Australian scientists seek funding for ITER involvement
Australian scientists have asked their government for more than AUS 60 million (EUR 35.7 million) over 10 years so that it can participate in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project. The experimental fusion reactor will attempt to reproduce on Earth the nuclear reactions that power the Sun and other stars. To produce this energy, the reactor will need to heat hydrogen plasma to temperatures exceeding 100 million °C. The project has seven partners: the European Union; the US; Russia; China; South Korea; Japan and India. The Australian ITER Forum, a network of over 130 scientists and engineers, presented a strategic plan to policy-makers at Parliament House on 15 August. 'It is the world's largest science project. There's a lot of international prestige associated with it and I think Australia would be able to benefit from that by being involved,' the Forum's chairman Dr Matthew Hole is reported as saying. The AUS 60 million would be spent on fellowships and travel for scientists working directly on the ITER project, or on ITER-related science. It would also allow Australian scientists to build a component for ITER. The Australian ITER Forum highlights the fact that the fusion process that underpins the fusion energy was discovered by an Australian, Sir Mark Oliphant, in 1932. Sir Mark founded fusion plasma research at the Australian National University in the early 1950s. The present-day centrepiece of the Australian effort is the H-1 Major National Research Facility, established by the Commonwealth and the Australian National University. The H-1 experiment involves helical magnetic confinement, designed to explore magnetic confinement geometries, and provide a test bed for fundamental plasma research.
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