Industry and the Fusion Programme

Today we enjoy the benefits of a relaxed energy market. We must not forget, however, that for 80% of our energy requirements we depend on unrenewable fossil (coal, gas and petroleum) with the ensuing environmental problems. Of all known energy alternatives, nuclear power is the only form which has clear possibilities of progressively replacing existing fuels. The way ahead is thermal fission, fast fission and fusion, which not only follow a rational evolutional path, but also offer complementary solutions which de not necessarily preclude each other. Science has now made it possible to be confident of the technical viability of one particular are of development, of which the first phase, thermal fission, has already reached industrial maturity. The ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project concerns the development of a research reacto used to demonstrate the startup and controlled maintenance of the nuclear fusion process. Itr must also serve, however, as the valid reference for the optimum final design of future fusion reactors, and to demonstrate their economic viability. For this reason, it is fundamental that Industry is actively involved in the project. The budget for ITER is approximately USD 10 Billion, a figure similar to the budgets of other international on-going technological projects, such as EUROFIGHTER-2000 and ARIANE 5. The question, therefore, is not so much the budget allocated, as whether it can be demonstrated that fusion power plants will be competitive. Industry has been participating in the ITER EDA (Engineering Design Activities) phase, during which engineering activities and the 15 critical technologies have been defined. The European Home Team has appointed EFET (European Fusion Engineering and Technology)-CITIF (It), Belgatom (Bel), Framatome (Fr), Ibertef (Sp), IVO (Fin), NNC (UK), Siemens (Ger)-to perform the engineering activities. A number of industrial firms have also been selected to participate in each of the 15 critical technologies