Four ITER Sites

With plans for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor accelerating, bids to host it are piling up. The latest site bid came on 4 June from Japan, which chose Rokkasho, on the northern tip of the island of Honshu, from three possible sites. Europe, meanwhile, must decide whether to put forward for consideration a site in Spain, south of Barcelona, or one in southern France, at the Cadarache nuclear research center, near Aix-en-Provence. Canada, too, is keen to host the $4 billion project, which is being developed by Europe, Japan, Russia, and Canada and is intended to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy. The negotiations on ITER’s site, organizational structure, and costs are progressing well and are supposed to be completed within the year, according to a physicist close to the issue, “but there’s a lot to be done to meet the deadline.”