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Nuclear Fusion Construction Deal Expected at Russia's G8 Summit , (Dominionization)

Nuclear Fusion Construction Deal Expected at Russia's G8 Summit

PHOTO: An artist's conception of the ITER (Photo courtesy U.S. Energy
Department)

MOSCOW, Russia, February 3, 3006 (ENS) - An international
agreement on the construction of the ITER international
experimental nuclear fusion reactor is expected to be signed
during a G8 summit in St. Petersburg in July 2006, said
Yevgeny Velikhov, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
and president of the Kurchatov Institute research center.

"We expect that ministers from the U.S., Japan, China, South
Korea, India and Russia, and the European Union will sign an
interstate agreement on the construction of the ITER during
the summit in St. Petersburg," Velikhov told journalists on
Wednesday, Interfax news agency reported.

Russia assumed the rotating chair of the G8 group of
industrialized countries that includes Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United
States at the beginning of the year.

The core topics for the G8 meeting are energy security in the
world, the fight against infectious diseases, and education,
Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference
Tuesday in Moscow.

ITER is to be constructed in Europe, at Cadarache, near
Aix-en-Provence, France, under the auspices of the
International Atomic Energy Agency.

Final negotiation on the joint implementation agreement of
ITER was concluded December 6, 2005, in Jeju, South Korea.
This meeting also admitted India to the Parties contributing
to the ITER endeavor. Seven governments representing half of
the world's population are now directly involved in the
project.

ITER (pronounced as in fitter) is based around a hydrogen
plasma torus operating at over 100 million degrees Celsius,
and is intended to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power. It
is technically ready to start construction and the first
plasma operation is expected in 2016.

Nuclear fusion - the energy produced by the Sun and other
stars, involves the bringing together of atomic nuclei. When
two light atomic nuclei are brought together to make a heavier
one, the binding energy of the combined nucleus can be more
than the sum of the binding energies of the component nuclei.
This energy difference is released in the fusion process.

Nuclear fission powers today's nuclear plants. When heavy
nuclei split, the binding energies of the pieces can be more
than that of the whole, and the excess energy is released in
the fission process.

Nuclear fusion research is considered worth pursuing because
"it promises to be a widely available energy source with
essentially unlimited supply and manageable environmental
impact," according to a statement by the cooperating
countries.

ITER is viewed as the experimental step between today’s
studies of plasma physics and nuclear fusion power plants of
the future that will produce electricity.

ITER began with an initiative at the 1985 Geneva Summit
between the United States and the USSR. President Ronald
Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev began a process
that led to today's collaboration to construct ITER to
demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of
fusion energy for peaceful purposes.

On January 30 the first ITER International Project Team staff
began working at the Cadarache Joint Work Site.
J-P. Girard, E. Tada, A. Maas, J. How, A. Annicchiarico, J.
Sovka, and T. Nagahama on their first day at the ITER
Cadarache Joint Work Site January 31, 2006. (Photo courtesy
ITER)

The staff from the Safety, Environment and Health Group will
ease preparations for obtaining the construction license.
The staff from the Site, Buildings and Assembly Group of the
Nuclear Technology Division are there to speed up preparations
for initial construction work. As the year goes on they will
be joined by new recruits to the project as well as their
colleagues in other areas from the previous Joint Work Sites
in Garching, Germany and Naka, Japan.

This advanced party is also providing the first test for the
host organization, the French Atomic Energy Commission, in
supporting the relocation of the international scientific
staff in the Cadarache area, as well as in setting up the
basic facilities to support their work.

Meanwhile, the widespread construction of new nuclear power
plants in Russia should be started by 2012, according to
Federal Atomic Energy Agency Chief Sergei Kirienko, who spoke
at a press conference in Zheleznogorsk, Russia on Wednesday.
By 2030 it will be necessary to build about 40 nuclear power
units, he said.

The Russian Federation now generates 16 to 17 percent of its
energy from nuclear power, compared to France, which generates
about 80 percent of its power from nuclear energy.
President Putin said Tuesday that he would like to see Russia
generate 25 percent of its power from nuclear plants in 20 or
30 years.

Find out more about ITER online at: www.iter.org

Questions or Comments: news@ens-news.com

Wed Feb 8