EFDA - European Fusion Development Agreement
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www.efda.org www.jet.efda.org www.iter.org |
Fusion research aims at providing mankind with an abundant, safe and environmentally friendly energy source for the future - an increasingly important area of R&D in light of global concerns over global warming and climate change.
In order to harness the power released from the fusion of light nuclei (the process powering the Sun), so-called 'tokamak' experiments utilise powerful magnetic fields and electrical currents to heat and confine a very hot gas (or plasma) at temperatures approaching 200 million degrees C. The JET tokamak based at Culham Science Centre in the UK is the centrepiece of the European fusion research programme - attaining plasma conditions sufficient for fusion to occur. Work on JET - supported by many other fusion experiments around Europe - has proved invaluable in the design of the next step international device, ITER - which will produce significant fusion power (500MW) on the scale of a powerplant.
The European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) was established in 1999 as a framework between Euratom and associated fusion research programmes in most EU countries with the aim of strengthening co-ordination and collaboration. The EFDA associated organisations are in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
In particular, EFDA provides the framework for :
- technology activities carried out by the Associations and by European industry
- the collective use of the JET facilities by fusion scientists from the associated organisations
- the European contributions to international collaborations such as ITER