ITER - Performance

Programme in a nutshell

Concrete examples of achievements (*)

^{(*) Key achievements in the table state which period they relate to. Many come from the implementation of the predecessor programmes under the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework. This is expected and is due to the multiannual life cycle of EU programmes and the projects they finance, where results often follow only after completion of the programmes.}

Budget for 2021-2027

^{(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.}

Rationale and design of the programme

The ITER-related EU action supports the construction and future operation of ITER, which will be the first experimental device to test the feasibility of fusion as a future source of energy.

Budget

Budget programming (million EUR):

^{(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.}

Financial programming:
- EUR 435 million (- 8%)
compared to the legal basis*

^{* Top-ups pursuant to Article 5 of the multiannual financial framework regulation are excluded from financial programming in this comparison.}

• The commitment profile over the 2021–2027 period is based on the planned EU contribution needs of the project established in 2016. As ITER is an industrial research project which is under construction, the budgetary needs are not linear.

• Since the project is experiencing new delays and technical difficulties at the level of the ITER Organization and F4E, this explains the reduced budget request compared to the legal basis.

Budget performance – implementation

Multiannual cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2022 (million EUR):

Voted budget implementation (million EUR)⁽¹⁾:

^{(1) Voted appropriations (C1) only.}

Contribution to horizontal priorities

Green budgeting

Contribution to green budgeting priorities (million EUR):

• The Commission considers that 100% of the ITER-related expenditure for the 2021-2027 period contributes to the climate effort of the EU budget. The project does not, however, contribute to the biodiversity mainstreaming or the clean air budgeting priorities.

Gender

Contribution to gender equality (million EUR) (*):

^{(*) Based on the applied gender contribution methodology, the following scores are attributed at the most granular level of intervention possible:}

<sup>- 2: interventions the principal objective of which is to improve gender equality;
- 1: interventions that have gender equality as an important and deliberate objective but not as the main reason for the intervention;
- 0: non-targeted interventions (interventions that are expected to have no significant bearing on gender equality);
- 0*: score to be assigned to interventions with a likely but not yet clear positive impact on gender equality.</sup>

• The ITER agreement does not include any objectives or reporting in terms of gender equality because it is a project of technical nature. However, the F4E Joint Undertaking has set targets to improve gender balance internally (in particular in managerial positions).

Digital

Contribution to digital transition (million EUR):

Budget performance – outcomes

• In 2022, the ITER project saw further progress. The manufacturing of the main components progressed overall, with some notable exceptions (e.g. delays in the manufacturing and pre-assembly of vacuum vessel sectors). The construction of the main buildings was completed and the assembly of the experimental device has progressed, but at a slower pace than envisioned in the baseline schedule.
• The construction and assembly of ITER faced challenges, particularly due to delays in the delivery of certain components by ITER parties, the first-of-a-kind nature of the components to be delivered, the unresolved hold point put in place by the French nuclear safety authority and the unparalleled complexity of the assembly activities.
• Work towards achieving first plasma continues to advance, but it has become clear that the milestone of reaching it by 2025 can no longer be achieved.
• Both the completion of ITER construction and Euratom’s in-kind contribution were below their 2022 targets. While some catch-up can be expected, various steps of the project will have to be rescheduled to establish a more realistic planning. The baseline revision exercise has been accordingly started by the ITER Organization. There are a number of lessons learnt from the project delays, including the weaknesses in the project set-up, design process, quality assurance and management of the contracts and contractors.
• Due to its international nature, whereby Russia is one of the project partners, the ITER project will be impacted by the war in Ukraine. The question of the continuation of Russia’s participation is likely to be put on the table due to the expected difficulties for Russia to honour its commitments and the reputational risk for the project.
• Fusion can be a clean and virtually limitless energy source. The general potential of fusion is nowadays more widely recognised thanks to the strong advancement of fusion science in recent years. ITER is the world's biggest and most intensive fusion project. There are more than a dozen additional fusion research initiatives underway (e.g. a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the start-up Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and other initiatives in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom). The fusion foresight study carried out by DG Energy⁽¹⁾ mapped all the initiatives and drew scenarios for future fusion development. In all scenarios the ITER experiment is central for further fusion research and initiatives.
• The EU’s funding of ITER is an investment in a more sustainable, climate-friendly society. The preamble of the ITER agreement emphasises the long-term potential of fusion energy as a virtually limitless, environmentally acceptable and economically competitive source of energy. The European Commission considers ITER expenditure as 100% relevant to the achievement of the 30% climate spending target of the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework. The climate contribution from the 2022 commitments was EUR 703.0 million.
• F4E is also acting as an innovation facilitator to support the industry, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises. Success stories of companies that have increased their competitiveness thanks to the commercial use of F4E’s technology package are published on F4E's marketplace of technologies⁽²⁾. To achieve new success stories each year, F4E is actively doing the following.
  • Promoting a portfolio of technologies. A total of 33 technology packages are currently being offered⁽³⁾ for use in non-fusion markets. F4E’s network of brokers is supporting F4E’s industrial partners, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, to present business-oriented sales pitches of the technologies at events organised or attended by F4E (the F4E Technology Transfer Day, the Big Science Business Forum, a series of brokerage webinars, Hannover Messe, Automatica).
  • Funding projects to bring the technologies to the market. In 2023, F4E launched the third edition of the Technology Transfer Award and the second edition of the Demonstrator project. F4E is rewarding the commercial use of technologies and is funding the gap between the technology readiness level in the ITER project and the technology readiness level of the technology needed for its use in the market.
  • Promoting a marketplace of technologies. This is an opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises to showcase what new skills they have acquired thanks to their participation in the ITER project.

