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posted by janrinok on Friday August 02 2019, @12:49AM   Printer-friendly

Submitted via IRC for FatPhil

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is set to launch operations in 2025. A multination project to build a fusion reactor cleared a milestone yesterday and is now 6 ½ years away from "First Plasma," officials announced.

Yesterday, dignitaries attended a components handover ceremony at the construction site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in southern France. The ITER project is an experiment aimed at reaching the next stage in the evolution of nuclear energy as a means of generating emissions-free electricity.

The section recently installed—the cryostat base and lower cylinder—paves the way for the installation of the tokamak, the technology design chosen to house the powerful magnetic field that will encase the ultra-hot plasma fusion core.

"Manufactured by India, the ITER cryostat is 16,000 cubic meters," ITER officials said in a release. "Its diameter and height are both almost 30 meters and it weighs 3,850 tons. Because of its bulk, it is being fabricated in four main sections: the base, lower cylinder, upper cylinder, and top lid."

[...] Thirty-five nations are cooperating on the project to bring fusion power to the masses.

Achieving controlled fusion reactions that net more power than they take to generate, and at commercial scale, is seen as a potential answer to climate change. Fusion energy would eliminate the need for fossil fuels and solve the intermittency and reliability concerns inherent with renewable energy sources. The energy would be generated without the dangerous amounts of radiation that raises concerns about fission nuclear energy.

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-largest-nuclear-fusion-experiment-clears-milestone/?fbclid=IwAR0n9_ECQPV8c4WFUI11lqXeZF9l0xz2oEqJxOYXEwONA05zGhgZiMWWfBE


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Friday August 02 2019, @01:00AM (7 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Friday August 02 2019, @01:00AM (#874391)

    The name of the place is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

    Isn't thermonuclear the same as a hydrogen bomb? That's really scary and will kill us all. We shouldn't build it.

    I hope they have a good PR team.

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @01:15AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @01:15AM (#874395)

    It's OK, this is clean radiation.

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @01:19AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @01:19AM (#874396)

    So according to you hydrogen bombs don't leave fallout when they blow up?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @02:18AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @02:18AM (#874418)

      Well hydrogen bombs just create a bunch of rain as long as there is sufficient oxygen available. What you got against rain pal?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @09:07AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @09:07AM (#874528)

        LOL, somebody just confused chemistry with physics. Bad mistake pal! Hope you were aiming for humor...

        The hydrogen in a hydrogen bomb isn't burned (i.e. combined with oxygen to form water) but instead it fusions into helium. In the process some tiny fraction of the mass disappears and is turned into energy according to Einstein's famous e=mc^2.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday August 02 2019, @12:09PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 02 2019, @12:09PM (#874579) Journal
          Unpossible. You can't get water that way.
        • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday August 02 2019, @06:37PM

          by Freeman (732) on Friday August 02 2019, @06:37PM (#874777) Journal

          And people said we have a shortage of helium. Sounds like we can make plenty!

          --
          Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"