canada's offer to host the iter project

Canada’s offer to host the ITER project

Robert Keith Rae *

ITER Canada Host Inc., Board of Directors, ITER Canada, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 2001, Toronto, ON, Canada M5E 1E5

Abstract

The Government of Canada submitted the Canadian Offer to Host International Thermonuclear Experimental

Reactor (ITER) in June of 2001. This presentation discusses the attributes of the Canadian Offer, including a

description of the location for the Canadian site at Clarington, the site’s technical characteristics, established

infrastructure, socio-cultural characteristics, tritium supply, the licensing and environmental assessment process,

support in Canada for ITER and the research and development capability in Canada that would be of benefit to the

ITER project. These were evaluated and confirmed by an international team of experts as part of the Joint Assessment

of Specific Sites (JASS) undertaken by the ITER Negotiators, and are further described in the Final JASS Report

approved by the ITER Negotiators in January, 2003.

# 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Fusion; ITER; Canada

1. Introduction

Rod Irwin, Canada’s Ambassador to Russia,

formally presented Canada’s Plan to Host Inter-

national Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

(ITER) on June 7, 2001. The Offer was received

at a meeting in Moscow by ITER delegations from

the European Union, Japan, and the Russian

Federation. This presentation was made following

the Canadian Federal Government Cabinet ap-

proval to submit the Offer at the request of

Natural Resources Canada, the responsible de-

partment for ITER and leader of the international

Negotiations on behalf of Canada.

Canada’s Offer to host ITER would give the

ITER member countries a location with strengths

recognized by the international ITER participants

and confirmed in the Final Joint Assessment of

Specific Sites (JASS) Report [1]. These include

meeting or exceeding all technical requirements,

having an on-site source of the required tritium

supply and providing a welcoming multi-cultural

environment for ITER scientists and their families.

Canada also offers all ITER member countries a

neutral site for collaborative research, enabling

them to maintain established scientific, technolo-

gical and management roles in ITER and making

it a project that is a true international collabora-

tion (Fig. 1).* Tel.: �/1-416-203-7936.

E-mail address: [email protected] (R.K. Rae).

Fusion Engineering and Design 69 (2003) 545�/552

www.elsevier.com/locate/fusengdes

0920-3796/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/S0920-3796(03)00396-X

mailto:[email protected]

2. Location of the proposed ITER site at

Clarington

Canada’s proposed site for ITER is in Claring-

ton on the north shore of Lake Ontario approxi-

mately 60 km east of Toronto (see Fig. 2). It is

located between the Darlington Nuclear Generat-

ing Station and the St. Marys Cement Plant. The

proposed site is approximately 180 hectares,

providing for ample flexibility during construction

Fig. 1. Canada’s site for ITER is on the North Shore of Lake Ontario.

Fig. 2. Vast transport network provides easy access by air, highway, railway and waterway.

R.K. Rae / Fusion Engineering and Design 69 (2003) 545�/552546

as well as space for future expansion of the

facilities (see Fig. 3). It is located within commut-

ing distance of Toronto’s internationally recog-

nized multicultural urban environment*/a home

base that would be very attractive to ITER

scientists and their families.

3. A solid foundation for ITER development

The Canadian site for ITER at Clarington is

generally viewed as the best in the world from a

technical perspective, meeting or exceeding all of

the specified ITER technical requirements [2].

From a base that is seismically stable (see Fig.

4), geo-technically robust and essentially flat, the

Clarington site’s natural advantages also include

well-mapped, manageable groundwater regimes, asatisfactory heat sink to dissipate thermal energy,

and a benign climate that is equally friendly to

ITER systems and its personnel.

Clarington’s man-made advantages for ITER

include easy access to road, rail, air and ship

transportation, and the ability to receive large,

heavy loads*/up to and even beyond current

expectations*/at the neighbouring St. Marys Ce-

ment plant dock. Electrical power, both steady

state and pulsed, is abundant and reliable, with no

reported outages in more than 10 years on any of

the multiple circuits supplying Clarington. The site

is located immediately adjacent to a major 500 kV

node in the Ontario electricity distribution grid,

and supported by more than 30,000 MW of

installed capacity. The municipal water system

supplies the Clarington site with potable water,

while industrial water is available far in excess of

planned or expanded needs from the adjacent

Darlington Nuclear Generating Station. Support-

ing these resources is an advanced telecommunica-

tion network that enables remote manipulation

and operation of ITER systems from points

around the world.

