A leading plasma physicist testified Friday on international
collaboration for building the world's first experimental fusion
reactor at the Chinese legislature.
The National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee started
over the weekend to discuss the international agreement on
implementing the world's first experimental fusion reactor tabled
by the government for approval.
Huo Yuping, China's chief coordinator in the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, explained to the
about 150 legislators on prospects for commercialized utilization
of fusion energy.
The largest ever scientific research program under the
multinational collaboration, the 11 billion-euro ITER project is
aimed at incubating a sustained solution of energy production.
The participation in the ITER project is part of China's
systematic plan for developing fusion technologies, Huo said.
"The international collaboration will lay a solid basis for our
own efforts to building bigger experimental reactors at home," said
Huo, a Zhengzhou University professor and academician of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The Chinese government in November 2006 signed the Agreement on
the Establishment of the ITER International Fusion Energy
Organization for the Joint Implementation of the ITER Project,
together with the European Union (EU), India, Japan, the Republic
of Korea, Russia and the United States.
The NPC Standing Committee is expected to vote on the agreement
on Thursday.
While briefing the legislators on the agreement, Minister of
Science and Technology Wan Gang said the ITER project "bears vital
significance in promoting Chinese scientists' capability in fusion
scientific research and technological development."
The ITER project will cost roughly 11 billion euros in 35 years
in four stages of constructing, operating, exploiting and
deactivating the ITER facilities.
China is to take a share of 9.1 percent of the total ITER
budget, which is equal to the financial burden shared by other five
participating countries, Wan said. The EU will pay 45.4 percent of
the budget.
Wan said China will have an equal footing with all participants
on deciding key issues of the ITER Organization, sharing
construction, operation as well as research and development
activities, obtaining equal opportunities with the rest parties on
intellectual property licensing.
After the negotiation, Wan explained to the legislators, nearly
80 percent of the Chinese share in the ITER construction budget
will be fulfilled equipment supplies instead of monetary
funding.
China is also required to dispatch scientists and engineers to
the ITER Organization in accordance with its investment
proportion.
Nuclear fusion reaction is the process by which multiple atomic
particles join together to form a heavier nucleus, which is
accompanied by the release or absorption of energy.
The ITER, designed to use abundant resources of deuterium and
tritium collected from sea water to produce energy and,
subsequently, electricity.
Plasma physicists said the ITER is an enlarged equipment like
"Tokamak," a Russian word referring to a machine producing a
doughnut-shaped magnetic field for confining a plasma. "Tokamak" is
one of several types of magnetic confinement devices and the
leading candidate for producing fusion energy.
Representatives from participating parties agreed in June 2005
to choose Cadarache, France, as the first ITER site. The interim
ITER International Fusion Energy Organization, with the
headquarters at St Paul lez Durance, France, was kicked off on
December 1, 2006.
(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2007)