MOSCOW, August 29 (AVN) - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has approved the federal purpose-oriented programme entitled "ITER International Thermonuclear Reactor", a spokesman for the government information department said on Wednesday.
Russia, the United States, the European Union and Japan decided in 1992 to pool efforts for joint development of the engineering design of the world's first experimental thermonuclear reactor, the spokesman told the Military News Agency. The project is based on Tokamak thermonuclear plants designed in Russia.
The engineering design was completed in July 1998. By that time international research of Tokamak systems brought serious results that allowed the nations taking part in the ITER project halve the cost of the reactor construction without changing the programme's basic aims.
Russia, the European Union and Japan took the results into account when finalising the project from 1999 to 2001. Specification of the reactor size caused changes in several technical parameters of the reactor systems. Its generating thermonuclear capacity is estimated at 500mW. The approximate cost of the reactor construction is USD4bn.
The federal programme intended for 2002 to 2005 aims to prepare Russian organisations and enterprises for full-scale involvement in the reactor construction under the auspices of international co-operation.