#63. Physicist Protests ITER Organization Claims

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Dr. Thiery PIERRE
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Marseille, France

November 26, 2020

to Professor Bernard BIGOT, Director General  ITER-Organization

Dear Mr. Bigot:

I have been a hot plasma physicist for more than 40 years. I have followed all the developments of the Magnetic Fusion activity both on the theoretical level, on the level of experimental physics, and on that of technology.

I would like to ask you to kindly correct your communication to the general public, to students and to young researchers in this field, for the sake of accuracy and scientific honesty.

Of course, physicists who specialize in magnetic fusion are fully aware of all the energetic aspects, in particular with regard to the power balance in tokamaks. We are aware that the objective of the project is to produce a plasma in a thermonuclear regime for a few minutes, a burning plasma, in order to study its stability and to pave the way towards an electricity-producing thermonuclear fusion reactor.

Senior fusion scientists have a deep knowledge of all the plasma heating systems, they have seen them evolve for almost half a century. They are fully aware of the fact that without external heating of the plasma and without current drive induced by HF power injection, the plasma cannot sustain. On the other hand, it is presently inconceivable to think of a reactor which would operate with continuous plasma heating systems. No one is unaware of it.

This is why it is essential, to maintain the reputation of our discipline – plasma physics – that the communication about the project is clear and undistorted.

In particular, when you assert, as your collaborators frequently do, as is always repeated by journalists, that ITER produces 500 MW when an input power of 50 MW is applied, this is simply false. I have had many exchanges on this subject with Mr. Steven Krivit, a scientific journalist in the USA. I have confirmed his conclusions.

You know perfectly well that to produce (hopefully) these 500 MW of thermal power produced by fusion during 400 s, the network (c.f. the new power line dedicated to the project) draws more than 400 MWe. It is also necessary to take into account all the considerable electrical energy that is consumed to prepare this very short experiment for weeks (even months).

We plasma physicists are certain that you will be glad to correct this aspect of the communication of the international project under your responsibility.

Please accept, Mr Director General, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Dr. Th. PIERRE
Senior Scientist, Plasma Physics

 

Sample from ITER Organization Web Site

https://www.iter.org/fr/sci/goals

1) Produce 500 MW of fusion power for pulses of 400 s
The world record for controlled fusion power is held by the European tokamak JET. In 1997, JET produced 16 MW of fusion power from 24 MW of power injected into its heating systems (Q=0.67). ITER is designed for much higher fusion power gain, or Q ? 10. For 50 MW of injected heating power it will produce 500 MW of fusion power for long pulses of 400 to 600 seconds. ITER will not capture the power it produces as electricity, but as the first of all fusion experiments in history to produce net energy… it will prepare the way for the machine that can.