Karlsruhe Research Centre - Fusion project annual report 1996-1997
The Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe contributes to the EU's Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion research programme through an agreement with the Commission. The annual report covering activities between October 1996 and September 1997 has recently been published by the Centre. A substantial part of the Centre's work contributes directly to the development of the "Next Step" experimental reactor, planned by the EU, Japan, Russia and the USA. This reactor would be built to demonstrate the technical feasibility of producing fusion power on the scale necessary for electricity generation. The report details the major activities conducted during the year as part of the Next Step project. The second area of the Centre's work, also addressed in the report, is its own long-term technology programme. Here programmes are underway in fields such as blanket development, materials, neutron sources, safety, the nuclear database and socio-economic research.