ITER

Coordinates: 43°42′17.84″N 5°46′9.1″E / 43.7049556°N 5.769194°E / 43.7049556; 5.769194

ITER (Latin for "the way") is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject. It will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment, housed in the world's largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor that is being built next to the Cadarache facility in the south of France.

The ITER project aims to make the long-awaited transition from experimental studies of plasma physics to full-scale electricity-producing fusion power stations. The ITER fusion reactor has been designed to produce 500 megawatts of output power while needing 50 megawatts to operate. Thereby the machine aims to demonstrate the principle of producing more energy from the fusion process than is used to initiate it, something that has not yet been achieved in any fusion reactor.

The project is funded and run by seven member entities—the European Union, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The EU, as host party for the ITER complex, is contributing about 45 percent of the cost, with the other six parties contributing approximately 9 percent each.