NUCLEONICS WEEK -- February 28, 2002

DECISION ON ITER LOCATION EXPECTED TO BE MADE IN JUNE

A decision on where to locate the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be made in France in June at a meeting of the project's partners, the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) was told last week.

Peter Barnard, who is guiding ITER Canada's bid to host the thermonuclear test reactor, said at the CNA's winter seminar that he believes his country's bid, submitted formally to the project's partners last June, is the most favorable of the expected alternatives.

Canada has proposed that the research facility be located next to Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) Darlington station, which would supply the fusion reactor with the vast amount of electricity required for its operation.  If the bid is successful, Barnard told the conference, ITER would become OPG's largest single customer.

One of the biggest single factors to favor Canada's bid, he added, is the ready supply of tritium that is a byproduct of Darlington's Candu reactor and is an essential ingredient of the plasma required for the fusion process.

Japan is also expected to submit bids for sites at one or two locations while the European Union is considering sites in either France or Spain.  Russia, the other partner in the project, is not expected to submit a site proposal.

The CNA conference was also told that the U.S., an original partner in the ITER project, which was conceived at a 1985 Geneva conference, is again warming up to the idea of joining the project.  It abandoned the project in 1998 because of concerns over costs and lengthy approval processes (NW, 29 Oct. '98, 16).

However, ITER Canada's managers say the potential costs of the project have been brought down and the environmental and licensing processes, in Canada's case at least, are being fast-tracked.ãRennie MacKenzie, Ottawa