A cutaway of the ITER machine. A figure of a person (in blue) is shown for scale near the bottom of the image. Image Copyright ITER

Fusion research aims to harness the nuclear energy provided by the fusion of light atoms, with the goal of helping meet mankind’s future energy needs. The next step for the fusion community is the ITER experiment, which scientists hope will show that fusion can be used to generate electrical power. ITER will be the first fusion experiment to produce net power, and will test a number of key technologies that will be needed for an electricity-generating fusion power station.

The ITER device is based on the tokamak concept, in which a hot gas is confined in a torus-shaped vessel using a magnetic field. The gas is heated to over 100 million degrees, and will produce 500 megawatts of fusion power.

ITER’s connection to grid computing comes through the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE project. ITER has established a virtual organization within EGEE, and is working to adapt some of its applications to a grid environment.

Participants in the international ITER experiment, which will be constructed in Cadarache, France, include the European Union, Japan, the People´s Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the United States.

More ITER images, animations and movies can be viewed in the multimedia section of the ITER Web site.