Bonn 2010 – scientific programme

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AKE: Arbeitskreis Energie

AKE 3: Kernfusion

AKE 3.1: Invited Talk

Monday, March 15, 2010, 16:45–17:15, JUR D

ITER, the decisive step towards Fusion Energy — •Guenter Janeschitz — ITER Organisation Building 519, CS 90 046, 13067 St Paul Lez Durance Cedex, France

ITER will be the world's first burning magnetic confinement fusion plasma experiment. Construction has started in Cadarache (France) in a worldwide collaboration. The project shall be the decisive step for the demonstration of the scientific-technical feasibility of fusion power on the development path towards a prototypical commercial Fusion Reactor.

The principal performance goal of ITER is to generate 500 MW of fusion power for periods of 300 to 500 sec with a fusion gain of 10 (ratio of fusion power versus plasma heating). Major scientific-technological goals are to explore steady state operation with a fusion gain of 5 and to test breeding blanket technologies which are needed to close the Tritium cycle in a future fusion reactor. ITER is already in many ways a prototype of a fusion reactor at industrial scale. However, there are technical challenges which cannot be addressed in ITER such as. the development of suitable materials and the demonstration of their adequate lifetime.

The talk will review examples of major technological developments which have been achieved during the design and R&D phases of ITER. The current status, the challenges and the milestones of the project will be presented and an overview will be given of activities which have to be undertaken in parallel to ITER. Finally, the strategy towards useful fusion energy and its approximate time scales will be discussed.