Thirty-five countries are working together in the south of France to build a large research laboratory to demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining energy from nuclear fusion by magnetic confinement.
90% of the construction costs of the ITER project are covered by in-kind contributions made by the different partners. Each partner has a Domestic Agency responsible for managing these contributions. The agency responsible for managing the European partner's contributions is the European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy, which is registered commercially as Fusion for Energy (F4E) with headquarters in Spain (Barcelona).
The CIEMAT, together with other institutions and universities (UPM, UPC, UNED, UPV, CELLS-ALBA, URL, UNIOVI, ESS-B), is engaged in various developments of components and systems for ITER: fuel regenerative modules, temperature increase systems, measurement systems, internal components, control and data acquisition. Spanish personnel make up 25% of the total F4E staff. The most senior Spaniard is the Head of the Budget and Finance Unit. The Chair of the Technical Advisory Board and the Vice-Chair of the Governing Council are currently held by Joaquín Sánchez Sanz, Director of the National Fusion Laboratory at CIEMAT.