US Congress looks set to scuttle international fusion project

摘要

The US Congress is poised to pass legislation seeking an end to US participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The move is likely to lead to the collapse of a 13-year global effort to design and build a prototype fusion reactor. The agreement to design ITER, intended to demonstrate sustained fusion in a magnetically confined plasma, expired on 21 July. Japan is said to feel that a three-year extension is contingent on the participation of all four parties — the United States, Russia, the European Union and Japan.