ITER and CEA to enhance their scientific cooperation

The ITER Organization and the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA) last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will enable collaborative research actions to prepare for ITER, including the use of CEA's fusion facility Tore Supra.

 

The scope and type of technical activities comprised within this cooperation include the study of plasma-wall interactions, requirement and feasibility studies of ITER's diagnostic and heating and current drive systems, and tokamak operations. The cooperation further encompasses the organization of joint seminars, workshops, training activities and a PhD scheme. "The ITER Organization and CEA/IRFM have already established a fruitful relationship," says Gabriel Marbach, Head of the Institute of Magnetic Fusion Research (IRFM), the fusion branch within CEA that operates Tore Supra. "The Memorandum will allow us to further enhance our technical and scientific collaborations, taking advantage of our proximity and complementarities."

 

The memorandum was signed last Tuesday by ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima and by Bernard Bigot, Administrateur général du CEA (Chairman, French Atomic Energy Agency), who stated after the handshake: "To secure the expected success of ITER and to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy for the sake the world's future, the ITER Project requires the cooperation of all the involved parties. CEA is pleased if it may contribute further within the scope of this memorandum, which marks a new step in the successful cooperation with the ITER Organization that we have had since 2006."