Future

Fusion projects

ITER

Today all efforts of fusion research industry are put to international project named ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). The mission of ITER project is to carry out the largest tokamak in the world in order to indicate the scientific and technical possibilities to use fusion for energy production purposes. Particularly important is to achieve fusion ignition threshold, that to fulfil the Lawson's criterion and keep burning plasma in steady state. ITER will be operating with deuterium - tritium fuel and will be using superconducting magnets Nb3Sn. It is important to test materials and technical solutions for future fusion power plant. ITER is envisioned to generate power of 500 MW, at first in pulse, later in steady state operation.

In the ITER project, launched in 1988, the EU, the USA, Japan, Russia, China, India and South Korea participate. But current set of ITER members was not the same at the beginning i.e. the USA were rotating in the project, China and India has joined later. In 2006 the particularised agreement about construction and maintenance of new tokamak was signed. The ITER construction has been started in 2008 in Cadarache, in France. It is envisaged to be ready for experiments in 2018, but first plasma will not be induced before 2026. At the beginning cost has been estimated at 5 billion eur, today it is known that overall cost will be 16 billion eur.[65], [66], [67]

ITER is not envisioned for electricity generation, but fusion power plant known as DEMO is expected. It will be Demonstration Power Plant with power of 2 GWt.. The design is envisaged to start operating in 2033. There are also proposals for developing ealryDEMO construction. It will be ready before DEMO construction and will be designed with no concerns about the energy production cost. It will be experimental unit to present possibilities of electricity generation and to test known low activating materials such as EUROFER.[33]

ITER project is supporting by many research facilities around the world i.e. IFMIF - International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility, located in Japan. This country is ensure necessary material development.

ITER funds are being acquired from national and international financial resources with minimal share of private capital due to long-term investment. [33]

Ref. [60], [61], [62]

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