37. ITER Council Notified of Exaggerated Claims

Jun 162020

Subject: Exaggerated Claims About the ITER Fusion Project
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2020 07:31:27 -0700
From: Steven B. Krivit

TO:
Delong Luo, Chair of the ITER Council, Director-General, ITER China Domestic Agency, Ministry of Science and Technology
Wei Huang, Head of Delegation of ITER Council for China, Vice Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology
Massimo Garribba, Head of Delegation of ITER Council for Europe, Acting Deputy Director-General, DG ENER, European Commission
Ravi Bhusan Grove, Head of Delegation of ITER Council for India, Member, Atomic Energy Commission
Yoshio Yamawaki, Head of Delegation of ITER Council for Japan, Senior Deputy Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Chang-Yune Lee, Head of Delegation of ITER Council for Korea, Director-General, Space and Nuclear Energy
Igor Borovkov, Head of Delegation of ITER Council for Russian Federation, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Government Executive Office of the Russian Federation
Steve Binkley, Head of Delegation of ITER Council for United States, Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Science

CC:
Bernard Bigot, Director-General, ITER Organization
Johannes Schwemmer, Director of ITER Domestic Agency, EU
Kathy McCarthy, Director of ITER Domestic Agency, US
Ujjwal Baruah, Project Director Director of ITER Domestic Agency, India
Shishir Ddeshpande, Former Project Director of ITER Domestic Agency, India
Kijung Jung, Director of ITER Domestic Agency, Korea
Director of ITER Domestic Agency, Japan
Anatoly V. Krasilnikov, Director of ITER Domestic Agency, RF

Since at least 1993, scientists representing the nuclear fusion community have convinced members of the U.S. Congress that the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), under construction in Southern France, is designed to produce 500 million Watts of thermal power, ten times more electrical power than the reactor is designed to consume.

This is not true.

Later, other fusion scientists convinced the European Parliament and European Commission to publish similar falsehoods about ITER. In fact, the list of organizations that have published falsehoods about ITER in the last decade is extensive.

As revealed by New Energy Times in 2017 and in a subsequent 2019 statement from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, if the ITER reactor works according to design, ITER should produce about as much fusion power as the electricity required to run the entire plant. A statement by a Japanese government fusion organization also describes the design goal accurately: “ITER is about equivalent to a zero (net) power reactor, when the plasma is burning.” A German government document uncovered by New Energy Times also reveals that the reactor’s output will be equivalent to zero net power.

The enormity of this false science claim, in terms of involved scientists, expenditure of taxpayer funds from China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States is unprecedented. The magnitude of the deception, involving scientists whom we hold in high esteem, makes it difficult to recognize and reconcile. Deception and fraud are ugly words that nobody in the scientific world wants to be associated with. Nevertheless, this disturbing matter is one which the fusion community, as well as the broader scientific community, must reckon with.

Much like the perpetual motion frauds from a century ago, which employed hidden mechanical devices to supply power, scientists promoting ITER have hidden the reactor’s expected input power through specific language, undisclosed terminology, and deceit.

“The Dark Side of ITER,” published on June 15, 2020, by Steven B. Krivit, editor of New Energy Times, explains what happened.

—
Steven B. Krivit
Publisher and Senior Editor, New Energy Times
369-B Third Street | Suite 556 | San Rafael, California | USA 94901

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