On November 1^st, 2012 World Nuclear News (WNN) published an article entitled “EU to Raise Nuclear Research Spending”. The article, written by Robert Stokes, examines the projected increase in funding for fusion and nuclear research under the European Union’s (EU’s) planned Horizon 2020 program. From the article:

Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness. Running from 2014 to 2020 with an €80 billion ($104 billion) budget, the EU’s new program for research and innovation is part of the drive to create new growth and jobs in Europe.

The outgoing research spending scheme FP7 (the Seventh Framework Program), which began in 2007 and is ending in 2013, provided the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), an international experimental fusion project, with a combined $985 million. The new program will increase this and other EU nuclear research funding.

Euratom activities directed toward fusion research received €594 million a year on average under FP7, while Horizon 2020 would increase this by 10.6% to €657 million ($582 million). Of this, €142 million ($184 million) will be for fusion research under Euratom and €515 million ($668 million) will be for the increasingly expensive ITER project itself.

This funding increase relates to new general objectives within Horizon 2020:

A commission spokesman said the figures underlined general objectives within Horizon 2020: to focus exclusively on improving nuclear safety, security and radiation protection (including nuclear medicine); and to contribute to long-term decarbonization of energy.

To read the full article click here.

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