Feature Article: The Accelerator Laboratory at the Weizmann Institute

Controlled thermonuclear fusion remains one of the principle candidates for meeting the world's long-term energy needs in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. The international fusion community is presently on the threshold of a major advance with negotiations to agree to the construction of the ITER project. ITER is an international collaboration between China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States and its exploitation will represent a truly global effort to address this aspect of the energy problem. ITER is a toroidal magnetic confinement system known as a tokamak, a Russian idea that has since become the predominant system in all of the world's major fusion programs.