The Special Committee on ITER in Japan completed its draft report on March 30 and its release for a period of public comment was approved on April 3 by the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC). The Special Committee will meet again in early May to consider public comment received and to submit the report for final JAEC approval shortly thereafter. The report will then go to the Council for Science and Technology, chaired by the Prime Minister. In parallel the Government of Japan will proceed with the site selection process.
The draft report concludes that "hosting the ITER in our country is of great significance, as well as taking a main role in the ITER project." The report says, "If our country takes the initiative to construct the ITER, the only facility in the world, it will be possible to maintain for a long period a highest level of scientific and technological potential and industrial technologies in the relevant fields." It says, "From a viewpoint of investment, the activities regarding the national security, in a broad sense, for the whole nation and those regarding an international function executed in a national scale should be considered to have higher priority in allocating the financial resources among the research programs. The ITER project is categorized in such a domain. At present, it is difficult to accurately estimate the overall cost for the realization of fusion energy. Moreover, it is almost impossible to estimate the profit from the realization of fusion energy. It can be understood that the investment in developing fusion energy is regarded as a sort of insurance premium for securing wider degree of freedom of humankind in the future."
The report says, "In this Committee, knowledgeable people from various communities have made discussions and thorough review from wider viewpoints. Through the discussions, a number of issues have been pointed out, which need due consideration in promoting the ITER project. Among them, it is essential to minimize the project cost, by keeping a balance among the technical objectives, the risk in development and the cost. Furthermore, it is the most important to incorporate in the project the possibility to maximize the significance and benefits independent of the project results."
The report says, "The Committee calls for steady efforts and implementation by the Government Administration of our country in:
"The Committee considers that, in order to make a final decision by the Government, it is necessary to further assess candidate sites in terms of compliance to the ITER site requirements and how to secure financial resources."
For further information, contact H. Takatsu (takatsu@naka.jaeri.go.jp).