ITER’s Historic Milestone in Fusion Energy Development

Nuclear fusion energy could be a pivotal sustainable energy source to complement renewables. The world’s largest fusion experiment, ITER, is being built in France. Credit: ITER Organization

Major milestone in European and Japanese contributions to ITER fusion energy project.

The ITER fusion energy project marks a significant milestone with the completion of 19 toroidal field coils, crucial for magnetic confinement in fusion energy. Developed over two decades through a multinational effort, these components signify a step forward in producing a clean, abundant energy source. This project demonstrates exceptional international collaboration and technological innovation, involving over 30 countries and numerous high-tech companies.

After two decades of design, production, fabrication, and assembly on three continents, the historic, multinational ITER fusion energy project celebrates the completion and delivery of its massive toroidal field coils from Japan and Europe.

Masahito Moriyama, Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Italy’s Minister of Environment and Energy Security, will attend the ceremony with officials from other ITER members.

How the toroidal field coils fit around the tokamak vacuum vessel (including human scale). Credit: ITER

How does fusion work?

• A small amount of deuterium and tritium (hydrogen) gas is injected into a large, donut-shaped vacuum chamber, called a tokamak.
• The hydrogen is heated until it becomes an ionized
  After two decades of design, production, fabrication, and assembly on three continents, the historic, multinational ITER fusion energy project celebrates the completion and delivery of its massive toroidal field coils from Japan and Europe. Credit: Fusion for Energy

  Engineering the Future of Energy

  The plasma will be heated to 150 million degrees, 10 times hotter than the core of the sun. At this temperature, the velocity of the light atomic nuclei is high enough for them to collide and fuse. To shape, confine, and control this extremely hot plasma, the ITER tokamak must generate an invisible magnetic cage, precisely conformed to the shape of the metal vacuum vessel.

  ITER uses niobium-tin and niobium-titanium as the material for its giant coils. When energized with electricity, the coils become electromagnets. When cooled with liquid helium to -269 degrees Celsius (4 Kelvin), they become superconducting.

  The Core Components of ITER

  To create the precise magnetic fields required, ITER employs three…

  
  
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  2024-07-24 06:10:46