In recent times it seems researchers will finally begin their process in working to put together the world’s largest nuclear fusion experiment. This for those who do not know is going to be the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and well, it’s going to be massive.
According to The BBC, this is the world’s largest nuclear fusion project to date and it will take a whole five years to put things together overall and assemble the reactor itself. This could end up being a source of power that would in the long-run help combat the climate issues we’re seeing right now and perhaps that in itself is something we desperately need. I know to the average person this might sound a bit confusing but it’s not as complicated as most would assume.
AlJazeera wrote as follows on this topic just yesterday (July 28th):
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) consortium is a joint effort by Japan, India, the European Union, the United States, Russia, China, and South Korea.
ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy, maintain fusion for long periods of time and test the integrated technologies, materials, and physics regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity, according to the consortium.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a recorded address, spoke on Tuesday of the project’s potential.
“Imagine, if the experience works, if it can find industrial applications, we will have developed a non-polluting, carbon-free, safe and almost waste-free energy, that will simultaneously meet the needs of all areas of the globe and meet the climate challenge and preserve natural resources,” he said.
“With fusion, nuclear energy can be an industry of the future, even more so than it is already today. ITER is clearly an act of confidence in the future,” he added.
The vast international experiment is designed to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a viable source of energy.
Scientists have long sought to mimic the process of nuclear fusion that occurs inside the sun, arguing that it could provide an almost limitless source of cheap, safe, and clean electricity.
Unlike in existing fission reactors, which split plutonium or uranium atoms, there is no risk of an uncontrolled chain reaction with fusion, and it doesn’t produce long-lived radioactive waste.
To learn more about all of this take a look at the video below. This could really be huge depending on how things play out. I for one cannot wait to see how this works once everything is put together properly down the road.