Japanese domestic review on the ITER-FEAT outline design report. March 29, 2000. The Fusion Council, Atomic Commission of Japan

The Engineering Design Activities (EDA) of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) had been conducted under the cooperation among the four Parties - Japan, the European Union (EU), the Russian Federation (RF), and the United States (US) - since July 1992. The objectives of ITER would be to demonstrate controlled ignition and extended burn of deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas, with steady-state as an ultimate goal, to demonstrate technologies essential to a fusion reactor in an integrated system, and to perform integrated testing of the high-heat-flux and nuclear components required to utilize fusion energy for practical purposes. In June 1998, the ITER Final Design Report (ITER-FDR) was completed, and the activities were to have proceeded to the construction phase. However, for financial reasons in participating Parties, it became difficult to shift into the construction phase. Therefore, the four parties (three parties at present due to the US withdrawal in July 1999) agreed to extend the EDA for three years. During this extended period of EDA, the cost reduction has to be explored by re-examining the technical objectives and by setting new technical guidelines, in order to increase the possibility of ITER construction. On the basis of the these new technical guidelines, the ITER-FEAT Outline Design Report, developed by the ITER Joint Central Team lead by the ITER Director in collaboration with Japan, EU, and RF Home Teams, was submitted to the ITER meeting in January 2000, and was distributed to each Party for their domestic reviews. The Fusion Council of Japan has received the ITER-FEAT Outline Design Report, and has requested the Technical Subcommittee of ITER/EDA (subsidiary to the Fusion Council) to review the documents from the technical viewpoints. This report summarizes the results of the domestic reviews carried out by the Technical Subcommittee of ITER/EDA. Their position on the ITER-FEAT Outline Design Report is that ITER-FEAT is designed on the basis of the new technical guidelines, employing the technology which has been established through the R and D during the past EDA, or that being established by the current R and D. The ITER-FEAT Outline Design Report is the first milestone in the design activity for ITER-FEAT, and should be the basis for the forthcoming detailed design work that will lead to the ITER-FEAT Final Design Report