The troubled negotiations over whether to build the world鈥檚 largest nuclear fusion facility in France or Japan have finally come to a head.
On Monday, an unnamed European Union official was reported as saying that Japan would withdraw its bid in return for 鈥渃ompensation鈥�, probably a smaller, related project. However, an official at Japan鈥檚 Science and Technology Ministry later said there was no truth in the remarks and that Japan still wanted the facility. 鈥淲e do not understand why the EU suddenly said what they said. Maybe that鈥檚 a negotiation technique.鈥�
The ambitious project, called ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), aims to lay the groundwork for using nuclear fusion as an inexhaustible and clean source of energy. It plans to create the technology that allows a fusion reactor to produce at least five times as much energy as is put in. ITER would take 10 years and cost about $5 billion.
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But negotiations have been stalled since December 2003 because its six member parties cannot agree on where to locate the premier facility. The EU, China and Russia have lobbied for Cadarache in France, while the US, South Korea and Japan have supported the Japanese town of Rokkashomura.
On Tuesday at six-party talks in Vienna, Austria, the EU confirmed that it was prepared to forge ahead by itself. 鈥淥ur basis for negotiations is to locate ITER at Cadarache and we hope to achieve that. We hope to get a result this evening,鈥� said European Commission spokesman Fabio Fabbi. But if the discussions in Vienna break down, 鈥渢he alternative is to go ahead at Cadarache with the maximum number of partners鈥�, he said.
Fusion confusion
The sight of movement in the negotiations has stirred fusion scientists. 鈥淓verybody is running up and down the hallway saying, 鈥業s this rumour about France true?'鈥� says Raymond Fonck, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who has reviewed ITER for the US National Academy of Sciences.
鈥淭he fusion research community has been agnostic as to where the site is,鈥� he told 快猫短视频. 鈥淚 think all of us would be happy just to have a decision.鈥�
It seems likely that either France or Japan will eventually lose out. Fusion scientists say the possible compensation could be a control centre that would remotely manage the main facility鈥檚 experiments or, more likely, a materials test facility estimated to cost between $1 billion and $2 billion.
鈥淭here has to be a win-win situation,鈥� ITER鈥檚 former deputy director Ronald Parker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently told 快猫短视频. 鈥淎 materials test facility would be the next desirable prize.鈥�
The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility would test how various materials stand up to bombardment by the high-energy neutrons produced in fusion reactions. Materials resistant to long-term stresses from the neutrons will be required to build fusion reactors.
ITER would work by heating isotopes of hydrogen to hundreds of millions of degrees, creating a plasma of charged particles. Confined by magnetic fields in a doughnut-shaped machine called a tokamak, the particles would collide and fuse, producing high-energy helium nuclei and neutrons.
The uncharged neutrons would escape the tokamak, generating heat that could be siphoned off for generating electricity. But the positively charged helium nuclei would be trapped by the magnetic fields and would help sustain fusion reactions.