Financiering ITER is rond

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30 juli 2010 | De ‘founding fathers’ van het ITER-project, de EU, China, India, Rusland, Korea, Japan en de USA, hebben het budget en de planning van de prestigieuze reactor goedgekeurd. Nadat de bouw een jaar heeft stilgelegen kan het ambitieuze project eindelijk worden voltooid. De Japanse kernfysicus Motojima wordt de nieuwe directeur-generaal.

After one year of political struggle, construction of theInternational Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) may finallyresume. The governing council consisting of its seven members(China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and theUnited States) finally agreed today on the project’s baselineoutlining costs, time frame and design of this ambitious project.Furthermore, the governing council announced that the Japanesefusion-scientist Osamu Motojima would become the newdirector-general of ITER.

ITER aims at constructing a fusion reactor prototype thatimitates the chemical process that fuels stars with their power andthereby creating vast amounts of energy. For one year any progresswas interrupted since the costs of the projects soared and memberstates struggled with financing decisions. Since the EU is hostingthe project in southern France it incurs with 45 % the biggestshare of costs. As the cost estimates almost tripled, the EU struggled to finance its share and reallocatedfunds from existing research projects towards ITER. Facing the debtcrisis, the EU is struggling with the funding of ESA andother research projects with leading politicians such as EUcommissioner Neelie Kroes trying to avoid subsidy races.