The physics role of ITER

Experimental research on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will go far beyond what is possible on present-day tokamaks to address new and challenging issues in the physics of reactor-like plasmas. First and foremost, experiments in ITER will explore the physics issues of burning plasmas--plasmas that are dominantly self-heated by alpha-particles created by the fusion reactions themselves. Such issues will include (i) new plasma-physical effects introduced by the presence within the plasma of an intense population of energetic alpha particles; (ii) the physics of magnetic confinement for a burning plasma, which will involve a complex interplay of transport, stability and an internal self-generated heat source; and (iii) the physics of very-long-pulse/steady-state burning plasmas, in which much of the plasma current is also self-generated and which will require effective control of plasma purity and plasma-wall interactions. Achieving and sustaining burning plasma regimes in a tokamak necessarily requires plasmas that are larger than those in present experiments and have higher energy content and power flow, as well as much longer pulse length. Accordingly, the experimental program on ITER will embrace the study of issues of plasma physics and plasma-materials interactions that are specific to a reactor-scale fusion experiment. Such issues will include (i) confinement physics for a tokamak in which, for the first time, the core-plasma and the edge-plasma are simultaneously in a reactor-like regime; (ii) phenomena arising during plasma transients, including so-called disruptions, in regimes of high plasma current and thermal energy; and (iii) physics of a radiative divertor designed for handling high power flow for long pulses, including novel plasma and atomic-physics effects as well as materials science of surfaces subject to intense plasma interaction. Experiments on ITER will be conducted by researchers in control rooms situated at major fusion laboratories around the world, linked by high-speed computer networks--thus extending further what is already a much-acclaimed paradigm for international collaboration in science