FAQs

Fusion reactors, unlike fission reactors, produce no high activity/long-lived radioactive waste. The "burnt" fuel in a fusion reactor is helium, an inert gas. Activation produced in the material surfaces by the fast neutrons will produce waste that is classified as very low, low, or medium activity waste. All waste materials will be treated, packaged, and stored on site. Because the half-life of most radioisotopes contained in this waste is lower than ten years, within 100 years the radioactivity of the materials will have diminished in such a significant way that the materials can be recycled for use (in other fusion plants, for example). This timetable of 100 years could possibly be reduced for future devices through the continued development of "low activation" materials, which is an important part of fusion research and development today.

The activation or contamination of in-vessel components, the vacuum vessel, the fuel circuit, the cooling system, the maintenance equipment, or buildings will produce an estimated 30,000 tonnes of decommissioning waste that will be removed from the ITER scientific facility and processed.

ITER, as operator, will bear the financial responsibility for the temporary and final storage of operational radioactive waste. Host State France will be in charge of the dismantling phase and the management of the waste resulting from this dismantling; the cost for these activities will be provisioned by ITER during the operation phase and shared by the Members. France will also be responsible for providing temporary storage for part of the operational waste, pending its final disposal; this will be financed through ITER operation cost.

Electrical supply to the ITER site will be assured by an existing network that feeds the Tore Supra Tokamak—part of the adjacent CEA Cadarache research facility. The French electricity provider RTE completed a 4-hectare switchyard on the ITER platform and the connection to the main network in June 2012. Operating the ITER Tokamak will require from 120 MW to up to 620 MW of electricity for peak periods of 30 seconds. No disruption to local users is expected.

Concerning water supply, approximately 3 million cubic metres of water will be necessary per year during the operational phase of ITER. This water will be supplied by the nearby Canal de Provence, and transported by gravity through underground tunnels to the fusion installation. The volume of water needed for ITER represents only 1 percent of the total water transported by the Canal de Provence. The combined effect of the ITER installation and the adjacent CEA facilities remains below 5 percent of the total volume of water transported by the Canal de Provence.