The solution of the energy problem is one of the main priorities for the governments in the whole world. The energy supply will need to satisfy the continuously increasing demand with a limited impact on the environment allowing a sustainable future to the generations to come.
The availability of appropriate energy resources is a key item to fight poverty, closely linked to the lack of drinking water and electric power.
Future energy sources will have to be evenly distributed around the world and not concentrated only in one geographic area, as it is now the case for the fossil fuels.
This challenge has already started and it will extend in the long term.

Fusion energy has the capability to satisfy these conditions, even if it will not be fully used before the second half of this century.
A steady progress has been achieved in this field all around the world. In Europe, JET, the largest fusion experiment existing on earth, has demonstrated that it is possible to produce fusion power by achieving 16 MW, even if for a few seconds. The achieved power amplification factor Q (the ratio between the power generated in the machine and the one supplied from the outside to heat the plasma) was very close to one. This result, together with other achievements in both physics and technology, have helped in the definition of the forthcoming new experiment, ITER.

ITER is an international project with the participation of the European Union (including Switzerland), China, South Korea, the Russian Federation, Japan and the USA. It will generate a fusion power of about 500 MW for ten minutes, corresponding to a power amplification factor Q=10.
The final aim of the ITER machine is to demonstrate the scientific and engineering feasibility of fusion, paving the way to the design of commercial power plants for the production of electricity. A construction of ITER is expected to start in 2006 in the south of France in Cadarache.
In Europe, all the laboratories associated to EURATOM, the universities and the most advanced industry are actively cooperating in the design and the development of the ITER components.
Thanks to the experience achieved in the past decades, Europe can positively look into the future, still keeping its leading role in fusion.

For more information on the European fusion activities:
http://www.efda.org;
http://www.jet.efda.org;
http://www.iter.org;
...