Fusion for Energy (F4E) is a

joint undertaking The agencies of the European Union (formally: ''Agencies, decentralised independent bodies, corporate bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and the Euratom'') are bodies of the European Union and the Euratom established as juridica ...

of the

European Atomic Energy Community The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nucl ...

(Euratom) that is responsible for the EU's contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (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 Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices de ...

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 informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...

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 coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, and it has offices in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, 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 by replicating, on Ear ...

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 Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, in

. F4E is formed by Euratom (represented by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

), the Member States of the European Union and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, 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 Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

published in 2013 by the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

'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 the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-to ...

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

deuterium Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being protium, or hydrogen-1). The nucleus of a deuterium atom, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one ...

and

tritium Tritium ( or , ) or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life about 12 years. The nucleus of tritium (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of ...

, 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 Saint-Paul-lès-Durance 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. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, 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 located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), 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 and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. 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 market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

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

(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 (super advanced), the

International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility, also known as IFMIF, is a projected material testing facility in which candidate materials for the use in an energy producing fusion reactor can be fully qualified. IFMIF will be an acceler ...

/ 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 The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nucl ...

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