What if scientists could take advantage of the extraordinarily powerful process that powers the sun to generate clean energy here on Earth? In a potentially historical milestone, today they are taking a step towards that future.
At a ceremony on Tuesday morning in southern France, a consortium of 35 countries officially began the assembly phase of a megaproject known as ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. Once assembly is complete, in four and a half years, it will be the world’s first industrial-scale fusion device. If successful, it promises to pave the way for virtually unlimited, waste-free energy.
Fusion is the process that powers stars like the sun, which can be thought of as a gigantic fusion reactor. When two atomic nuclei combine, or merge, to form a heavier nucleus, energy is released. However, here on Earth, fusion as a form of power generation remains largely theoretical.
While scientists have managed to achieve fusion, to date it has only been done for very short periods of time and never produced more energy than was needed to make the fusion a reality. fusion reaction occur.
The goal of ITER, which will be the world’s largest scientific research facility, is to demonstrate that fusion energy can be generated sustainably in a human-controlled process on a commercial scale.
ITER.org
The start of the ITER assembly was described by Michael Mauel, professor of applied physics at Columbia University, as “a milestone for international science and the demonstration of the great achievements that are possible by sharing resources, experience and vision for an abundant future and clean energy. ” “
To say that fusion is the holy grail of energy would not be an exaggeration. This is because fusion fuel is available and abundant, there is no physical possibility of fusion and production does not produce carbon dioxide. It offers the promise of producing emission-free energy at a time when the world desperately needs alternative energy sources to reduce the devastating effects of climate change that will soon become crippling.
One aspect of fusion that makes it so attractive is that the fuel required for the reaction is the extremely abundant element of hydrogen, which can be extracted from seawater and lithium. Hydrogen is ubiquitous enough to supply humanity with unlimited energy for millions of years. A pineapple-sized amount of this fuel would equal 10,000 tons of coal, enough to supply 2,300 average US households for a year.
But until now, the generation of viable fusion power has been out of our reach. This is because in order to achieve fusion, plasma, a gaseous state of matter made up of charged particles (think of the Northern Lights or a bright plasma lamp), must heat up to a staggering 150 million degrees Celsius. . That is ten times hotter than the core of the sun. No reactor has been able to produce more fusion energy than was needed to create the fusion in the first place. This obviously defeats the purpose.
“Delivering fusion energy to humanity is far from easy. It requires combining scientific knowledge of astrophysics with technical knowledge of nuclear power engineering,” said Mauel.
But Mauel is optimistic about ITER’s chances of success due to years of learning from sophisticated experiments. “After decades of research effort, there is good reason for optimism. ITER will be the ‘game-changing’ experiment because it is built large enough to release fusion power at the scale of a power plant, and it will be the first experiment to release more fusion power than injected. “
The idea of fusion dates back to the 1920s, and scientists have pursued the concept ever since. In the 1960s, the Soviets took a big step forward when they developed the Tokamak, a donut-shaped chamber that uses a powerful magnetic field to confine hot plasma to generate fusion. To this day, a Tokamak is the leading candidate for merger on an industrial scale and is at the heart of ITER.
ITER.org
ITER’s Tokamak will be a giant. Once assembled, the round chamber made up of over 1 million components will be 100 feet wide and will contain the world’s largest superconducting magnet system.
“Building the machine piece by piece will be like putting together a three-dimensional puzzle in an intricate timeline,” said Dr. Bernard Bigot, CEO of ITER, in a press release. “All aspects of project management, systems engineering, risk management, and machine assembly logistics must work together with the precision of a Swiss watch.”
France is the host country for the ITER megaproject. The European Union, along with the United Kingdom and Switzerland, finances 45% of the cost, while the other members (the United States, China, Japan, Russia, India and South Korea) each contribute 9%. Most funds take the form of in-kind contributions of goods and services.
How ITER Will Work
The process for generating fusion energy is enormously sophisticated and elegantly simple.
To start, a few grams of deuterium and tritium gas (forms of hydrogen) are injected into the Tokamak’s huge donut-shaped chamber. The hydrogen is heated until it turns into a cloud-like ionized plasma. That plasma is made up of and controlled by 10,000 tons of superconducting magnets.
When the plasma reaches 150 million degrees Celsius, fusion occurs. In the fusion reaction, a small amount of mass is converted to a large amount of energy as ultra high-energy neutrons escape from the magnetic cage and transmit energy in the form of heat.
That heat is absorbed by the water that circulates in the walls of the Tokamak, producing steam. In a commercial plant, a steam turbine will generate electricity.
ITER.org
After four and a half years of assembly, in December 2025, ITER scientists and engineers hope to launch “First Plasma”, the initial event that demonstrates the functionality of the machine. If everything goes according to plan, the plant at ITER will produce around 500 megawatts of thermal power. The team says that if it is continuously operated and connected to the electrical grid, ITER could generate around 200 megawatts of electric energy, enough for about 200,000 homes.
The hope is that the ITER experiment will demonstrate the ability to achieve viable fusion and, along the way, provide the knowledge necessary to enable scientists to accelerate the construction of commercial fusion plants around the world.
The ITER team says that in the future, commercial fusion plants would be designed with a slightly larger plasma chamber for 10 to 15 times more electrical power. For example, a 2,000 megawatt fusion plant would supply electricity to 2 million homes.
As for the cost of building and operating a commercial fusion plant, it is expected to be similar to the cost of a traditional nuclear power plant, but without the large costs and long-term inherited problem of waste disposal.
The role that fusion energy could play in fighting climate change depends on how quickly such facilities can be built and put into operation. Right now, over 70% of carbon emissions come from energy use. Even if all goes well with the ITER experiment, it will likely be decades before fusion power becomes widespread.
“Even with strong international support from private industries, the race to commercial fusion energy is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Mauel.
Therefore, Mauel adds, “Short-term climate change concerns will need to be addressed by other energy technologies.”
ITER CEO Bigot agrees but feels the merger will eventually come in handy. “If fusion energy becomes universal as a complement to renewable energy, the use of electricity could be greatly expanded to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport, buildings and industry,” he said. “Allowing the exclusive use of clean energy will be a miracle for our planet.”
.
