Reproducing the energy of the sun on Earth

Imagine a world with sufficient energy to light and warm up all the buildings on earth from now until the collapse of the sun in five billion years' time. Imagine obtaining this by simulating the kind of energy present in the universe and at the basis of solar power.

The ITER project, the most ambitious scientific research project on a planetary scale, hopes to achieve this by building a huge international thermo-nuclear experimental reactor (ITER), which will produce fusion energy for peaceful purposes.

On November 21 at the Elysée Palace in Paris, an international consortium composed of the European Union, Japan, Russia, the US, China, India and Korea signed a formal agreement to build this reactor in the presence of President Jacques Chirac, as well as dignitaries and scientists from all over the world.

In 2005, after a fiercely competitive process, it was announced that the ITER would be built in the EU, specifically at Cadarache in southern France, a nuclear research centre founded in 1959 by President Charles De Gaulle. The International ITER organisation will be headed by Kaname Ikeda, former Japanese Ambassador to Croatia. The ITER Europe offices will be located in Barcelona, Spain, and will be directing the calls for tender.

The idea that later gave rise to ITER was born during the Geneva summit in 1985, when the Soviet Union had proposed to build a powerful energy reactor called a Tokamak. This is a machine which tries to create the necessary conditions for the production of the type of fusion reactions that are to be found in the sun. To do this, it is necessary to produce plasma, a very hot ionized gas controlled by very intense magnetic fields.

At the core of the Tokamak is a doughnut ring-shaped magnetic field for confining plasma. The ITER project aims to build a superconductor Tokamak, which will be dedicated to the study of the physics and technology required to create long-lasting plasmas. The idea is to reproduce the same type of energy as that found in the sun, and harness it to substitute fossil fuels and other depletable sources of energy, thus creating a long-lasting energy. The slogan for ITER is "a star on earth".

The construction of the reactor should start in 2008 and it should generate its first plasma in 2016. The budget for the experiment is a colossal €10 billion over 40 years.

The ultimate aim of the ITER project is to build a fusion power plant for commercial purposes, which should start functioning in 2050 and which should give rise to the adoption of this kind of power on a world scale in the following 30 years.

The current project has already achieved a series of world records: in 1996, obtaining plasmas that performed for two minutes and in 1997, obtaining 16 MW of fusion energy in one minute which proved the capacity of this type of machine to produce energy. Currently this has been pushed up to more than six minutes.

The scientists at the ITER plant claim that the fusion type of nuclear reactor is much safer and cleaner than the fission type. Whereas current nuclear plants, working on the basis of fission, have to face the problem of radioactive waste and the danger of a large-scale runaway chain reaction (as those produced in Three Mile Island, USA, in 1979 and Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986), commercial fusion plants do not produce long-lasting radioactive waste and cannot produce large-scale type of nuclear disasters. The reason for this is that a fusion reactor chamber contains amounts of nuclear fuel that can sustain a reaction for one hour, contrary to fission reactors that contain several years' worth of fuel.

ITER College Project

The size and ambition of the project is such that over the next few years, it will be employing hundreds of physicists, engineers, material scientists, technicians and construction workers recruited internationally but principally from the countries of the seven partners. If the experiment is successful, it will give rise to a plethora of jobs and bring in a new scientific generation.

France is facing the imminent influx of over 2,000 international workers by creating new housing and a new type of school to educate their children. The school's guiding principle is to bring together children from different nations and civilisations to inculcate within them the values of sharing and exchange.

The international school, which is totally financed by the Region of Provence, Alpes, Côte d'Azur, will open in 2009. It will host 1,400 children, 75 per cent of whom will be foreign. Initially, children from 30 countries will be attending; these include the EU member states, Russia, Japan, China, South Korea, India and Brazil.

The school will have 11 main languages of instruction. However, this number should increase progressively. Teachers from different countries will be employed. The timetable will dedicate a third of the time to subjects taught in French, music, sports and art, a third to learning French as a foreign language, and a third to subjects taught by native speakers, which will include at least two scientific subjects.

It intends to provide certification that will have an international value. This certification will be bi- or pluri-national, and will provide a baccalaureate that will be recognised by different countries.

Although the school will provide teaching from primary to baccalaureate level (A-level equivalent), it will also cater for children whose parents' stay in Cadarache will be short term, even two-three months. An experimental class at primary level was launched this year within a French primary school.

The school, which will be situated in Manosque, will cover an area of 260,000 m2 of land. Its design shall include environment-friendly elements, such as solar and photovoltaic energy, and it will be equipped with video-conferencing facilities. It will also include boarding facilities and a canteen.

Since the EU is one of the seven partners of this project, workers coming from EU countries are eligible for posts within the project. This opens new perspectives for Maltese researchers, engineers, technicians and teachers who may be interested in participating and would guarantee a high standard of education to their children.

Dr Cremona is Malta's Ambassador in Paris