ITER, short for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, stands as the culmination of a revolutionary new type of energy, Fusion energy. This experimental facility stands as a symbolic Global scientific partnership, uniting 35 countries such as China, the US, India, Japan, South Korea, and Russia who continue to cooperate unfettered by geopolitics. Founded in 2006 and situated in Saint Paul Les Durance, ITER holds the world’s largest Tokamak, a complex machine designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy, a promising source of energy that strives to make energy production more sustainable. Fusion energy is often hailed for being able to provide an inexhaustible source of power, with the primary fuel being deuterium derived from seawater and tritium which can be bred from lithium, it is also much safer than traditional fission energy used in nuclear reactors, for fusion does not produce any long term radioactive waste.
At the heart of ITER’s purpose is to prove further this idea of nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun and stars. Starting in the early twentieth century, scented started touting the idea of fusion energy with physicists like Albert Einstein, whose equation E=mc^2 highlighted the vast energy potential locked within atomic bonds setting the stage for a century-long quest to unlock a limitless source of power for humanity.
Fusion energy involves two light atomic nuclei, Deuterium, and tritium, to form heavier nuclei, releasing immense amounts of energy in the process; one kilogram of fusion fuel can produce the same energy as ten million kilograms of fossil fuel. Thus to achieve fusion on Earth, ITER employs a tokamak design, seen in the photo, to create and confine a plasma—a hot gas in which electrons are stripped from their nuclei in which the fusion reactions occur. The tokamak, the biggest in the world being thirty meters in height and diameter, uses powerful magnetic fields to keep the plasma stable and contained away from the reactor’s walls, allowing it to reach the necessary conditions for fusion of the two particles releasing much energy. This occurs at temperatures exceeding 150 million degrees Celsius, or ten times hotter than the sun’s core. To stop it from melting everything around it, the particle accelerator employs a powerful magnetic field to confine the plasma using a complex system of cooling and superconducting coils, state-of-the-art technology from various countries.
This project, which is set to cost more than twenty billion euros, is still in its assembly process, and with problems with quality, experts said that successful testing should occur in the next ten years and hopefully fusion technology will start to be used in at least fifteen years. As this international project progresses towards achieving its first plasma and, eventually, its goal of net energy gain, it stands on the cusp of a breakthrough that could redefine global energy strategies. Beyond ITER, this fusion technology has the power to revolutionize the field of electricity generation but also has applications in space exploration and much more. While these practical applications of fusion energy are still far on the horizon, ITER is making great leaps toward that goal. By harnessing the power that fuels the stars, ITER and subsequent fusion projects could light the way to a cleaner, more prosperous planet for future generations.