Human resources for the Clarington site are as

impressive as its natural and industrial advantages.

Clarington is located on the eastern edge of

Toronto, Canada’s largest urban centre. A com-

plete pool of skilled professional and technical

workers, and all of the infrastructure needed to

Fig. 3. Overhead view shows flexibility for future expansion.

R.K. Rae / Fusion Engineering and Design 69 (2003) 545�/552 547

support the ITER facility, are found in abundance

within 50 km, or less than 1 h of travel time, of the

Clarington site.

4. Tritium on-site provides two kinds of security

Tritium is an essential ingredient of ITER and,

unique among the sites proposed for ITER, the

Canadian site at Clarington is located immediately

adjacent to the world’s most important source of

commercially available tritium at Ontario Power

Generation’s (OPG) Darlington Nuclear Generat-

ing Station. Tritium is produced as a by-product of

the CANDU technology used by OPG and isseparated and stored at the Tritium Removal

Facility at the Darlington site (see Fig. 5). These

circumstances provide two advantages.

First, OPG’s Tritium Removal Facility at Dar-

lington provides a secure source of activated

material for ITER over the planned 35-year course

of the program. Nuclear power using the CANDU

technology is one cornerstone of the Province ofOntario’s electricity supply strategy. This ensures

tritium will remain in good supply for the long

term.

Second, having a secure source of tritium

immediately adjacent to Clarington ensures that

activated material will not have to be transported

over public roadways*/let alone international

borders*/to reach the ITER site, a potential

public support concern. In fact, Clarington’s

secure source of tritium at Darlington ensures

that the activated material will never leave a

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission-licensed

site.

5. A welcoming multi-cultural community for ITER

scientists and their families

Canada’s site for ITER is at Clarington, the

eastern gateway to the Greater Toronto Area. The

region is home to more than 4.5 million residentsand is the heart of Canada’s business, cultural and

scientific communities. People from more than 100

countries have created a vibrant, family-friendly

multi-cultural society.

For ITER scientists and their families, there are

a range of affordable lifestyle and housing choices

from a sophisticated international city to small-

town living. The schooling choices are also invit-ing, from an excellent public system complemented

by culturally and religiously based schools to

independent schools offering the International

Baccalaureate program. The school system’s ex-

perience with international students will help give

the children of ITER scientists a successful educa-

Fig. 4. Clarington site is seismically stable.


tional experience, including a smooth re-integra-

tion into their home country school system.

Ontario’s universal-access healthcare system is

admired around the world. There is a continuum

of care beginning at the family doctor’s office and

progressing all the way to internationally ac-

claimed teaching and research hospitals.

Transportation throughout the area is easy,

whether by public transit or an affordable personal

automobile. For the longest journeys, Pearson

International Airport offers direct flights to citiesthroughout the world, making even the furthest

destinations only a day’s travel to reach the ITER

site (see Fig. 6).

The region offers a wide range of recreational

opportunities throughout the year and cultural

opportunities abound, with performing arts com-

plementing the fine arts (see Fig. 7). Finally, the

Centre for ITER Family Services will be availablearound the clock in person, by telephone and on

the Web with helpful information in all ITER

community languages.

6. Established regulatory and licensing regime

Canada has an established nuclear regulatory

and licensing regime that already recognizes fusion

within its environmental, licensing, construction,

operational, safety and decommissioning frame-work. ITER Canada has begun the licensing

procedure, a process that requires a formal envir-

onmental assessment. A non-profit organization

has been established, the Iter International Fusion

Energy Institute*/‘The Iter Institute’*/as a sepa-

rate entity from Iter Canada. It acts as a proxy for

Fig. 5. Aerial view of the ITER site at Clarington shows adjacent Tritium Removal Facility.

Fig. 6. There is direct access to the Greater Toronto Area

worldwide.


the future licensee and is currently undertaking the

required environmental assessment studies.

