On October 17, Director General of ROSATOM Alexey Likhachev visited the construction site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France. The project aims to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of industrial use of thermonuclear energy, as well as develop the required technological processes.
During his visit, the head of ROSATOM conducted a working meeting with Director-General of the ITER Organization Bernard Bigot, who highlighted the importance of continuous international cooperation and the significance of the Russian contribution to the project. “ITER is a true example of successful international cooperation, with Russia’s contribution playing a key role as one of our seven major partners. I am delighted to tell you that today we are 65% of completion through First Plasma, well on track with our ambitious timeline”, said Bigot.
In turn, Likhachev praised the success in the project. “We are pleased to be part of such a grandiose scientific project that brought together scientists from all over the world. For us, this is not simply a responsibility to the country’s leaders and international scientific partnerships, but also an important area of activity of the corporation itself,” he said. “The implementation of the ITER project shapes and supports scientific and engineering teams at our enterprises, sets out cooperation with other institutes and organizations, and also provides training for highly qualified specialists at a number of universities.”
The ITER construction project comprises a total of 35 countries, including 28 EU member states, as well as the USA, India, China, Japan, South Korea and the Russian Federation.
Currently, the ITER project is at the stage of full-scale implementation. In particular, the transition to the reactor assembly stage is underway, with the components of the future facility being delivered to the construction site.
ROSATOM is identified as the party responsible for the Russian contribution to the project. For the ITER project, Russia manufactures and supplies 25 systems of complex high-tech equipment. To date, relevant works have been fully completed on one of the key types of equipment –superconductors for ITER magnetic coils in the amount of 200 tons.
The State Corporation takes part in a number of other large-scale science-intensive projects, including the international project “Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research” (FAIR), which will study the properties of fundamental particles and how these particles combine into more complex forms of matter. Further, ROSATOM participates in construction of the largest ever accelerator complex FCC (Future Circular Collider), which should replace the Large Hadron Collider. For this project, the Corporation is responsible for manufacturing of superconducting elements.
