On Feb 12 2008 Russia to sign first contract under ITER project

23.01.2008 // Gazeta.ru

Russia is ready to make its first practical contribution to ITER project

The deputy director general of VNIINM (Bochvar All-Russian Research Institute of Non-organic Materials) Alexander Shikov has told journalists that on Feb 12 2008 the Russian National Agency of ITER was going to sign its first contract with the ITER Agency in France for delivery of 80 tons of superconducting wire for magnet systems of ITER. “It will be Russia’s first contribution to the project,” Shikov said. The wire will be made at a high-tech semi-conductor workshop at Chepetsk Mechanical Plant. The schedule of the deliveries will be determined in June 2008, “but, most probably, the first delivery will be carried out no earlier than late 2009.”

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project is supposed to become a scientific-technical basis for thermonuclear power engineering, one of the safest and the most promising directions of power engineering. The objective of the project is to demonstrate the scientific and technological capacities of thermonuclear energy. The project is based on the “tokomak” system, a machine designed by Russian scientists for producing a toroidal (doughnut-shaped) magnetic field for confining plasma.

Since the project will be implemented in the territory of the EU (France), the Europeans are ready to cover 40% of the total costs and to prepare the construction site, including the necessary infrastructure. Russia will have 10% in the project, on both the construction and operation stages (including equipment supplies) and, just like the other parties, will have full access to the project’s database.

Russia’s participation in the ITER project will allow the country to strengthen its positions in the sphere of thermonuclear fusion and to train necessary specialists for involvement in future projects in thermonuclear energy and other spheres of science and engineering.

This $13bln project involves the EU, India, China, South Korea, Russia, the US and Japan, with the EU to pay 40% and the rest — 60% (10% each).

ITER will be built in Cadarache (France), while the base for ITER-related research will be deployed in Rokkasho (Japan). The construction of this 500MW will last for 10 years. The reactor will be operated for 20 years on a joint basis.

Unlike modern reactors, which are based on nuclear decay, ITER is based on thermonuclear fusion. In fact, it is an attempt to repeat – in laboratories and, later, in production — a process taking place on the Sun: nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes – deuterium and tritium – which produces neutral helium and a big amount of energy: 1 gram of deuterium-tritium can produce as much energy as 8 tons of oil.

The secretary of the Public Chamber of Russia, President of the Kurchatov Institute Yevgeny Velikhov believes that in some 20–25 years Russia will start operating thermonuclear reactors on a commercial basis.