International Cooperation

ITER: A Multi-National Partnership

The largest international partnership is that of ITER, which means "the way" in Latin (the way of power in the future) and stands for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. The idea first came about in 1985 when a proposal was made by the Soviet Union to build a fusion device together with other nations. It would be built so that would be capable of producing thermal energy at a level that would be able to run an electricity plant. The four research groups who began working on this are in Europe, Japan, Soviet Union, and the United States of America. In 1992 Canada and Kazakhstan became involved in the project.

Setbacks

In 1998 ITER's budget was cut yet the overall programmatic objective was still maintained. The US left the project in 1999.

Future

The final design of ITER has now been finished and now a spot needs to be found for its location. Canada, France and Japan all have put in bids, with the Canadian site looking most promising. ITER's goal is to provide the next major step for the advancement of fusion science and technology so that fusion power on a large scale can be seen and fusion as a power source will become much closer to reality.

Image courtesy of ITER web site (Link)

US-Japanese Relations

One partnership which was still running as of June 2000, is between the United States and Japan. It was established in 1977, by President Carter and Prime Minister Fukuda. In this cooperation, researchers from both Japan and San Diego, USA travel to each of the stations to share knowledge and participate in research. Three different programs were initiated under this joint effort.

Doublet III and DIII-D

Joint Institute for Fusion Theory

Another program in which both of the countries are participating in is the Joint Institute for Fusion Theory. The two aims of this project is to move forward the theoretical understanding of plasmas and to develop fundamental theoretical and computational tools and concepts so that nonlinear plasmas can be better understood.

Fusion Physics Planning Committee

The third joint expedition is a planning committee (the Fusion Physics Planning Committee) which is used to test, research and promote various concepts on the phenomena of fusion, plasma and the vessels needed to hold and sustain the reaction and subsequent power generation.

Europe: UKAEA

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority was started in 1954, and was therefore the pioneer for nuclear energy the UK. Under UKAEA, there are four experiments running.

JET

In the United Kingdom (Culham, Oxfordshire), the Joint European Torus (JET) is in operation, as the largest and most successful fusion device in the world. This project idea/planning was undertaken in 1978, and the facility was operational by 1983. It has since been updated.

A split image of the inside of the torus, plasma on right Image and information courtesy of JET web site (Link)

JET has provided much valued information and have made essential contributions to the ITER divertor design, such as the needed size, heating requirements and operating conditions. JET has also set three fusion records: It has generated 22 MJ of fusion energy in one pulse, and 16 MW of peak fusion power. It has also managed a 65% ratio of fusion power produced to total input power. Since the beginning of 2000, the JET program has been managed by the EFDA (European Fusion Development Agreement).

Compass-D

Compass-D is a highly flexible, medium-sized tokamak. It was designed and constructed to address the physics behind magnetic confinement fusion. Several areas are currently being researched. The control of instabilities, plasma behavior/properties, exhaust and impurity control, efficiency in operation and high energy confinement mode operation.

MAST and START

The main objectives of MAST (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) are to provide a better understanding of tokamaks, improver ITER design, the effects of plasma shaping (for possible use in a spherical tokamak). This machine took two years to design, and another two years to build. It has been operational since the end of 1999. It was built because a larger scale machine was needed to test to see if results obtained, by the smaller START, could be extended to a larger device.
MAST was devised and constructed because of the outstanding success of it's forerunner, START. START has provided the world's first experimental results on hot spherical tokamak plasmas. Because its performance has exceeded many of its predictions, MAST was set out to be constructed. It is thought that spherical tokamaks may have a number of advantages over the regular 'doughnut' tokamak design.

Source

Independent Research

There are also a large number of smaller fusion research labs. The list below is not exhaustive:

PPPL

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University (New Jersey) began its operation of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in 1976. Their research focuses on fusion physics, MHD stability, transport, reactor wall conditioning, magnetic reconnection studies, beam-surface interaction studies, theoretical plasma physics, plasma confinement, confinement, wave-heating methods, edge physics and plasma transport. They have brought many contributions forward to add to the knowledge of plasma physics and energy production. Visit their website for more information.

JAERI

The Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute JAERI was founded in 1956 and since 1961 has played a large role in nuclear fusion research. Both the JT-60 and the JFT-2M reactors have been used in research, with the JT-60 setting many fusion records. JAERI hopes to have a demonstrative fusion power plant by 2050. Jaeri web site.

To the next page.