Nuclear fission is caused by the impact of
nuclear fission is caused by the impact of
making, with 35 participating nations, ITER is a nuclear power plant designed to explore using fusion as an industrial-scale source of carbon-free energy.
When ITER goes online in late 2025, it will feature the world’s largest tokamak. The technology is based on the use of toroidal (doughnut-shaped) magnetic field coils and was originally developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s (‘tokamak’ is a Russian acronym for the technology).
One big advantage of fusion is that it doesn’t bear the inherent risks associated with fission, the traditional forme of nuclear power generation.
ITER’s field coils are the most powerful superconductive magnets ever designed. The power plant will use 18 of these, weighing 6,000 metric tons. It needs these to contain the plasma created by the fusion process.
Fusion explained
Fusion is akin to bringing the energy of the Sun to Earth. A fusion reactor engineers the collision of hydrogen atoms that, as in the core of the Sun, merge to form larger helium atoms.
The fusion process releases great amounts of energy. The walls of the tokamak capture this energy as heat, which is then used to produce steam to drive a turbine that converts it into electricity.
One big advantage of fusion is that it doesn’t bear the inherent risks associated with fission, the traditional form of nuclear power generation. In fission, a series of chain reactions leads heavy atoms to be split into ever-smaller parts. Fusion, instead, merges very light atoms, like hydrogen, to form heavier elements, with no chain reactions involved. Demonstrating this on a large scale is part of ITER’s scientific brief.
In laboratory conditions, two hydrogen isotopes (variations), deuterium and tritium, have been found to offer the most efficient fusion. In the tokamak, their electrons and nuclei are separated at temperatures of over 130,000° Celsius (234,000 degrees Fahrenheit), creating a plasma that could be described as a super-heated gas a hundred thousand times less dense than air.
When ITER goes online in late 2025, it will feature the world’s largest tokamak. The technology is based on the use of toroidal (doughnut-shaped) magnetic field coils and was originally developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s (‘tokamak’ is a Russian acronym for the technology).
One big advantage of fusion is that it doesn’t bear the inherent risks associated with fission, the traditional forme of nuclear power generation.
ITER’s field coils are the most powerful superconductive magnets ever designed. The power plant will use 18 of these, weighing 6,000 metric tons. It needs these to contain the plasma created by the fusion process.
Fusion explained
Fusion is akin to bringing the energy of the Sun to Earth. A fusion reactor engineers the collision of hydrogen atoms that, as in the core of the Sun, merge to form larger helium atoms.
The fusion process releases great amounts of energy. The walls of the tokamak capture this energy as heat, which is then used to produce steam to drive a turbine that converts it into electricity.
One big advantage of fusion is that it doesn’t bear the inherent risks associated with fission, the traditional form of nuclear power generation. In fission, a series of chain reactions leads heavy atoms to be split into ever-smaller parts. Fusion, instead, merges very light atoms, like hydrogen, to form heavier elements, with no chain reactions involved. Demonstrating this on a large scale is part of ITER’s scientific brief.
In laboratory conditions, two hydrogen isotopes (variations), deuterium and tritium, have been found to offer the most efficient fusion. In the tokamak, their electrons and nuclei are separated at temperatures of over 130,000° Celsius (234,000 degrees Fahrenheit), creating a plasma that could be described as a super-heated gas a hundred thousand times less dense than air.
