Serving science, serving 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.