Australia's nuclear agency ANSTO has signed an agreement with the ITER International Fusion Energy Organisation that will see it lend expertise on the ITER fusion project taking place in southern France.

ITER was born in 1985 as the Cold War started to thaw and the then presidents of the US and USSR, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, agreed to collaborate to develop a fusion reactor for peaceful purposes. They were quickly joined by the European Union and Japan and later by China, South Korea and India.

The agreement with Australia marks the first time a non-ITER member has been allowed to work on the project.

“This is a landmark day in the history of nuclear science in Australia,” said ANSTO CEO Dr Adi Paterson.

“Fusion is the Holy Grail for energy production and if achieved at a large-scale would answer some of the world’s most pressing questions relating to sustainability, climate change and security.”

Paterson said, in addition to ANSTO, Australian participants include the ANU, University of Sydney, Curtin University, University of Newcastle, University of Wollongong and Macquarie University.

They will work with international experts, determining the feasibility of fusion energy as a large-scale, greenhouse gas-free energy source.

“ANSTO will use its expertise in nuclear techniques to measure the impact of the reactor vessel materials, which are placed under extreme heat and radiation inside the reactor,” said Paterson.

“The state-of-the-art reactor wall materials are a core component of the project and their performance is vitally important.”

David Campbell, who heads ITER's Science & Operations Department, described it as a fundamental change for the organisation.

"Although the fusion R&D activities in the ITER Members make up the vast majority of the international research program on fusion energy development, this is a first step in expanding our research collaborations into the wider fusion community, where there is significant, and in some cases unique, expertise," said Campbell.

"There is considerable potential for both the Australian and ITER fusion communities in such collaboration."

[ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot (left) with ANSTO CEO Adi Paterson. Photo: ANSTO]

Energy will be a major topic of discussion at the Australian Engineering Conference 2016 in Brisbane on November 23-25.