ITER Project (2020 DOE transition)
| Book 2 - Issue Papers
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| Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020 |
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a large-scale international fusion energy research facility to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion energy. The U.S. is one of seven member countries contributing hardware and funds to the ITER facility in France under a binding international agreement. Owing to the significant cost and concerns over project management, continued U.S. participation in the ITER project has been a matter of discussion for several years. Based on significant improvements in project management, the Secretary of Energy recommended to Congress in May 2016 that the U.S. should remain in ITER.
Summary
ITER is an international research and development (R&D) facility under construction in France by the U.S. and six other international member states. The seven signatories to the 2007 ITER Agreement are the United States, European Union (EU), China, India, Russia, Japan, and Korea.
ITER remains the best candidate today to demonstrate sustained burning plasma, a necessary step to demonstrating fusion energy power. ITER’s design objectives are to produce at least 500 MW of fusion power for pulses lasting at least 400 seconds.
Congress authorized U.S. participation through the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and the internationally binding ITER Agreement was signed by the members in 2007. As the host party, the EU contributes 45.4% of the construction cost, with the six other partners each providing 9.09%.
Issue(s)
Since 2008, the U.S. contribution has risen from a range of $1.45B to $2.2B, to a current range of $4.7B to $6.5B, which includes ~$1B in cost contingency. The planned First Plasma date has slipped from 2019 to no earlier than 2025. Schedule delays have been driven by the conventional construction of the tokamak building and the vacuum vessel’s fabrication. Poor project management at the ITER Organization (IO) and poor IO/Member coordination also contributed to the delays of the Project. Recent management changes implemented at the IO since 2015, including a new Director-General, significantly improved project performance and led to stabilization of the cost and schedule estimates. In a report to Congress in May 2016, the Secretary of Energy recommended that the U.S. remain a Member of ITER. A subsequent report in 2019 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommended continued support of U.S. involvement in ITER.
ITER remains the best candidate to demonstrate a sustained burning plasma, the condition required to have the plasma release more energy from the fusion of light elements than it takes to produce, heat, and maintain the plasma. However, due to ITER’s technical and organizational complexity, the project construction costs have increased, and the schedule has slipped substantially. In 2016, the ITER project schedule to achieve First Plasma was changed from November 2019 to a date no sooner than December 2025. A reassessment of the schedule due to COVID-19 is expected to result in a further delay to the baseline schedule. The U.S. estimated costs for the overall Project have increased from an initial estimate of $1.45B to $2.2B in 2008, to a current range of $4.7B to $6.5B. The original plan for ITER was to achieve thermonuclear burn by 2016. Presently, the estimated date for achieving thermonuclear burn is the mid to late 2030s.
In March 2015, a new Director-General of the ITER Organization, Dr. Bernard Bigot, was appointed. Since that time, substantial improvements in project management and performance have occurred. As of September 2020, the subproject to achieve the First Plasma milestone in late 2025 is over 70% complete. An analysis of COVID-19 impacts on the schedule are expected to be presented at the ITER Council (the seven member-country governance council overseeing the ITER Organization) meeting in mid-November 2020.
Status
Under Director General Bigot’s direction, project management and execution has dramatically improved. The evidence of ITER management improvements includes a better organizational structure and the hiring of qualified people in key positions; good performance of the ITER project measured against the updated schedule and the defined milestones; and positive results from independent reviews of the ITER schedule and the overall management (e.g., the biannual Management Assessment review, the most recent of which was completed in 2020).
The U.S. ITER Project comprises in-kind hardware contributions (~80%), plus monetary contributions to support the ITER Organization functions and responsibilities. The U.S. ITER project has continued to meet its deliveries and key schedule milestones for hardware. As of August 2020, the U.S. contributions--including design, manufacturing, and hardware delivery to be installed for First Plasma is 65% complete, with 38% of First Plasma scope delivered to the ITER site.
