This is one of the six key pieces in the implementation of this program, a major international scientific project in which Russia is still taking part, despite the international sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine .
Le Monde with AFP
Russia sent to France on Tuesday 1
The boat carrying the “Poloidal field coil” manufactured in Russia, under the direction of the atomic agency Rosatom, took off in St. Petersburg (North West), found journalists from the France Agency -Presse (AFP). The imposing 9 meters in diameter magnet for 200 tonnes was packaged for a journey which must last a fortnight and go through Amsterdam before reaching Marseille.
This coil, in the shape of a ring, must form the upper part of the structure of “Tokamak”, this experimental machine under construction in the south of France which aims to master the production of energy from the merger hydrogen, as in the heart of the sun.
“Without the PF1 coil, the Tokamak cannot work,” summed up Leonid Khimchenko, deputy director for technical questions at the ITER center in Russia, who welcomes this “unique” achievement after more than eight years of work . Of the six reels planned before the first production of plasma hoped for in 2026, four are carried out in Western Europe and another was built in China, under European responsibility.
“We are all only one Family ”
the magnet, loaded on November 1, 2022 on a barge in Saint Petersburg. Olga Maltseva/AFP The imposing Russian piece was to leave in May, but the prohibitions for Russian boats to mover in a European port, due to sanctions related to its military aggression In Ukraine, delayed his departure. No question for Russia not to “fulfill its obligations” in this important international project, argued Viatcheslav Perchoukov, special representative of Rosatom for international projects, according to which “current events have hardly affected the advance of the project “.
In the wake of its military intervention in Ukraine, Russia has nevertheless announced to withdraw “after 2024” from the International Space Station (ISS), another flagship of scientific cooperation between Westerners and the Russians. But at this point, no similar decision was made to it.
“Everyone would be a loser” in the event of withdrawal or exclusion from Russia, AFP Andreï Mednikov told AFP, in charge of project management of the coil. “We are all one family. (…). There is no competition, nothing,” said Khimchenko, while Moscow and the Westerners, allies of kyiv, compete around Ukraine Since the end of February.
Along the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, India, Japan, South Korea and China, Russia participates at 9 , 1 % of the production cost of the installation. Fruit of scientific cooperation between thirty-five countries, the idea of the ITER project was born at the end of a summit between American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.
The imposing Russian piece was to leave in May, but the prohibitions for Russian boats to mover in a European port, due to sanctions related to its military aggression In Ukraine, delayed his departure. No question for Russia not to “fulfill its obligations” in this important international project, argued Viatcheslav Perchoukov, special representative of Rosatom for international projects, according to which “current events have hardly affected the advance of the project “.
In the wake of its military intervention in Ukraine, Russia has nevertheless announced to withdraw “after 2024” from the International Space Station (ISS), another flagship of scientific cooperation between Westerners and the Russians. But at this point, no similar decision was made to it.
“Everyone would be a loser” in the event of withdrawal or exclusion from Russia, AFP Andreï Mednikov told AFP, in charge of project management of the coil. “We are all one family. (…). There is no competition, nothing,” said Khimchenko, while Moscow and the Westerners, allies of kyiv, compete around Ukraine Since the end of February.
Along the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, India, Japan, South Korea and China, Russia participates at 9 , 1 % of the production cost of the installation. Fruit of scientific cooperation between thirty-five countries, the idea of the ITER project was born at the end of a summit between American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.