At a meeting with the scientific attachés of the European embassies in Moscow in early February 2010, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Director of the Kurchatov Institute, announced that an initiative aimed at developing a fast paced joint research programme in nuclear fusion research was strongly supported by the Governments of Russia and Italy.
The collaboration with the Kurchatov Institute is directed at the construction of the Ignitor machine, the first experiment proposed to achieve ignition conditions by nuclear fusion reactions on the basis of existing knowledge of plasma physics and available technologies.
[4] According to existing plans, Ignitor will be installed at the Triniti site at Troitsk near Moscow, that has facilities which can be upgraded to house and operate the machine.
The proponents have suggested that the US become an Associate Member of this effort with a similar arrangement to that made with CERN for its participation in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) Programme.
This has been one of the incentives that have led the Ignitor Project to adopt magnesium diboride (MgB2) superconducting cables in the machine design, a first in fusion research.
In the context of the Italy-Russia summit meeting held in Milan on 26 April 2010[5] the agreement to proceed with the proposed joint Ignitor programme has been signed.