The investment of the Russian side to the ITER project to make almost 8 billion roubles until 2016

Октября 14, 2014

Russian budget of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project (ITER) until the year 2016 is to make almost 8 billion roubles.

Mr. Anatoly Krasilnikov, Head of the ITER-Russia project office, has informed the TASS accordingly today.
“We have drafted an application to the RF Ministry of Finance at the level of 6,5 billion roubles, while today we are going to get about 4 billion roubles. We have signed a public contract for 3 years. In other words, the ITER budget in 2015 will make 3.99 billion roubles, and in 2016, the same amount. That is the money from the federal budget disbursed to Rosatom,” he said.

According to the words of Vyacheslav Pershukov, ROSATOM Deputy Director General, in 2014 Russia’s industrial input to ITER was worth 5 billion roubles. “I cannot quote the annual amount since the work schedule is a floating one and depends on the volume of the equipment supply. The general funding volume is 9.1% of the ITER (about 15 billion Euros),” he noted. Pershukov has reminded that the EU input in the construction of the plant is 6.6 billion Euros.

ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, is an international project to established a Tokomak-based experimental thermonuclear reactor. Its implementation will enable obtaining an inexhaustible source of clean energy. The composition of the project participants includes the EU, India, China, Repblic of Korea, Russia, the US and Japan.

In terms of its scale, ITER is compared to the projects like International Space Station (ISS) and the Large Hadron Collider. The cost of the ITER project that to a large extent determines the future of the international energy sector is 15 billion Euros. Elements of the gigantic reactor and other equipment are supplied by all seven project participants.

As it has been announced before, in the conditions of today’s economic situation in the world, the project funding constitutes a significant problem. Besides, after the tragedy at the Fukushima-1 NPP in 2011, the ITER international consortium has been forced to seek an independent appraisal of the safety of the erected facility.

It has been planned that the reactor would appear in 2019. According to the recent discussions, however, it will be built in 2020, while the commencement of the continuous work with plasma is planned for 2027.