ITER-FEAT - the future international burning plasma experiment - present status

The focus of effort in the ITER engineering design activities (EDA) since 1998 has been the development of a new design to meet revised technical objectives and a cost reduction target of about 50% of the previously accepted cost estimate. Drawing on the design solutions already developed and qualified during the EDA and using the latest physics results and outputs from technology researched development projects, the Joint Central Team and Home Teams, working together, have been able to converge towards a design which meets, in general, the revised objectives and provides acceptable margins against the unavoidable uncertainties in performance projections. The new design will allow the exploration of a range of burning plasma conditions in which energetic α-particles are the dominant source of plasma heating and the main determinants of plasma behaviour, with the capacity to progress towards possible modes of steady state operation. Such plasma performance both necessitates, and provides a test-bed for, a range of advanced technologies required to establish fusion as a practical energy source. As such the new ITER design, whilst having reduced technical objectives from its predecessor, will nonetheless meet the programmatic objective of providing an integrated demonstration of the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. The main features of the current design and of its projected performance are presented and the outlook for construction and operation is discussed. (author)