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Also in this issue

  • Th six-metre-tall structure currently on the shop floor in Ulsan is only the small upper segment of one of the nine ITER vacuum vessel sectors.

    Far from ITER, in the heart of the Tokamak

    In ITER Member factories on three continents, manufacturing has begun for the components of the ITER Tokamak. Here's a look inside the Hyundai shipyard in Korea where two of the nine ITER vacuum vessel sectors are under construction. [...]

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  • Welcome to the machine!

    Tokamak: the name is an acronym from the Russian 'toroidal chamber, magnetic coils.' It describes a type of particularly efficient fusion machine that was deve [...]

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  • Six years after the 9 November 1991 shot that produced fusion energy for the first time in history, JET achieved a record of 16 MW that still holds to this day. Pictured in this 1997 photograph are  Martin Keilhacker (right), at the time JET director, and his his two deputies (center) Alan Gibson and Jean Jacquinot.

    The DT shots heard 'round the world

    Reproducing in a man-made machine the physical reactions that occur at the core of the Sun has been the aim of fusion research for the past 60 years. Building [...]

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  • At approximately 4:00 a.m. on 20 September, the ITER test convoy crosses the roundabout in front of the ITER site.

    A successful journey ... to be replicated 200 times

    [...]

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  • ITER Organization, the seven Domestic Agencies set up by the ITER Members, CEA's Agence Iter France all work together to realize the ITER experimental installation that will open the way to the industrial and commercial exploitation of fusion energy.

    Who does what?

    The ITER Project and its division of tasks between multiple actors can be confusing. Below are some elements of response to the question: 'Who does what at ITE [...]

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  • On this elevated 42-hectare platform in southern France, 35 nations are pooling their resources to build ITER.

    Where are we at?

    On a vast plot of land in southern France, the ITER scientific installation is taking shape. Let's take stock of construction progress, three years after works began. [...]

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Mag Archives

Serving science, serving peace

At ITER, men and women of some 30 nations are inventing, day after day, a unique form of collaboration—one that serves science as much as it serves peace. (Click to view larger version...)
At ITER, men and women of some 30 nations are inventing, day after day, a unique form of collaboration—one that serves science as much as it serves peace.
ITER has always been more than an international research project. When in the early 1980s scientists urged for the construction of a large machine that would demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy—the energy of the Sun and stars—world leaders were looking for a project that would unite the nations of the world in a common, enthralling and peaceful venture.

A decisive political initiative, in 1985, opened the way for the realization of this double aspiration. At their first meeting in Geneva, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to launch an international effort to develop fusion energy research "as an inexhaustible source of energy for the benefit of mankind."

 Soon, the original ITER members (the US; the Soviet Union; the European Union plus Switzerland; and Japan) were joined by China, Korea and India. By 2005, ITER reunited 34 countries representing more than half the world's population and 80% of the planet's industrial product.

On 28 June 2005, the ITER Members unanimously agreed to build ITER in southern France, 75 kilometres north of Marseille. A little more than two years later, an international treaty formally established the ITER Organization. 

Over the six years of its existence, the ITER Organization has realized the double aspiration of the 1980s: the scientific installation that will open the way to an unlimited source of energy is now under construction, and the men and women of some 30 nations are inventing, day after day, a unique form of collaboration—one that serves science as much as it serves peace.