Russia’s Continuing Role in ITER Despite Growing EU Pressure

The European Union and Russia remain geopolitical adversaries, with Moscow subject to sweeping EU sanctions and its relationship with the bloc increasingly restricted.

Yet in one of history’s largest international scientific collaborations—and the world’s biggest nuclear fusion experiment—the two remain connected through a partnership established decades ago and designed to outlast political cycles.

As Brussels tightens pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine and alleged hybrid attacks, Russian engineers continue to collaborate with their European counterparts on ITER, short for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. The experimental fusion facility is intended to demonstrate the ability to generate large amounts of energy by fusing hydrogen nuclei.

On Monday, EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen visited ITER at Cadarache, France, describing the project as essential to the bloc’s decarbonisation and energy-security ambitions.

PF1 poloidal-field coil and gyrotrons

ITER was launched in 2007 and is being built through cooperation among 33 members, including China, the European Union, Russia and the United States.

The project seeks to prove that fusion can become a practical low-carbon energy source, potentially helping the EU meet its target of climate neutrality by 2050. Europe accounts for 45.6 percent of construction costs, making it the largest financial contributor, according to the ITER website.

Although the EU has reduced its dependence on Russian energy, barred Russian public institutions from participating in its research programmes and prohibited Russian funding for European research organisations following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia has not been excluded from ITER. Its founding rules do not permit the removal of a member; countries can only withdraw voluntarily.

Russia therefore remains a 9.1 percent contributor and continues to provide scientists and specialist technologies.

“The Russian Federation is an ITER member and participates through its Domestic Agency, Project Center ITER,” an ITER spokesperson said. “All ITER-related activities are conducted in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.”

Beyond its financial contribution, Russia supplies several highly specialised components, including the PF1 poloidal-field coil, which helps shape and control the fusion plasma.

The country also provides gyrotrons—powerful devices that generate high-frequency electromagnetic waves used to heat plasma in fusion reactors. Other Russian-supplied items include equipment that protects the power supply to the superconducting magnets and upper ports for the vacuum vessel.

ITER’s place in Europe’s fusion strategy

Russia’s technical role is becoming more significant as fusion moves further up the EU’s investment agenda. Brussels is preparing to publish its own fusion strategy after recently announcing €330 million to accelerate the sector and strengthen related industrial capabilities and workforce skills.

The strategy, now one year behind schedule, is expected to cover governance, regulatory clarity and international cooperation, with Europe’s central role in ITER at the centre. The European Commission has not yet said whether Russian participation has delayed agreement among EU member states on the programme’s future.

A Council assessment of nuclear energy, including ITER, dated 9 July, contained no reference to Russia. Instead, it stated that the EU would “continue collaboration with the ITER Organisation and partners on ITER-related activities.”

Russian science chief visits ITER

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU suspended Moscow’s participation in major research and education programmes, including Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, Euratom and Erasmus+.

Other major scientific institutions have taken similar steps. In 2022, CERN, the world-leading particle-physics research centre, suspended Russia’s observer status and said it would “not engage in new collaborations with the Russian Federation.”

Despite that broader freeze in scientific relations, ITER signed a cooperation agreement with Russia’s Kurchatov Institute in June covering the exchange of scientific information, joint research and training.

Russian and European officials have also maintained high-level contacts around the project. In July, Russian Science Minister Valery Falkov visited ITER in France with a large delegation.

Supporters of cooperation with Russia argue that ITER is a decades-long undertaking dependent on specialised expertise, extensive industrial supply chains and participation across borders. Its framework was also designed on the premise that scientific cooperation could survive political change.

“The poloidal-field coil system, for example, incorporates contributions from Europe, Russia and China, requiring components and technologies from different national supply chains to be integrated into a single machine system,” the ITER spokesperson said.

Alongside their ITER commitments, several participating countries are pursuing national fusion programmes to develop the knowledge and technologies needed to operate commercial-scale fusion systems over the next two decades.

Research presented to the European Parliament suggests that progress since ITER’s launch in 2007 “might pave the way for the technology to be ready for industrial use in the second half of the century”.

The limits of science beyond geopolitics

Russia’s involvement in nuclear fusion has nevertheless created concerns within the EU about its growing dependence on Moscow’s technical expertise.

In 2025, three members of the European Parliament asked Jørgensen whether the EU intended to phase out its dependence on Russian participation in ITER.

Responding in a public letter, the energy commissioner said the organisation’s founding rules prevent members from being expelled; only a member may choose to withdraw.

Andrea Wechsler, one of the parliamentarians who signed the written question, said the reply “did not provide a convincing political strategy for dealing with Russia’s continued participation in the governance and technological ecosystem of ITER.”

“I believe the Commission should reassess the issue and explain how these new forms of institutional cooperation are consistent with the EU’s broader policy towards Russia,” she said. “We need a comprehensive security and strategic review of Russia’s involvement in ITER and a clear plan to ensure that no new technological dependencies are created.”

Similar concerns have been voiced by nongovernmental organisations. Sehila Gonzalez de Vicente, global director of fusion energy at the climate group Clean Air Task Force, said international cooperation has been crucial to advances in fusion but may no longer operate at the same global scale.

“Scientific collaboration is likely to become more concentrated among trusted allies and partners, while countries and companies seek to protect commercially sensitive technologies and maintain a competitive advantage in the emerging fusion industry,” Gonzalez de Vicente said.

Wechsler, however, opposes isolating Russian researchers, students and scientists. She argues, nevertheless, that cooperation on strategic technologies cannot be treated as geopolitically neutral simply because of its scientific character.

“I would not interpret the continuation of the project as evidence of a consensus that science should simply trump geopolitics,” she added.

The European Commission did not respond to an Euronews request in time for publication.

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