Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday July 29 2020, @08:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the insert-tab-τ317.25α2'-into-slot-σ902.44β9' dept.

Scientists Start Assembling the World's Largest Nuclear Fusion Experiment:

Fourteen years after receiving the official go-ahead, scientists on Tuesday began assembling a giant machine in southern France designed to demonstrate that nuclear fusion, the process which powers the Sun, can be a safe and viable energy source on Earth.

The groundbreaking multinational experiment, known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), has seen components arrive in the tiny commune of Saint-Paul-les-Durance from production sites worldwide in recent months.

They will now be painstakingly put together to complete what is described by ITER as the "world's largest puzzle".

The experimental plant's goal is to demonstrate that fusion power can be generated sustainably, and safely, on a commercial scale, with initial experiments set to begin in December 2025.

[...] Some 2,300 people are at work on site to put the massive machine together.

"Constructing the machine piece by piece will be like assembling a three-dimensional puzzle on an intricate timeline," said ITER's director general Bernard Bigot.

"Every aspect of project management, systems engineering, risk management and logistics of the machine assembly must perform together with the precision of a Swiss watch," he said, adding: "We have a complicated script to follow over the next few years."

[...] It could reach full power by 2035, but as an experimental project, it is not designed to produce electricity.

If the technology proves feasible, future fusion reactors would be capable of powering two million homes each at an operational cost comparable to those of conventional nuclear reactors, Bigot said.

[...] The ITER project is running five years behind schedule and has seen its initial budget triple to some 20 billion euros (US$23.4 billion).


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by crahman on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:11AM (2 children)

    by crahman (6852) on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:11AM (#1028067)

    Usually, even as late in the production process as a working prototype, one wants flexibility and adaptability instead of tightly constrained and expensive finality.

    It seems peculiar to spend this much on a difficult to adapt and cumbersome experiment that does not address major problems such as the capture of the released energy.

    Quoting from the Wikipedia entry, "The objectives of the ITER project are not limited to creating the nuclear fusion device but much broader, including building necessary technical, organizational and logistical capabilities, skills, tools, supply chains and culture enabling management of such megaprojects among participating countries, bootstrapping their local nuclear fusion industries."

    In my experience, some of those objectives are likely to make the project's success incidental. In combination with other project characteristics such as size and expense, the project's success seems unlikely, at least if success is defined even as obliquely as "developing a working design for a fusion reactor."

    To the project's credit, no matter what happens it will be less expensive and more useful than another absurd and pointless war.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:34AM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:34AM (#1028070) Homepage
    Depends. If the war can be over in about 10 days, it might be cheaper.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:59PM

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:59PM (#1028149)

    > not address major problems such as the capture of the released energy.

    I disagree. The main point of prototyping is to resolve technical risks. At the moment, the main technical risk is (still) in containment of the plasma. That is where one invests in prototyping.

    Nb: Why do you say that ITER is not flexible? Presumably they can adjust the containment field and beam current within a reasonable parameter range.