46. Letter to European Commission: False Claims By European ITER Agency

Sep 122020
 

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August 27, 2020

Kadri Simson
Commissioner, Directorate-General for Energy

SUBJECT: Fusion Claims By European ITER Agency

Dear Ms. Simson,

The primary difference between a mistake and fraud is intent. The person who makes an unintentional mistake, once notified of it, demonstrates integrity and honesty not only by correcting that mistake as soon as possible but also by immediately announcing the intent to do so. A person who knowingly and intentionally commits fraud admits no mistake and continues to perpetuate the falsehood.

The European ITER domestic agency known as Fusion for Energy is a joint undertaking operated under the authority of the European Commission. I am writing to you in your capacity as the commissioner responsible for oversight of Fusion for Energy.

I appreciate that ITER is an important scientific endeavor. I appreciate its aim to develop practical sources of power from fusion. However, in science, nothing is more important than accuracy, honesty, and transparency.

For background, at least one misleading ITER power claim was on the Fusion for Energy since 2010. I discussed my concerns about that and other false and misleading claims on the Fusion for Energy Web site with Dr. Johannes Schwemmer starting in June 17, 2018. I told Dr. Schwemmer about 12 specific Web pages or documents on the Web site that contained power claims that were misleading and exaggerated. By the end of 2019, he had made a partial correction to only one of those items. In his last letter to me, Dr. Schwemmer said that he was unwilling to respond to any further letters from me or make further corrections.

In a recent redesign of the Fusion for Energy Web site, eight of the 12 erroneous items were removed – but they were replaced by three new false and misleading claims. Therefore, one month ago, I wrote to Dr. Beatrix Vierkorn-Rudolph, the chair of the governing board of Fusion for Energy, about these three new false claims.

She has not responded. Fusion for Energy continues to publish the false claims. This apparent fraud, under the direction of Johannes Schwemmer, consists of the theft of European taxpayer money in exchange for false promises and false hope. The July 24, 2020, press release from Fusion for Energy reveals the beneficiaries:

Since 2008, F4E has signed 833 contracts for a value of at least 4.4 billion EUR with more than 550 companies, their 1800 subcontractors and at least 70 R&D organisations. “We’re in this together” is the spirit of Europe’s involvement…

Should there be any ambiguity about the accurate way to represent the mission and primary technical objective of ITER, I refer you to the words of Dr. Schwemmer himself, from his Nov. 9, 2018, letter to me:

Ensure that there is no possible misunderstanding on the ITER energy gain of 10 – [that it is] linked only to the plasma and not to the energy balance of the overall ITER plant.

These are the three new false claims that Fusion for Energy published earlier this year on its ITER Web page:

FALSE CLAIM #1
“ITER, which in Latin means ‘the way,’ will be the world’s biggest experiment on the path to fusion energy. It will be the first fusion device to generate more energy than that it consumes.”

This is false because, if the reactor works according to design, the device will not produce more power than it consumes. Instead, it should demonstrate for the first time that a fusion device can produce a fusion plasma with more thermal power than injected into the plasma.

FALSE CLAIM #2
“ITER will produce a significant amount of heat in the range of 500 MW for about 7 minutes – enough to satisfy the electricity needs of a medium-sized town during that period of time.”

This is false because, if the projected thermal output from ITER were converted to electricity, there wouldn’t be enough net electrical power for even one light bulb.

FALSE CLAIM #3
“ITER will generate 10 times more thermal power than the [power] received.”

This is false because it creates the impression that the reactor is designed to generate 10 times more power than it will consume, when it is designed to generate the same amount of power it consumes. The plasma is designed to produce 10 times more thermal power than the thermal power injected into it. Note that the plasma is designed to produce only 3.3 times more thermal power than the electrical power it consumes.

For your reference, attached to this document are diagrams that visually show the facts and the falsehoods about the ITER power design.

Research Integrity
With the recent corrections made by Massimo Garribba, the commission has shown that it understands the technical distinctions between true and false ITER power claims. Thus, the commission has taken a partial interest in ensuring that its ITER power claims meet the standards of scientific integrity.

I have shown that many fusion organizations and their leaders have been making false claims about ITER for many years. Most of them, in response to my communications, have made the necessary corrections.

Fusion for Energy, on the other hand, appears intent to perpetuate false and fraudulent claims about ITER. In your capacity as the directly responsible European Commissioner, do you intend to allow this to continue?

