43. European Commission President Directs Correction of False ITER Claims

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By Steven B. Krivit
August 20, 2020

In response to letters from New Energy Times, and our report “The Dark Side of ITER,” sent to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the president’s office has directed staff members to correct another false and exaggerated claim about the forthcoming ITER fusion experiment.

The commission’s Web page, “Fusion Energy and ITER,” provides a link to English, French, and German versions of the document “The ITER Project: The Road to Fusion.” The document is part of a site redesign that went live in October 2019. At that time, the document made this false claim:

ITER’s goal is to prove that fusion power devices can feasibly produce energy that could be converted into electricity.

After I sent letters to Massimo Garribba, the deputy director-general for the commission’s energy department, he accepted my suggestion and corrected the claim as follows:

ITER’s goal is to prove that a fusion plasma can produce 10 times the thermal power injected into the plasma.

As “The Dark Side of ITER” reveals, promoters of the ITER project falsely stated the objective of the project and exaggerated its projected power production for nearly three decades. As a result, almost all public reports and public documents, until 2017, including documents and press releases by the European Commission, reflect the widespread discrepancy between what the public expects from the reactor and what it is designed to do.

Garribba has oversight responsibility for the ITER project for the commission and is the representative for the European Union on the ITER Council. Bernard Bigot, the director-general for the ITER organization, reports to Garribba and the other members of the ITER Council.

This was the third significant ITER power correction by the European Commission. We reported the commission’s first correction of exaggerated ITER power claims on Sept. 2, 2018. We reported the commission’s second correction on May 29, 2020.

The current correction process began when I sent a letter about the false claim to Arias Cañete. On May 29, when I learned that Cañete was no longer a member of the commission, I sent a copy of the letter to President von der Leyen. Garribba responded on June 10. Garribba suggested that changing the word “produce” would fix the problem.

Separately, on June 15, I sent a copy of “The Dark Side of ITER” to von der Leyen. Renatas Mažeika wrote back on July 1 on the president’s behalf and thanked me for the report.

On Aug. 2, I wrote to Garribba and explained why replacing the word “produce” could not fix the false claim. I suggested a phrase that would. Garribba responded on Aug. 14:

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