Gathered for a meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on Thursday, 29 January, MEPs deliberated the marketability of nuclear fusion while the European Commission prepares its strategy on how to develop this carbon-neutral technology that aims to imitate how the sun produces energy.
The institution implied that industrial deployment was not possible within a decade but that the existing commitment to research should continue.
Deputy Director-General Jan Panek at the European Commission reminded [MEPs] that, for the time being, the ITER project—the world’s largest experimental reactor, located in the south of France—still constitutes “the core of [the EU’s] effort[s]” where nuclear fusion is concerned.
“It’s still the only power plant-sized project in the world that [...] intends to cover all the complete question marks that actually stand between us and the commercialisation of fusion”, he emphasised.
According to Mr Panek, while this project must “remain the core of [the EU’s] fusion activities”, it is also important to close certain technological gaps and put a suitable regulatory framework in place.
The director does not think this framework necessarily has to replicate the one that currently applies to nuclear fission (used in current nuclear reactors)—but did not reveal anything more.
Hildegard Bentele (EPP, German) notably insisted that fusion be fully integrated into the EU’s competitiveness agenda and that projects be allowed to be eligible for EU funds, such as those for competitiveness and innovation.
Mr Panek also recognised the importance of finding a governance model that would be able to “integrat[e] our efforts in ITER with our efforts in fusion laboratories across the EU”.
He did not, however, directly endorse the idea put forward by Giorgio Gori (S&D, Italian)—which was to establish an EU agency dedicated to fusion, similar to the European Space Agency (ESA) in the space sector.
Even though the EU’s competitiveness depends on it, private investment in fusion (around €13 billion) does mainly come from the United States and China, which represent 46% and 32% of worldwide investments, respectively. In comparison, the EU’s share of these private investments is only 5%, as Fusion for Energy (F4E) Director Marc Lachaise pointed out. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)