The Australian ITER Forum

Clean Power Coming: June 29 2005

Today, the world has taken the next step in the pursuit of fusion energy, with site selection of the next generation fusion project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), in Cadarache, in the South of France. ITER, is a “burning” plasma experiment, designed to explore fusion plasmas in a power-plant relevant regime. At a cost of $US10bn ($US6bn construction, and $US4bn operation over 10 years), will also be the world’s single largest experiment.

ITER will be owned and funded by a consortium of six countries and groupings, the US, Russia, China, Japan, Korea and the European Union.

Fusion energy promises virtually limitless energy based on the nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes found in ordinary seawater, with minimal greenhouse gas emissions. The great advantage over fission reactors (aka "atomic" or "nuclear" reactors) is the absence of long-lived radioactive waste. Fusion reactors are also inherently safe. There is no possibility of the reaction itself running out of control.

The fusion process that underpins the fusion energy (the reaction of deuterium and tritium, isotopes of hydrogen) was discovered by an Australian, Sir Mark Oliphant, in 1932. Sir Mark Oliphant founded fusion plasma research at the Australian National University, in the early 1950's. Indeed, the present-day centrepiece of the Australian effort is the H-1 Major National Research Facility, established by the Commonwealth and the Australian National University. The H-1 experiment is a helical magnetic confinement experiment, designed to explore magnetic confinement geometries, and provide a test bed for fundamental plasma research.

Despite Australia's founding role in fusion science, Australia is not presently a part of the ITER partnership. A group of Australian scientists and engineers have formed the “Australian ITER Forum”, with the objective of advancing fusion science, and securing a role for Australia in the ITER project. The group includes scientists from the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, Flinders University, University of Canberra, the University of Newcastle, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, and the Australian Institute for Nuclear Science and Engineering. The Forum intends to host an ITER workshop in early 2006, in which government department officials, the ITER partners, representatives from science and industry, the general public, and the media are invited to discuss an Australian participation in the ITER project.

The Australian Institute of Energy is hosting a seminar on ITER and fusion physics at the ANU on July 6, at 5:30pm. Further information can be obtained by contacting Dennis Van Puyvelde on 02 6274 1371 or d_van_puyvelde@optusnet.com.au

Contacts:

Dr Matthew Hole,

Chair, Australian ITER Forum,

Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering,

Australian National University.

email: matthew.hole@anu.edu.au

Ph : +61 2 6125 7606

Fax: +61 2 6125 4676

Prof. R. Storer,

Flinders University

Ph: +61 8 8201 2309

Dr. Boyd Blackwell

H-1 MNRF Facility Manager

Ph: 0410 693 012