^{(1) Foresight study on the worldwide developments in advancing fusion energy, including the small-scale private initiatives, available at: https://op.europa.eu/s/x03h.
(2) https://techtransfer.f4e.europa.eu/index.php/success-stories-nouvelle-version/.
(3) https://techtransfer.f4e.europa.eu/index.php/join-the-fusion-tech/.}

MFF 2014-2020 – ITER

The ITER-related EU action supports the construction and assembly of ITER, which will be the first experimental device to test the feasibility of fusion as a future source of energy.

Budget

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2022 (million EUR):

Performance assessment

• The ITER project saw significant progress in the 2014-2020 period. The project advanced to the device’s assembly phase, and progress in the installation activities on the ITER site was noticeable. The uncertainties of the project decreased as the manufacturing of the important and technically complex first-of-kind components (cryostat and toroidal and poloidal field coils) proved to be feasible.
• The deficiencies identified at the beginning of the 2014-2020 period, such as the immaturity of the design, project management issues and a lack of cooperation between the parties involved, were addressed in a major overhaul of the project and organisation in 2015.
• This overhaul improved the overall effectiveness of the project. A new schedule was approved in November 2016, stabilising the project and providing a realistic basis for its progress. However, the management and administration of this multinational project still pose significant challenges.
• On the other hand, due to the technical complexity of some components, their design, prototyping and final manufacturing will take longer than expected. This is especially the case for vacuum vessel sectors, most of which are to be delivered by the EU. The assembly work of the components faced unexpected technical and regulatory issues that affected the schedule.
• In addition, the progress of the project has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is further exacerbated by delays stemming from the complexity of the current assembly works and of the first-of-the-kind nature of many components. The combined effect of these factors results in delays to the expected start of operations (‘first plasma’), the extent of which is currently under assessment and will inform the revision of the project baseline (cost and schedule) launched by the ITER Council.
• ITER’s investment in technologies and discoveries for the future have the potential to ripple throughout the economy by supporting cutting-edge technologies in critical industries, creating new business and jobs and attracting more students to science while laying the foundation for the generation of commercial electricity from fusion energy.
• A study⁽¹⁾ estimated that the impact of ITER on the EU economy in gross added value was EUR 1.7 billion for the 2008–2019 period. Additionally, the total number of annual jobs directly or indirectly created by ITER reached nearly 29 500 by 2019.

^{(1) ‘Follow up study on the economic benefits of ITER and BA projects to EU industry’, available at: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/3db11048-6a89-11eb-aeb5-01aa75ed71a1/language-en?WT_mc_id=Searchresult&WT_ria_c=37085&WT_ria_f=3608&WT_ria_ev=search.}

Contribution to the sustainable development goals