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ITER’s remarkable energy-production upgrade is thanks to the reactor’s scaled-up design. That one couldn’t even break even - meaning it produced less power than it consumed. Even though ITER was only a test reactor that would never actually connect to the grid and produce electricity, such a result would be a record-smashing number for fusion reactors compared to its predecessor, a reactor called JET in the U.K. ITER’s made a bold promise: to produce 10 times the amount of energy it consumed. “If the output rate isn’t a lot higher than the input rate, it’s maybe scientifically curious, but it’s practically useless.” “Even though there are many interesting things to learn about fusion research, the only thing that really matters to people - the only thing that really matters to the world - is whether fusion can be a source of energy,” Krivit said. That, ITER often says, is worth the large sums of public cash the investment requires. (Conleth Brady/Wikimedia Commons)īut if ITER were to operate fully as expected by 2035, it would blow all previous fusion reactor designs out of the water in terms of power production. ITER exhibits at the International Fusion Energy Days 2013. Department of Energy puts it at nearly $65 billion. If you ask ITER, the bill will run around $25 billion. The final price tag is still up for debate. At that point, 35 countries had joined the project to split the cost (and benefits) of such an achievement. ITER’s design wasn’t finalized until 2001, but its approval carried a big punch: a promise to create 10 times more energy than it consumed. “That fusion is a practical source of energy, and that fusion would be commercially viable,” said Steven Krivit, a science writer and publisher of the New Energy Times, an independent outlet where he reports on developments in fusion. Researchers have toiled over fusion power since the 1950s and have yet to build a reactor that can produce more energy than it consumes. The only downside is that it’s all theoretical. That means if scientists can figure out a way to reliably produce and sustain nuclear fusion on Earth using elements commonly found in ocean water, virtually unlimited energy could be available at the push of a button - all without the risk of harmful carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, the variability of wind and solar power, and the potential of meltdowns and radioactive waste from nuclear fission. Get the recipe just right (that is, the sun), and the reaction will essentially heat itself. In that conversion, a ton of energy is released.
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Compress hydrogen isotopes long enough in a super hot environment and its atoms combine to create a new element: helium. It’s the fundamental reaction that has powered our sun for nearly 5 billion years, and will for about 5 billion more. The potential of nuclear fusion as an energy source is so bright it could blind you. Henderson has dreamed of building a functional commercial fusion energy reactor since he was 14 years old - another physicist in a long line of boosters who believe fusion energy production is not only achievable, but mandatory, if much of humanity is to outlive the lifestyles of its elite.Īnd it’s easy to understand why. By then, the idea of working together was a more novel concept than fusion power itself. In the 1980s, two longtime foes, the United States and the former Soviet Union, came together with a common mission: to harness this seemingly magical power source for something other than mutual annihilation. (The Latin word “iter” means “way” or “journey.”) The assembly hall of the ITER ( the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), is pictured in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, southern France, Wednesday, Dec. Still under construction in the south of France, the huge doughnut-shaped test reactor is often labeled the world’s largest science experiment, and the next step in the journey to fusion energy. It’s called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ITER for short. He hopes the project he’s been working on for the last dozen years will give fusion energy that push. “And governments would have to be committed to putting the success of fusion first.” “We would have to be committed to doing that,” Henderson said. Those latter ingredients, he added, can be harder to come by. “If we put the money, we put the effort, and we put the ingenuity behind it,” Henderson said.
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In just 20 years, nuclear physicist Mark Henderson says, that simple recipe could power entire cities and help slow the rising tide of climate change for good - if, that is, a few things happen. Heat, density, time, and a small amount of seawater. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This story is from The Pulse, a weekly health and science podcast.