What is IFERC?
IFERC stands for the International Fusion Energy Research Centre. IFERC is one of the three projects executed by EU and Japan under the Broader Approach Agreement (see Governance). The IFERC Project supports the other joint fusion projects (ITER, IFMIF/EVEDA, JT60-SA) and contributes to the development of the next generation of fusion devices after ITER, such as DEMO.
What is fusion?
Fusion is the energy source of the sun and the stars. On earth, fusion research is aimed at demonstrating that this energy source can be used to produce electricity in a safe and environmentally benign way, with abundant fuel resources, to meet the needs of a growing world population
What is the plan to realise a fusion power plant?
After decades of basic research, governments representing more than half the world population have agreed on the construction of ITER, a large tokamak experiment that will demonstrate that an energy producing fusion plasma is possible. After the ITER Experiment, a demonstration reactor should be constructed to show that long sustained operation producing electricity can be maintained.
What will IFERC contribute?
IFERC has three lines of activity:
The Computational Simulation Centre or CSC supports the EU and JA fusion communities with super-computer resources in order to design components for present day and future machines, to interpret plasma physics data, and to model and design the future operation of ITER and DEMO
The DEMO Design and DEMO R&D activities aim to share and develop the design of the next generation of fusion devices, and to study and develop materials for these devices, towards a fusion reactor producing electricity
The ITER Remote Experimentation centre (REC) aims to develop remote participation techniques, to give access to ITER scientists to the future ITER operation results, and facilitate world-wide collaboration in the ITER exploitation