ITER Canada making serious pitch to host mega nuclear fusion facility

Canada is mounting a deftly orchestrated pitch to become the home for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) as interest in the long range mega project gains momentum after years of setbacks and indecision. Under the leadership of ITER Canada, the drive to locate the international fusion energy research station in Clarington ON near the Darlington nuclear power plant is now moving into high gear, and its chance of success is ranked high even as France jumped into the competition with a last-minute competing bid.

The not-for-profit ITER Canada was formed in 1997 to oversee fusion activities in Ontario. It has a commitment of $5 million in annual funding up until 2003 to move the Canadian bid through the labyrinth of logistical, scientific and political hurdles surrounding the project. Natural Resources Canada provides $1 million, with an equal amount coming from Ontario's Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology. The remainder is made up from the organization's largely private sector membership (see chart). About 80% of its budget goes to Canadian participation in international activities relating to the design and testing of ITER facilities and systems, with bid promotion accounting for the remaining 20%.

It's estimated that if Canada is selected to host the ITER facility, it will cost $6 billion to build and another $6 billion to operate over a 20-year span, making it the largest research facility in the country. An economic impact study of the ITER facility has been completed and will be released in the coming weeks, followed by a technological impact study now underway.

For the bid to fly, however, ITER Canada must have a firm level of federal support, although the facility isn't likely to cost the government much beyond increased financing for fusion research through its regular funding channels. ITER Canada president/CEO Dr Peter Barnard says what is required is the ability to negotiate in the international arena, as well as drawing on the expertise resident in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

""They need to spend the energies to think through the whole negotiating strategy and the international agreement negotiations which are necessary to acquire the project," he says. "The prime minister or some level of government has to make some announcement that they are definitely interested in pursuing international negotiations. We have to make clear to them that ITER Canada can build the project and satisfy the commitments that we have an approach to this bid.... The key is to convince the federal government to take a geopolitical leadership position to make this thing happen."

The organization that will make the final selection is ITER International, a consortium consisting of Europe (including Canada), Japan and Russia, with the possibility of the US re-joining the flock after withdrawing in 1998 due to the lack of progress in selecting a site. The cost and complexity of the research project has bedeviled its full-scale adoption for decades. And although the prospect of developing a viable alternative energy source is still at least a generation away, the promise of generating a clean, inexhaustible and environmentally sustainable supply of energy has kept it alive. Also adding to the ITER's luster is a looming global energy shortage, pushing the cost of oil and gas to new heights.

The goal of the international fusion research community is to construct a pilot on the selected site, which is slated to be chosen in late 2002, with construction to begin in 2003. Canada is bidding against Japan and France, which weighed in with its own bid earlier this month. Barnard says the increased competition actually enhances Canada's chances of being selected, given the rivalry between Europe and Japan over who should host the research facility.

"It's extremely important that there is a European proposal for approval of European budgets, and secondly, for a good competition between Japan and Europe which we can be a compromise on," says Barnard.

ITER Canada is proposing financing of the facility's construction that includes considerable private sector contributions. Barnard points to the participation of the Royal Bank and engineering firms such as SNC Lavalin among the ITER Canada membership, and says it would be the first international R&D facility partially financed by private sector interests. Private sector participation obviously has great sales potential in Ontario, where the proposed facility would be situated. The provincial government has confirmed a commitment of $300 million in seed funding to allow ITER Canada to raise private capital, with a projected total Canadian contribution of approximately $1.5 billion in cash and in-kind. But Barnard says that's not the reason he's opted for private sector participation.

"At the federal level, there's been a fear of mega projects, although this is a mega project with a difference in that other countries are paying for it," he says. "We approached the federal government three or four years ago for a $300 -million contribution and they turned us down.... So that's caused us to go for the private sector approach, and frankly it will produce - if it's built - the first international facility partially financed by the private sector."

The optimism underpinning Canada's bid for the ITER facility is based on several powerful factors, not the least of which is its positioning as a compromise host that both the Europeans and Japanese can live with. Bolstering the bid is the domestic availability of tritium (the fuel for the ITER reactor), a strong regulatory framework, and favourable socio-economic conditions for the hundreds of international scientists who would move to Canada to work.

Weighing against the Canadian bid is the government's ill-fated 1997 decision to reduce its support for fusion research, resulting in the closure of the Centre Canadien du fusion magnetique (R$, February 5/97).

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