ITER NEWSLINE
14
KSTAR inauguration ceremony
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KSTAR inauguration ceremony
On September 14, the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) was unveiled at the Daedok Science Town in Daejeon, about 150 kilometres south of Seoul. President Roh Moo-Hyun and Deputy Prime-Minister and Science and Technology Minister Kim Woo-Shik of Korea took part in the ceremony together with about 400 invited guests from ITER Members, among them ITER Director General Kaname Ikeda.
In his opening speech President Shik said that "developed over 12 years at a cost of 309 billion won (US$332 million), KSTAR will make South Korea a world leader in the field of nuclear fusion. By completing KSTAR with our own technology, we have laid the stepping stone to becoming a nuclear fusion powerhouse."
DG Ikeda in his congratulatory remarks said, "KSTAR will play a crucial role in the development of fusion power. It will be a steady-state-capable fusion device with a fully superconducting magnet system. ...KSTAR will serve as an ITER pilot plant.... KSTAR will serve to educate students and young scientists in fusion device technology by analyzing the tokamak's performance and related facilities."
In his congratulatory speech President Roh said that South Korea will grow into one of the world's top five countries in nuclear fusion energy technology by 2021, and will start commercial generation of electricity through nuclear fusion by 2040. "We have to bet heavily on the development of clean, safe and limitless energy sources, such as nuclear fusion. Our experience and technology acquired from the KSTAR will be greatly helpful to the implementation of ITER. The participation of Korea in the ITER Project gives Korea a solid position in the area of fusion research in the world."
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