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Introduction
Nature says the EU is going to build ITER at the French site, with or without the U.S. The EU sponsored the last successful fusion torus experiment, JET, and holds the record for time up. ITER has been plagued with dissent, mostly from the U.S., so the project has been delayed for years and years. The Clinton Administration abandoned support for fusion research. The Bush Administration has resumed support, at a miserly level. It looks like the EU, disenchanted with the U.S. generally, has decided to move its own agenda.

Introduction

Nature says the EU is going to build ITER at the French site, with or without the U.S. The EU sponsored the last successful fusion torus experiment, JET, and holds the record for time up.

ITER has been plagued with dissent, mostly from the U.S., so the project has been delayed for years and years. The Clinton Administration abandoned support for fusion research. The Bush Administration has resumed support, at a miserly level.

It looks like the EU, disenchanted with the U.S. generally, has decided to move its own agenda.

ITER^_* is an important experiment. If built, "ITER would be more than double the size of the facility at Jet, and would aim to generate 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds or longer.", according to a May, 2004 BBC report. ITER has been considered the crucial "engineering test" of fusion power which, if successful, would open the way for development of power reactors.

With the EU, China and Russia backing the French site, it looks like that is what will happen (or, at least, I hope it will). The Japanese are backing their own site, probably because it would represent a significant influx of research money from the United States. For decades, the United States has been reluctant to spend a lot of money on ITER, harping on the idea that the other partners should put up more cash. At one point, ITER might have been built in San Diego, and even the Canadians were interested in funding it. However, those earlier plans came to nothing, as the United States also wanted near-total control of the project (and lucrative contracts).

Europe seems more determined to follow its own star in many things, not just ITER. For example, EU representatives negotiated the recent nuclear non-proliferation agreement with Iran without the U.S. Bush's re-election may have tipped the balance in favor of a go-it-alone approach on ITER, as EU does not have good relations with the unilateralist Bush government.

Despite Ohtake's complaint (see below), this may be a good thing in disguise. A European torus may energize the U.S. to compete by funding the Japanese location. Or, the Japanese may throw in their lot with the EU. For the EU, China and Japan, extracting fusion power is a lot more important than placating American oil men; their national energy supplies are in doubt. If the Japanese give up on United States' backing or help in the ITER project, it would be yet another step in the (on-going) loss of U.S. influence in the world (except what compliance it gets by military force).

Note: This project may cost about $7 billion. When first proposed, a decade ago, it would have cost about $2-3 billion. Whatever the numbers, it is far less than the cost of imported Arab oil. If successful, fusion power would open a way to reduce oil use, and may make hydrogen production economically feasible.

From Nature, November 26, 2004:

Europe prepares to go for fusion alone

Declan Butler

EU says it could build a new reactor without Japanese support.

European ministers today agreed to build the $6.1-billion ITER experimental nuclear-fusion reactor with less than all its international partners, if that proves necessary to secure a French site for the project.

ITER will try to prove the principle of creating fusion energy by heating plasma constrained by a magnetic field. But a deadlock among the project's six partners over the choice of host has stalled it for more than a year.

China and Russia are backing the European Union's Cadarache site in France, whereas the United States and Korea support Japan's rival site at Rokkasho.

The latest international meeting, held on 9 November in Vienna, ended yet again without decision (see "Stalemate over fusion project threatens to provoke split").

On 26 November, the EU Competitiveness Council mandated the European Commission, the union's executive arm, to start ITER with fewer international partners if no deal could be reached with Japan. It also stated that the commission should complete the legal agreements needed to build ITER by next June, meaning that it would need to close any deal by the end of the year.

Informed of the development by Nature, Satoru Ohtake, director of fusion energy at Japan's science ministry, expressed doubts that Europe was committed to its declared stance, suggesting that the move might equally be intended to raise the stakes in the ITER negotiations. "If they think this will put pressure on us, they are wrong," he warns.

Ohtake argues that if Europe were to pursue this route, it would damage an important international scientific collaboration. "If they break the negotiations by pursuing their own desires, they will be the ones that break international mutual trust," he says. "This is divisive; it is not acceptable to us."

"The partners must remain united in the search for a compromise even if this takes time," he adds. "If both sides just insist on their own point of view, there is no way out."

* ITER = International Torus Experimental Reactor

Europe may build ITER

Europe prepares to go for fusion alone