Obiettivo
The overall programmatic objective of ITER is "to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes". ITER would accomplish this objective by "demonstrating controlled ignition and extended burn of deuterium-tritium plasmas, with steady-state as an ultimate goal, by demonstrating technologies essential to a reactor in an integrated system, and by performing integrated testing of high heat-flux and nuclear components required to utilize fusion energy for practical purposes". The principal parametersof the Interim Design for ITER are: Ip = 21 MA, R = 8.1 m, a = 2.8 m, Bt = 5.7 T and Pfusion = 1.5 GW, with a provision of 100 MW auxiliary plasma heating.
The Next Step should provide an essential data base for the design of a demonstration fusion reactor (DEMO) capable of producing significant amounts of electricity while taking due account of environmental constraints.
History:
The problem on how to proceed after JET was raised by the end of the seventies, and the building of the "Next Step" collectively under the aegis of the IAEA was explicitly considered as a possibility. In 1978, the INTOR study - to which participated the USA, the USSR, Japan and Euratom - was launched. INTOR could incorporate the worldwide knowledge on fusion in a competitive manner but it appeared after a few years that further developments were becoming uncertain. Following contacts at the highest political level, the former Parties in the INTOR Study agreed in 1987 to collaborate, with equal status and equal contribution, on the Conceptual Design Activities (CDA) for an International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The ITER CDA phase was successfully concluded by the end of 1990. The ITER Engineering Design Activities (EDA) started in 1992 in the frame of the quadripartite Agreement among Euratom and the governments of Japan, the Russian Federation and the USA. The ITER-EDA is conducted by the four ITER Parties under the auspices of the IAEA and carried out by a Joint Central Team (JCT) located in three internationally staffed co-centres in San Diego (USA), Naka (Japan) and Garching (EU) and by four Home Teams (HT). The Parties agreed in March 1994 to continue the ITER-EDA up to its end foreseen in 1998, when well-documented and technically convincing information for making a decision on construction and siting is expected to be available.
ITER Staffing:
The professional manpower needed to carry out the EDA amounts to about 1,200 pmy. Each of the ITER Parties has undertaken to assign a maximum of 55 professionals plus a very small number of support staff to the JCT. The European contribution to the JCT amounts presently to 42 (all being Commission employees) plus 3 Canadian assignees (remaining in the employment of their Canadian employers). [The professional manpower needed during the construction amounts to about 2,900 pmy.]
ITER Costs (all figures at January 1989 US$): The cost of the design work during the EDA amounts to about $ 250 million. This figure does not include the R&D in support of the design:
* physics R&D, which is an integral part of world fusion programmes;
* basic technology R&D, estimated to about $ 400 million;
* specific engineering R&D, estimated to about $ 300 million.
[The construction cost itself is estimated within a range from 5,050 to 6,620 million $, with a "point estimate" of 5,850 million $; in addition, the management, engineering and R&D costs during the 8.5 years construction phase would fall within the range 1,100 to 1,1200 million $]
Schedule: With regard to the timeschedule, the site selection is assumed to be made at the end of the EDA and to be followed by about 1 1/2 years of site-specific engineering activity. Completion of the construction of ITER is envisaged in 2007 and the first plasma by the end of 2008.