27.11.2007 // Press service of Federal Agency for Nuclear Energy

A delegation of Rosatom is taking part in the first meeting of ITER Council

The first meeting of the ITER Council (the governing body of ITER Organization) is taking place in Cadarache (France) on Nov 27–28 2007.

A delegation of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Energy, led by ITER Council member, deputy head of Rosatom Ivan Kamenskikh, is taking part in the meeting. The other members of ITER Council from the Russian Federation are the deputy head of the staff of the Government of the Russian Federation Igor Borovkov, the head of Rosnauka (Federal Science Agency) Sergey Mazurenko and the president of Kurchatov Institute Yevgeny Velikhov.

On Nov 27 the Council elected EU representative Christopher Llewellyn Smith as their chairman and the president of Kurchatov Institute, laureate of Global Energy International Prize, academician Yevgeny Velikhov as vice chairman.

During the meeting the Council is supposed to discuss the proposals of ITER Organization concerning its management structure, personnel, assessment of ITER project resources and cooperation with IAEA and other organizations.

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The initiator of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project was the Soviet Union, which proposed to build a modern reactor on the basis of the experience of four leading international programs on controlled thermonuclear synthesis. The United States, together with the European Union and Japan, suggested ways to implement such a project. Presently, the project involves Russia, the EU, China, the US, Japan, India and South Korea.

The estimated thermonuclear capacity of ITER is 500MW. The project is supposed to last for nine years. The technical basis of the reactor was ready in 2001. On June 28 2005 the parties to the project met in Moscow and decided to build the reactor in France (Nuclear Center in Cadarache). 

India, with its strong research and technological potential, joined the project in late 2005.

Thermonuclear reactor uses the energy produced by synthesis of hydrogen isotope nuclei. Isotope burning produces no radioactive waste. The reaction takes place in plasma under a temperature of 150,000,000 C. One unit of thermonuclear fuel produces 10,000,000 times more energy than organic fuel and almost 100 times more than uranium nuclei.