – the chief cause of global warming.
Global energy demand may double over the next 50 years as people in
developing countries become wealthier. Where will we find the clean,
safe and secure energy that future generations will need around the world?
A balanced mix of energy sources, including renewable technologies such
as wind power, will be necessary to satisfy future needs, but we need to
develop new energy sources that can deliver continuous, large-scale
power for the long term without harming the environment.
Fusion: a potential solution
Fusion energy has the potential to provide a sustainable solution to
European and global energy needs.
A successful realisation of fusion power could offer a continuous base-load
power supply that is sustainable and appropriate for large scale production.
Within the Sun some 600 million tonnes of hydrogen is fused to helium
every second. On Earth, fusion will be reproduced on a rather smaller scale!
But this smaller scale also means that the temperatures involved must be
ten times higher to make a practical energy source. This is a significant
challenge and scientists and engineers from all around the world have
been working on the problem for over fifty years (see time line).
Tokamak – a plasma heart
To produce fusion on Earth, tritium and deuterium must be heated to
around 100 million º C. At this high temperature a fourth state of matter
is produced called a plasma. Plasma is an ionised gas in which the gas
atoms have been stripped of their electrons. This high-temperature
“electrically-charged gas” has a number of unique properties; including
a strong response to electromagnetic fields. For continuous fusion
power, the high-temperature plasma should be controlled, and contained;
in a tokamak, this is achieved using powerful magnetic fields.
Fusion is the process that powers the Sun. In fact it is fusion energy that
makes all life on Earth possible. Fusion releases energy as a result of two light
atoms such as hydrogen joining together to form a helium atom. Inside the
Sun hydrogen collides and fuses together under enormous gravitational
pressures and at extremely high temperatures (about 15 million ºC).
Fusion: the advantages
On Earth, the fuel for fusion reactors will be two forms (isotopes) of
hydrogen gas: deuterium and tritium. There are around 33 milligrammes
of deuterium in every litre of water. If all the deuterium in one litre of
water was fused with tritium it could produce as much electricity as
burning 340 litres of petrol! The natural abundance of tritium on Earth
is extremely low, however it can be produced from lithium (a light and
abundant metal) inside the fusion reactor.
In addition to an almost limitless fuel supply, no transport of radioactive
materials is needed for the day-to-day running of a fusion power plant.
The plant itself should be inherently safe, with runaway or meltdown
accidents impossible. The fusion process will not create greenhouse
gases or long-lasting radioactive waste.
A tokamak is a torus or ‘doughnut-shaped’ device – essentially a continuous tube. The first tokamak was conceived in Moscow in the 1960s
and was designed specifically to create an intricate but ingenious
magnetic cage to confine high-energy plasma.
Early research 1945 – 1980
First kiloampere
plasma created at
Imperial College London
Classified research in US,
Soviet and UK on
doughnut-shaped fusion devices
68
19
78
1970
76
1960
19
50
19
19
47
1950
Soviet T-3 tokamak
19
19
58
Fusion research declassified
following Atoms
for Peace conference in Geneva
JET construction
begins
Joint European
Torus (JET) design work
begins
This joint approach has allowed all European Member States and
Associated States to participate and contribute to the currently largest
and most successful fusion experiment in the world, the Joint European
Torus, known as JET, in Culham, United Kingdom. The JET device will
provide the basic design of ITER.
The European budget for Fusion energy research is over € 1 900 million
for the period 2007–2011. Of this over half is allocated to work involved
in the construction of ITER, but not less than € 900 million is reserved
for other activities including fundamental plasma research and technology projects related to DEMO.
ITER
Now scientists are about to embark on the next step towards realising
the potential of fusion in an international collaboration to build and
operate an experimental fusion facility, called ITER. ITER will be one of
the biggest scientific projects for energy research in the world and it is
being built in Europe.
ITER will be a tokamak capable of generating 500 million watts (MW) of
fusion power continuously for up to 60 minutes. It will be ten times the
size of JET and very close to the size of future commercial reactors. The
ITER project will, for the first time, allow scientists to study the physics of
a burning plasma – a plasma that is heated by internal fusion reactions rather
than external heating. It will demonstrate and refine the key technologies for
developing fusion as a safe and environmentally benign energy source.
ITER will provide the basis for constructing a demonstration electricitygenerating power plant. It is the crucial next step to achieving the goal
of fusion energy.
Euratom and its Associations
All of Europe’s fusion research is coordinated by the European
Commission. Funding comes from the Euratom Research Framework
Programme and national funds from the EU Member States and
Switzerland.
The ITER experiment will generate ten times more power than is required
to produce and heat the hydrogen plasma. It will test the heating,
control, diagnostic and remote maintenance systems that will be needed
in a real power station. ITER will also test systems to refuel the plasma
and extract impurities.
The co-ordination and long-term continuity of the research is ensured by
Contracts of Associations between Euratom and the national partners.
There are now 26 such contracts including three recently concluded with
institutions in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia. In total some 1 800 professional scientists are involved with research under these contracts with
an annual average budget of € 500 million. In addition, the European
Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) provides the framework for
research, mutual sharing of facilities and the European contribution to
international projects such as ITER.
Concept development 1980 – 2015
16
Signature of
ITER agreement
Cadarache chosen
as ITER site
2
06
20
05
2010
20
97
JET achieves
16 MW fusion power
ITER completed
and first plasma achi
20
20
ITER engineering
design begins
2000
19
92
19
19
88
1990
ITER conceptual
design begins
JET achieves
first plasma
20
01
85
19
19
83
1980
ITER construction
begins
07
Revised ITER
design completed
International fusion
project first proposed
Construction
of DEMO, prototype
power plant, begins
ITER – an international venture
Collaboration
The ITER project is a massive undertaking on the road to fusion power.