7. Canadians support ITER

Canada’s Offer to host ITER has a broad base

of support that includes four levels of government,

labour, academia and the private sector. This

group represents a unique public�/private partner-

ship that has the capability to supply the Canadian

share of the ITER project requirements.Public and local community support for the

ITER project is outstanding. A national opinion

poll [3] found that 90% of the public is favourable

or neutral towards the ITER Project, and a poll of

opinion in the local community [4] showed con-

sistent results (see Fig. 8). An interesting and

encouraging finding was that people with higher

levels of knowledge about the project had a higher

level of approval. The communities immediately

around the ITER site show unanimous support for

the facility and are ready to welcome ITER

scientists and their families. The ITER Commu-

nity Council, already established, will provide on-

going support and liaison between the local

community, local government agencies and the

ITER project.

8. Research and development in Canada

The Canadian site for ITER at Clarington, in

southern Ontario’s ‘golden horseshoe’, is the

centre of one of North America’s greatest concen-

trations of basic science research and engineering

and industrial capability. The Canadian govern-

ment’s policy framework supports research and

development and the results are impressive.Among the world’s leading academic institu-

tions, the University of Toronto stands out as a

leader in both fundamental and applied scientific

research in many fields, one notable example being

the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace

Studies (UTIAS).

Canada at large is a recognized home for

physics-based research and development, withscientists and facilities that have made major

contributions, such as the Sudbury (Ontario)

Neutrino Observatory*/that solved the puzzle of

missing solar neutrinos*/and TRIUMF, (see Fig.

9) the National Laboratory for Particle and

Nuclear Physics (on the campus of the University

Fig. 7. The Greater Toronto Area offers a world of choices in culture and recreation.


of British Columbia) equipped with the world’s

largest cyclotron. And the commitment to scien-

tific research and development continues through

early-stage initiatives such as the Perimeter In-

stitute for Theoretical Physics, and the Canadian

Light Source (the national centre for synchrotron

light research). The new University of Ontario

Institute of Technology, in Durham Region, near

the Canadian site for ITER is establishing a Centre

of Excellence for Alternative Energy Technology

with an emphasis on research into fusion.This national commitment to science provides a

significant return on investment through Canadian

companies that are acknowledged world leaders in

technologies ranging from telecommunications to

remote manipulation and sensing. These organiza-

tions, many of which are publicly held, have

demonstrated the ability to achieve success in the

most complex products and projects, serving the

most demanding customers, in the most challen-

ging locations around the world. One excellent

example is MD Robotics*/creators of the Cana-

darm for the International Space Station.

Canadian capability is also highly regarded in

fusion and ITER-related R & D with developed

expertise in tritium, diagnostics, first wall interac-

tions, remote handling and waste management.

Canadian companies who are ITER Canada

members also have proven track records engineer-

ing and managing global-scale research projects,

Fig. 8. Community newspaper reflects outstanding public support.

Fig. 9. The Canadarm is an example of Canadian capability in

robotics.


with reputations for excellence and on-time, on-budget delivery and commissioning.

The research and industrial resources available

to ITER at the Clarington site ensure both the best

thinking and the best capability to make fusion

energy real.

9. Conclusion*/Canada is the right choice forITER

As you have seen throughout this paper, the

Canadian site at Clarington presents a compelling

case for locating ITER in Canada.

Canada’s case begins with the fundamentals of a

technically excellent site*/including a secure, on-

site source of tritium*/but it includes significantstrengths in other aspects of the program. These

include an established infrastructure and experi-

enced labour force, first-class research and indus-

trial capability, a welcoming, multi-cultural

community for ITER scientists and their families,

and an established regulatory and licensing regime

that already provides for fusion energy. Supportfor ITER in Canada comes from a broad range of

constituencies and communities. These character-

istics of Canada’s Offer to host ITER were

confirmed by the findings in the Final JASS

Report.

Unique among ITER member countries seeking

to host the next phase of development, the

Canadian approach accommodates the establishedstrengths and leadership roles of ITER’s partici-

pants, and enables all ITER members to focus

their efforts exclusively on the prize: the successful

development of fusion energy as the new source of

cleaner energy for our planet.

References

[1] The ITER JASS Final Report, January 2003.

[2] The ITER Final Design Report, June 2001.

[3] Angus Reid Public Opinion Survey, December 1999.

[4] Iter Community Council-Collis and Reed Research, Feb-

ruary 2001.


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