FUSION : THE ITER PROJECT
In June 2005, the French site of Cadarache (near Manosque) was chosen to host the ITER project (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor).
ITER is the largest fusion research project in the world and one of the most innovative scientific projects. It is located at the intersection of four departments: Alpes de Haute Provence, Var, Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône.
Economic benefits:
The configuration of the local environment is undergoing constant change in accommodation, teaching, cultural and sports structures, motorway infrastructure, development of business and trading areas, etc.
In preparation for a scaling over the whole site, around 800 people are expected to reinforce the teams currently on the spot to reach the threshold of 2,000 people by the end of 2016, beginning of 2017.
The pace of work will accelerate for the constructions launched: assembly hall, tokamak buildings, diagnostics, tritium and cryogenic plant.
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Find out about the ITER project's economic spinoff: ITER spinoff
An international scientific programme
ITER is a project on an international scale which aims to reproduce nuclear fusion, the energy source of stars, in a controlled industrial manner on Earth. The particularity of this project is that seven nations are taking part in this international programme; nations which represent 35 nationalities - half the world population - Europe, the United States, Russia, China, Korea, Japan and India.
Each country is in charge of manufacturing different parts of the future machine!
The target: to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of the use of fusion as a source of energy.
ITER will produce at least 10 times more energy (500MWth) than it will use!
Mastering fusion will make it possible to have a new source of clean, risk-free and almost inexhaustible energy. Over thirty years of experimentation should be necessary before ITER can deliver exploitable results.
| Find out more: the W@I |
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