STATUS OF THE ITER DESIGN

With the three large tokamaks (JET, TFTR and JT-6OU) now having reached their main performance objective of approaching the conditions for fusion break-even, continued progress in fusion research requires a device capable of thermonuclear ignition and sustained burn. This need has motivated the concept of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a joint venture undertaken by the European, American, Japanese and Russian governments to design, and hopefully build, such a device. The main objectives of ITER are to produce sustained ignition, and to demonstrate the use of technologies critical to the development of fusion. Examples are large super-conducting magnets, first-wall and divertor systems capable of removing reactor-relevant heat loads (0.55-5 MW/m2) while maintaining their integrity in a high flux (greater-than-or-equal-to MW/m2) of 14 MeV neutrons, and environmentally attractive blanket modules having breeding ratio (tritons produced per incident neutron) near unity.