Next to the International Space Station ISS, ITER is the largest research project worldwide. If it will be launched in 2005 yet, the experimental reactor may start operating in 2015.

Planned parameters:

Power: more than 400 Megawatts, comparable to a conventional power plant (ITER will not yet provide electricity to network)

Energy confinement time: 500 seconds

Q-factor: more than 10

ITER will provide information about the influence that the 'ash' of the fusion process, Helium, has on the discharge. Moreover, ITER will 'breed' its Tritium demand itself: the plasma vessel will be covered with Lithium which transforms into Tritium under neutron bombardement. This way, one may dispense with the transport of radioactive material.