35. Open Letter to Dr. Kathy McCarthy, Director, U.S. ITER Project Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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June 7, 2020

Dr. Kathy McCarthy
Director, U.S. ITER Project Office
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Dear Dr. McCarthy,

Following my second letter to you about the misleading ITER claim on this Web page, ORNL immediately published a press release repeating the same misleading claim, that ITER is designed to produce “500 megawatts of fusion power.”

This claim is misleading, although it is technically valid.

Context is everything, however, and in your public communication to people who are not fusion experts, the claim is inaccurate. The problem with “500 MW of fusion power” is the difference between what it says and what it means.

Fusion experts know that “500 MW of fusion power” accurately states the projected power of the fusion-produced particles in ITER. Crucially, fusion experts also know that this statement does not account for or consider the input power required to operate the reactor.

However, for the general public, “500 MW of fusion power” means that the ITER reactor will produce 500 MW of potentially usable thermal power and that this accounts for the input power required to operate the reactor. But the 500 MW value does not account for the 300 MW of electrical input power required to operate the reactor. With an input of 300 MW, the potentially usable net power, after conversions, will be about zero — if the experiment works as planned.

You are representing an effectively net-zero-power reactor as a 500 MW-producing reactor. Although this type of misrepresentation has been prevalent for at least a decade, international organizations, including the European Commission, EUROfusion, and FuseNet, have recently corrected their ITER power claims. I ask that you correct the ORNL power claim about ITER to make it accurate, as well.

Sincerely,

Steven Krivit
Publisher and Senior Editor, New Energy Times

cc:
Thomas Zacharia, Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Johnny O. Moore, Manager, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Site Office
Martha J. Kass, Division Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Site Office
Lynne K Degitz, Senior Communications Specialist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Frank Rusco, Director, Natural Resources and Environment (ENERGY), GAO
John Neumann, Director, Science and Technology, GAO
Katherine Siggerud, Managing Director of Congressional Relations, GAO