Fusion for Energy (F4E) is a joint undertaking of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) that is responsible for the EU's contribution to the

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ''iter'' meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy through a fusion process s ...

(ITER), the world's largest scientific partnership aiming to demonstrate fusion as a viable and sustainable source of energy. The organisation is officially named European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy and was created under article 45 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community by the decision of the

Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and less formally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven institutions of the European Union (EU) a ...

on 27 March 2007 for a period of 35 years. F4E counts 450 members of staff. Its seat is located in

Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a pop ...

, and it has offices in

Saint-Paul-lès-Durance Saint-Paul-lès-Durance (, literally ''Saint-Paul near Durance''; also spelled Saint-Paul-lez-Durance; Provençal: ''Sant Pau de Durença'') is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in Provence, southern France. The Cadarache resea ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and Garching, Germany. One of its main tasks is to work together with European industry and research organisations to develop and provide a wide range of high technology components for the

ITER ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ''iter'' meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy through a fusion process s ...

project.

Mission and governance

The European Union is the host party for the ITER project. Its contribution amounts to 45%, while the other six parties have an in-kind contribution of approximately 9% each. Since 2008, F4E has been collaborating with at least 440 companies and more than 65 R&D organisations. F4E's primary mission is to manage the European contribution to the ITER project; therefore it provides financial funds, which mostly come from the European Community budget. Among other tasks, F4E oversees the preparation of the ITER construction site in

, in

. F4E is formed by Euratom (represented by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

), the

Member States of the European Union The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are party to the EU's founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. They have agreed by the treaties to share their o ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, which participates as a third country. To ensure the overall supervision of its activities, the members sit on a governing board, which has a wide range of responsibilities including appointing the director.

Difficulties

A report by the consultancy

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

published in 2013 by the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

's Budgetary Control Committee found that F4E had suffered from significant management difficulties. According to the report, "the organisation faced a series of internal problems that have only been gradually addressed, notably an organisational structure ill-adapted for project-oriented activities." From 2010, a host of reforms were undertaken within F4E, including a reshuffling and reorientation of the governance and management structures, as well as a cost-savings programme.

Projects

Fusion is the process which powers the sun, producing energy by fusing together light atoms such as

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

at extremely high pressures and temperatures. Fusion reactors use two forms of hydrogen,

deuterium Deuterium (hydrogen-2, symbol H or D, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen; the other is protium, or hydrogen-1, H. The deuterium nucleus (deuteron) contains one proton and one neutron, whereas the far more c ...

and

tritium Tritium () or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of ~12.33 years. The tritium nucleus (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of the ...

, as fuel. The benefits of fusion energy are that it is an inherently safe process and it does not create greenhouse gases or long-lasting radioactive waste.

ITER

, meaning "the way" in Latin, is an international experiment aiming to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion as an energy source. The machine is being constructed in

in the South of

and is funded by seven parties:

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Collectively, the parties taking part in the ITER project represent over one half of the world's population and 80% of the global

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...

The DEMO project

F4E also aims to contribute to DEMO (Demonstration Power Plant). This experiment is supposed to generate significant amounts of electricity over extended periods and will be self-sufficient in

, one of the necessary gases to create fusion. The first commercial fusion electricity power plants are set to be established following DEMO, which is set to be larger in size than ITER and to produce significantly larger fusion power over long periods: a continuous production of up to 500 megawatts of electricity.

Broader Approach activities

The Broader Approach (BA) activities are three research projects carried out under an agreement between the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and

, which contribute equally financially. They are meant to complement the ITER project and accelerate the development of fusion energy through R&D by cooperating on a number of projects of mutual interest. This agreement entered into force on 1 June 2007 and runs for at least 10 years. The Broader Approach consists of three main projects located in Japan: the Satellite Tokamak Programme project

JT-60SA JT-60 (short for Japan Torus-60) is a large research tokamak, the flagship of the Japanese National Institute for Quantum Science and Technology's fusion energy directorate. As of 2023 the device is known as JT-60SA and is the largest opera ...

(super advanced), the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility / Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities (IFMIF/EVEDA) and the International Fusion Energy Research Centre (IFERC).

References

External links

Fusion for Energy
the agency's home page.
Fusion for Energy: Understanding Fusion

the Fusion page of the EURATOM
Agreement between the European Atomic Energy Community and the Government of Japan for the JointImplementation of the Broader Approach Activities in the Field of Fusion Energy Research

IFMIF
IFMIF/EVEDA home page.
IFERC
home page. {{Authority control Joint undertakings of the European Union and European Atomic Energy Community European Atomic Energy Community