The long-term objective of fusion research is to harness the nuclear energy provided by the fusion of light atoms to help meet mankind´s future energy needs. This research, which is carried out by scientists from all over the word, has made tremendous progress over the last decades. The fusion community is now ready to take the next step, and have together designed the international ITER experiment. The aim of ITER is to show fusion could be used to generate electrical power, and to gain the necessary data to design and operate the first electricity-producing plant. In ITER, scientists will study plasmas in conditions similar to those expected in a electricity-generating fusion power plant. It will generate 500 MW of fusion power for extended periods of time, ten times more than the energy input needed to keep the plasma at the right temperature. It will therefore be the first fusion experiment to produce net power. It will also test a number of key technologies, including the heating, control, diagnostic and remote maintenance that will be needed for a real fusion power station. The current participants to the project are the European Union (represented by EURATOM), Japan, the People´s Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA.

The European Joint Undertaking for the ITER Fusion energy organization and the development of fusion energy has been established by the Council of the European Union at its meeting in Brussels on 27 March. The Joint Undertaking will form the European Domestic Agency that will manage the EU’s contribution to ITER. Switzerland is in the process of extending its accession to the ELE and ITER (via Euratom).

Euratom’s EFDA has three locations, which each house a so-called Close Support Unit (CSU), responsible for one or more of EFDAs activities. The EFDA-CSU Garching is located in Garching, near Munich (Germany), and is hosted by the German Max-Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik. EFDA-CSU Culham is hosted by the UKAEA laboratory in Culham (UK), home of JET. Finally, EFDA-CSU Barcelona is hosted by the Spanish fusion laboratory CIEMAT in Barcelona (Spain).

On Monday 5 February in Tokyo, the Euratom and the Japanese government signed the “Broader Approach” agreement that was initialled on 22 November 2006, the day after the signing of the ITER agreement in Paris. This agreement is part of the deal hammered out during the site decision process, defining a “previlidged partnership” for Japan and setting out the work to be carried out jointly by the EU and Japan in support of ITER. The EU/Japan agreement lasts 10 years and represents some 340 million Euro of European investment. The cooperation aims to complement the ITER Project and to accelarate the realisation of fusion energy as a clean and sustainable energy source, by carrying out R&D and developing some advanced technologies for a future demonstration fusion power reactor (DEMO).