ITER's Fusion Fumble: World's Most Powerful Reactor Prepares for 2039 Amid Soaring Costs
By: SUNITA SOMVANSHI
By: SUNITA SOMVANSHI
The ITER fusion reactor, a remarkable 35-country partnership, is facing a major delay; it is now slated to begin its first complete test in 2039, a startling 19 years later than first anticipated.
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The budget for the most potent magnetic fusion reactor in the world, which was originally estimated to be $5 billion, has increased to more than $22 billion due to unanticipated difficulties and technological challenges.
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The innovative design of the reactor has 19 enormous coils that produce a magnetic field 280,000 times stronger than Earth's, demonstrating the far-reaching potential of nuclear fusion technology.
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Pietro Barabaschi, the director general of ITER, cautions against depending only on nuclear fusion to meet the current global climate concerns, despite the technology's potential to revolutionise energy generation.
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An extra $5 billion is suggested to handle the project's growing costs, demonstrating the enormous stakes and cost requirements of developing fusion energy.
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Similar to the centre of stars, the ITER reactor's core will try to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium in an effort to replicate celestial processes on Earth.
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Keeping superheated plasma within the tokamak's walls is still a difficult task since temperatures needed are many times higher than the sun.
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After been researched for more than 70 years, nuclear fusion is now at a standstill as scientists attempt to reconcile the prospect of endless clean energy with the remaining technological obstacles.