It is expected to cost around €10 billion over its 35-year experimental
lifetime. Its results are of critical international interest and it is, therefore,
a truly global project.
The idea for ITER as an international experiment was first proposed
in 1985 and started as a collaboration between the former Soviet Union,
the United States, the European Union and Japan under the auspices
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
ITER is an example of international collaboration among countries involved
in fusion research worldwide. Conceptual and engineering studies for ITER
led to a detailed design that was finalised in 2001. This design was validated
by a large research programme involving industry for the construction
of full-scale prototypes of key ITER components. The successful testing
of some of these components has given a key boost to confidence in
the project.
Building and operating ITER is a massive international challenge for
science, engineering and technology working at the limit of human
knowledge. This has built on the leading fusion experiments, such as
Euratom’s Joint European Torus, the Japan Torus-60 in Japan and the
Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in the US.
All the fusion experimental facilities in the Euratom programme have
provided expertise and data in fusion physics and technology in preparation for ITER. This experimental programme will continue and new
fusion devices be brought into operation to provide insights on ITER
operational conditions and prove design enhancements that could
provide efficiency improvements for the power producing plants.
ITER was always designed so that it could be built on the territory of any
of the participating countries. The reactor’s final design defined a list of
criteria that any site for ITER would require.
Today, the ITER organisation consists of the European Union Member
States (including Switzerland as an associate state), India, Japan, the
People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, the Russian
Federation and the United States of America. This new organisation
already represents over half the world’s population. Other countries
may join it in the future, as ITER moves from design to reality.
Training for a fusion future
The ITER project will require a wide range of highly skilled staff, especially
in the areas of fusion engineering, project management, computer-aided
design, quality assurance and other disciplines.
A special Euratom Fusion Training Scheme has already been launched
that will support up to 53 young trainees in the field of fusion energy
research. The scheme is operated through a consortia of organisations
involved in the European fusion programme and is accessible to experienced researchers, post graduates and engineers.
This scheme will play a significant role in enhancing the successful
European Fusion Research Area by strengthening collaborations between
research organisations, integrating researchers from the new EU
Member States and transferring knowledge and know-how between
fusion research laboratories and industry. All of these activities will support
the ITER project and the selected trainees will acquire high level competencies working on specific R&D projects relevant to ITER.
Europe is a world leader in fusion energy research, but continued success,
as in any scientific discipline, can only be guaranteed with the availability
of high calibre researchers. With the start of ITER imminent, it is now
even more important to maintain and develop further the specialised
skills needed for fusion energy research.
The path to power 2015 – 2050
DEMO begins
operation
e
s
20
2050
2040
50
2030
20
02
2
2020
32
eved
First commercial
fusion power plant
begins operation
Are we there yet? Political as well as technical trials have dogged the footsteps of fusion.
This largest of international collaborations will likely hit some more bumps before it is done.
Fusion and Euratom FP7
Europe has been a leader in fusion energy research for 50 years.
Research on fusion energy as a safe, sustainable, environmentally responsible and economically viable energy source is one of the primary
objectives of Euratom FP7.
The long-term goal of European fusion research, that embraces the
research activities of all EU Member States and associated states in a
true European Research Area, is the joint creation of prototype reactors
for fusion power stations that are economically viable.
The strategy to achieve this goal sees the construction of ITER as an
international research facility that will demonstrate the scientific and
technical feasibility of fusion power as a first priority. This will be followed by the construction of DEMO, a “demonstration” fusion power
plant.
© 2005 Verdult - New Media Design
The Euratom programme will continue to develop the knowledge base
for ITER and contribute significantly to its construction activities. This
will be accompanied by a dynamic programme of supporting research
and development for ITER, its operation, technology activities, such as
developments in fusion materials, in preparation for DEMO.
The European contribution to the ITER project will be channeled via
a Joint Undertaking established under the Euratom Treaty. The organisation will be situated in Barcelona, Spain, and will be called ‘Fusion for
Energy’.
On 21 November 2006 ministers from the seven parties committed to
the ITER project came together to sign the agreement that establishes
the ITER international organisation. The signing ceremony took place at
the Elysée Palace in Paris.
After much discussion amoung the parties, the Cadarache site was chosen
in 2005 from a short-list of four possible sites around the world. The
construction site covers a total surface area of about 40 hectares with
another 30 hectares available temporarily for use during the construction.
Key requirements for the ITER site included thermal cooling capacity of
around 450 MW and an electrical power supply of up to 120 MW.
Construction is ready to start and, if all goes to plan, the first ITER plasma
will light up in 2016.
The scientific and technical challenge to provide controlled fusion
power is great, but the global need for such a clean and sustainable
energy source is even greater! Euratom FP7 is playing a significant role
in its achievement.
DEMO
Many of the components tested in ITER could be used in a demonstration
power plant (DEMO). In parallel to the realisation of ITER, advanced
fusion materials research will contribute to the technology solutions
needed for DEMO and the first commercial fusion power plants.
For more information
ITER: http://www.iter.org/
EFDA: http://www.efda.org/
European Commission Fusion research: http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/fu/article_1122_en.htm
Fusion for Energy: http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/fu/fu_rd/article_3329_en.htm
European Commission
DG Research: http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/fi/article_1121_en.htm
Cordis: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html
Contacts
Europe Direct Enquiries Service: http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=enquiries
DG Research
European Commission
B-1049 Brussels
Belgium
KI-76-06-363-EN-D
ITER at Europe
The ITER reactor is being built at Cadarache in southern France. The
Cadarache site is already a large scale energy research centre for the
French Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat pour l'Énergie
Atomique, CEA).