MOSCOW, September 25 /TASS/. Cooperation with Russia on the International Experimental Nuclear Reactor project is developing very well, ITER Deputy Director General Alain Becoulet told TASS on the sidelines of the Atomic Week in Moscow.
"We have a very good connection with Russia, particularly with the Russian domestic agency (ITER Russia). We are at a good level of procurement and assembly [of equipment from Russia], and I think it’s roughly going as it has to go," he said.
Becoulet noted that he is responsible for science and technology on the ITER project and called the involvement of young scientists very important.
"We need scientists and we need young people also because ITER is a long-term endeavor, so we need to encourage the youngest ones to train, to learn [how to work] on tokamaks in Russia and then come to us. We are developing a training program for them so that they can join the project in five to six years," he said.
About the ITER Project
ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is the world's first international thermonuclear experimental reactor, being built by an international community in Provence near Marseille, France. The reactor is based on tokamak technology (a toroidal chamber with magnetic coils), developed in the 1950s by Soviet scientists Igor Tamm and Andrey Sakharov. The goal of ITER is to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of generating thermonuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
The reactor is being built jointly by the European Union, India, China, the Republic of Korea, Russia, the United States, and Japan. Europe contributes 45% of the cost of constructing the facility, while other countries, including Russia, contribute 9% each. Russian companies are responsible for the production of 25 unique systems for the future facility.