The U.S. ITER Project (i.e., the U.S. contribution) achieved Critical Decision-1 (Approve Alternative Selection and Cost Range) in January 2008. The U.S. ITER project achieved a Performance Baseline for First Plasma (Critical Decision-2) and approval for start/continuation of hardware fabrication (Critical Decision-3) in January 2017.
Milestone(s)
- In May 2016, the DOE Secretary submitted a report to Congress with his recommendation that the U.S. remain a Member of ITER through FY 2018.
- As required by Congress in the FY 2016 Appropriations Report language, DOE delivered a Status Report to Congress in February 2016 and an update in August 2016.
- DOE tasked The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to re-evaluate the U. S. continued participation in ITER. The report from the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research, released in January 2019, recommended that the U.S. remain a Member of ITER.
- ITER partners celebrated the start of machine assembly on July 28, 2020. The first major assembly activities for the ITER tokamak involve joining vacuum vessel components with their corresponding toroidal field magnet coils produced by China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States.
Major Decisions/Events
DOE will continually assess U.S. participation in ITER and provide periodic recommendations to Congress.
Major upcoming decisions and events include the following:
- In November 2020, an ITER Council Meeting will occur. The U.S. Head of Delegation is a DOE senior leader (typically SC-1).
- Future meetings of the ITER Council are scheduled for June and November 2021.
- The December 2025 milestone date for First Plasma is currently being assessed for potential COVID-19 delays.
- The post-First Plasma U.S. contributions to the ITER project have not yet been baselined.
Background
At the November 1985 Geneva Summit, a Reagan- Gorbachev initiative led to the ITER Conceptual Design Activities (CDA). These began in April 1988 and were completed in December 1990. They carried out jointly by the U.S., the European Union, Japan, and the USSR under IAEA auspices. On July 21, 1992, the European Union (EU), Japan, the Russian Federation, and the U.S. signed a six-year ITER Engineering Design Activities (EDA) Agreement. The U.S. completed its responsibilities under the EDA in 1998 but did not extend its participation, effectively withdrawing from ITER.
On January 30, 2003, President George W. Bush announced that the U.S. would join the ongoing ITER negotiations. From that time until the signing of the ITER Joint Implementation Agreement (Agreement) in November of 2006, the negotiators resolved several critical issues, including the siting of the ITER project in France; the management and financial responsibilities and allocation of material (in-kind) contributions; and the creation and staffing of an ITER Organization to manage ITER’s construction and operations. The Agreement was signed in November 2006 and went into force on October 24, 2007. The Agreement was ratified as a treaty by the other partners after signature. The U.S. ratified it as a Congressional-Executive Agreement before signing it under the authority provided by the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005. DOE is the lead U.S. Government agency responsible for the delivery of U.S. commitments to ITER construction. These commitments include roughly 80% in-kind hardware components (with associated R&D and other costs), as well as 20% monetary contributions to the ITER Organization to cover shared expenses such as personnel, assembly, commissioning, and agreed-on site infrastructure costs. After research operations commence, the DOE will contribute 13% of the monetary costs of running the ITER research facility, in addition to the costs of supporting U.S. researchers who are selected to perform experiments at the site.
DOE senior management has leadership responsibility for the Project. The Associate Director of the Office of Science for the Fusion Energy Sciences program office has responsibility for managing the U.S. project and provides input to strategic decision-making at higher Department levels.
The U.S. ITER Project Office (USIPO) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is responsible for the delivery of U.S. components. The pace of deliveries is expected to ramp up significantly over the next three years to move toward the completion of U.S. First Plasma commitments.
Congress, particularly the Senate, had expressed serious concern over the management of the ITER Organization in the past, but is now apparently satisfied with the progress made under the leadership of Director-General Bigot. In FY 2020, Congress appropriated $242 million for ITER (the President’s Request was $107M), including $85M to make current and some past cash payments to the ITER Organization. Congress is aware that the elimination of U.S. cash payments in FY 2016 and 2017 and the provision of partial payments in FY 2018 and 2019 has impeded the ITER Organization’s ability to execute on design, assembly, and installation of the ITER machine and facility.