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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).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:10PM (5 children)
It's 5 years behind schedule.
It's already at triple it's original budget.
We won't see results for 15 years (if the plan stays on track, which it hasn't so far)
And when completed it's not commercially viable - it will take more time to build something that produces commercial power.
How far in the future? And will those future reactors have anything in common with this experiment? I really wonder.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by nostyle on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:49PM
Welcome to R&D.
All the quick, cheap and easy attempts at controlled fusion were done fifty years ago, and none of them indicated that a commercial reactor design was viable. Ever since we have been trying to bootstrap advances in material science, superconductivity, directed energy heating and plasma containment to see if a viable design is even possible. The enticing part is that (in theory) we lack only a few "break-through" discoveries to succeed.
ITER is perhaps the most ambitious endeavor ever undertaken by humanity, akin to the Apollo moonshot program or the construction of the Large Hadron Collider. Due to the enormous cost, nations must pool their efforts. Due to the enormous complexity, the best scientist in the field must continually come to consensus. Due to the novelty of the technology, everything involved must be custom-built from scratch.
If and when it succeeds, and a viable reactor design is determined, commercial clones of it will be cranked out much more cheaply and alot quicker. Then the fusion age will begin. Meanwhile, it may appear to be a boondoggle, but nothing ventured guarantees nothing gained.
OBTW, I am a plasma physicist, but abandoned the field when I realized that my entire future consisted of begging for funding for experiments that had no certain outcome. I salute all those who have had the fortitude and tenacity to pursue that path into the unknown.
(Score: 1) by shellsterdude on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:50PM
So, what you are saying is that we are still only about 20 years away from viable Fusion Reactor technology!
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:56PM
> And will those future reactors have anything in common with this experiment?
I know there are lots of "what if" type ideas proposed (inertial confined fusion, spherical tokamak, etc). But at the moment they have big technical/feasibility issues that have not been resolved. Looks like ITER is the best bet so far.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:54PM (1 child)
Up to this point, I thought you could be talking about SLS.
But then . . .
It became clear.
I might even ask, isn't it premature to think we know how much power we can get from a fusion plant? What is the efficiency of a practical model? Not a theoretical model that doesn't exist, and isn't even planned yet.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @07:55PM
>> future fusion reactors would be capable of powering two million homes each
Current fusion reactors are already capable of powering two million homes... unfortunately, the homes belong to the Aka Pygmies who have no appliances.