Best Regards,
Steven Krivit
Publisher and Senior Editor, New Energy Times

DISTRIBUTION

EC

  • Ursula von der Leyen, President, European Commission
  • Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
  • Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
  • Nikolaos Milionis, Dean, Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, European Court of Auditors
  • Patrick De Boom, Senior Internal Auditor, Internal Audit Service, European Commission
  • Klaus-Heiner Lehne, President, European Court of Auditors

EU-EP

  • Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen, Secretary-General, Council of the European Union
  • Klaus Welle, Secretary-General, European Parliament
  • Riccardo Ribera D’alcala, Director-General, Internal Policies of the Union, European Parliament
  • Marian-Jean Marinescu, Member of the European Parliament, (Horizon Europe)
  • Jerzy Buzek, President, European Parliament (Former Chair, European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy)
  • Cristian-Silviu Bu?oi, Chair, European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
  • Patrizia Toia, Vice-Chair, European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
  • Christian Ehler, Member, European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
  • Michèle Rivasi, Member, European Parliament
  • Étienne Bassot, Director, Members’ Research Service, European Parliament

F4E Governing Board

  • Beatrix Vierkorn Rudolph, Chair of the Governing Board of Fusion for Energy
  • Radomir Panek, Co-chair of the Governing Board of Fusion for Energy
  • Maria Faury, Co-chair of the Governing Board of Fusion for Energy
  • Friedrich Aumayr — Director, Institute of Applied Physics TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology), Austria
  • Daniel Weselka — Head of Unit, Federal Ministry for Science and Research, Austria
  • Ir Alberto Fernandez Fernandez — Nuclear Attaché to DG Energy, FPS Economy, Belgium
  • DSC Troyo Dimov Troev — Head of Research Unit of the Association Euratom-INRNE, Bulgaria Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
  • Ton?i Tadi? — Division of Experimental Physics, Laboratory for Ion Beam Interactions, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Croatia
  • Stjepko Fazini? — Division of Experimental Physics, Laboratory for Ion Beam Interactions, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Croatia
  • Anastassios Yiannaki — Director of Reactor Services Division Nuclear Research Institute ?ež, Cyprus
  • Ladislav Vála — Senior Researcher & Project Manager Centrum výzkumu ?ež s.r.o. (Research Centre ?ež), Czech Republic
  • Volker Naulin — Head of Section, Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy, Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
  • Madis Kiisk — Director, Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Estonia
  • Tuomas Tala — Head of Research Unit of the Euratom-Tekes Association, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finland
  • Kari Koskela — Senior Advisor, Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Southeast Finland, Finland
  • Stubos Athanasios — Director of the Institute of Nuclear and Radiological Sciences and Technology, Energy and Safety. National Centre for
  • Scientific Research Demokritos, Greece
  • Mergia Konstantia — Director of Research, INRASTES, NCSR Demokritos Scientist in charge of Greek Fusion Technology Program for Demokritos, Greece
  • Miles Turner — Physics, Dublin City University, Ireland
  • Paul Shortt — Dept. of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Ireland
  • Ing Aldo Pizzuto — Head of Research Unit Euratom-ENEA Association, ENEA Frascati, Italy
  • Eugenio Nappi — Vice President INFN, Italy
  • Massimo Garribba — Director of Nuclear energy, safety and ITER, DG Energy European Commission, EURATOM
  • Hab Andris Sternbergs — Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, Afghanistan
  • Leon Diederich — Conseiller de Gouvernement, Ministere de l’Enseignement superieur et de la Recherche, Luxembourg
  • Jeannette Ridder-Numan — Senior policy advisor/deputy head for Science and Humanities and International Affairs, Ministery of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands
  • Marco de Baar — Director Nuclear Fusion Programme DIFFER institute, Netherlands
  • ?ukasz Ciupi?ski — Scientific Expert Materials Design Division, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
  • Florin Buzatu — Director-General, Institute of Atomic Physics, Romania
  • Teddy Craciunescu — National Institute of Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics NILPRP Bucharest-Magurele, Romania, Romania
  • Stefan Matejcik — Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Slovakia
  • Jozef Pitel — Research Scientist, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia
  • James Drake — Division of Fusion Plasma Physics, The Royal Institute of Technology KTH, Sweden
  • Pär Omling — Department of Solid State Physics, Lund University, Sweden
  • Xavier Reymond — State Secretariat for education, Research and Innovation, International Cooperation in Research and Innovation, Switzerland
  • Ambrogio Fasoli — Director Centres de Recherches en Physique des Plasmas CRPP Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne EPFL, Switzerland
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