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Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France – As global force costs skyrocket, 35 countries are operating in combination at a sprawling facility located in the French countryside in an attempt to create a new, clean and endless source of force for the entire planet. His ambition is to harness the strength of the stars: nuclear fusion.
Some of the countries, in addition to the United States, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan and the countries of the European Union, are common partners, but some are the main adversaries on the world stage. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted an unprecedented barrage of anti-Moscow sanctions from some spouse countries, for example, and in response, Moscow limited its herbal fuel materials to Europe, exacerbating the energy crisis.
But despite the animosity between some of the partners, the structure of the multibillion-dollar fusion mission known as ITER, which means “the way” in Latin and is short for “International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor,” continues.
It’s “separate from the war in Ukraine,” ITER clinical director Tim Luce told CBS News at his workplace at the massive structure site. “The need for power is universal, and if one entity has power and not another, it doesn’t matter who – what flags or hats – we put on people. Inequality will cause conflict. “
What is nuclear fusion?
Nuclear fusion is the procedure that powers the sun and stars. It has fascinated scientists for decades and escaped their efforts to exploit it.
In fusion, small atoms, such as hydrogen, combine to generate energy. This is the opposite of the nuclear fission procedure used in today’s nuclear power plants, which separates atoms.
Fission, while providing many benefits, also carries some risks: there have been well-known cases of nuclear fission reactors melting and spills contaminating giant areas. Scientists believe that fusion, on the other hand, would provide a clean, safe and unlimited source of energy: if the procedure can be mastered.
“He can’t run away. It is a very difficult reaction to maintain, it will have to be carried out. Whereas fission can work in a chain reaction and wants to be controlled,” Luce explained. Fusion also creates far fewer radioactive byproducts. , and what it leaves is “not soluble in water; They may not reach the food supply, the water supply. “
Under the umbrella of the ITER project, the 35 partner countries are building the world’s largest “tokamak”, a giant doughnut-shaped craft made of incredibly sturdy magnets. ITER calls its tokamak “the world’s most complex device. “
Entering a structure site in France is like visiting a mini-UN. Safety is tighter and inside, workers around the world are working hard. Giant magnets and other parts are ready to be assembled in a large warehouse, where dozens of other people in white clothes tend to wear appliances so large that it looks like they come from some other world or for some other world.
“Every time you come in, it’s different,” Luce said, under a giant, hollow, kidney-shaped piece of machinery called Sector Module 7.
Next to it, in a partially underground area, is the seven-story “well”. This is where the Sector 7 module will be soldered to other sector modules to create the doughnut-shaped hollow tokamac.
“You feel like things are moving,” Luce said as she looked around the site.
ITER expects the tokamak to generate a net force by generating more force from the fusion reaction than is needed to cause it. This would demonstrate that it is conceivable to create a commercially viable fusion force using a similar technology.
Fusion “is the ultimate promise of all energy sources,” Luce told CBS News. “It doesn’t count on the presence of the sun. You can install it anywhere. If it turns out, as we predict, to be absolutely safe, you can install it close to where the power is consumed, so that you don’t lose anything by transmitting power from one position to another. So it’s ideal. Some other people say it sounds too smart to be true, but I think it’s worth it for us to stop by and figure out if it can be done or not.
History of ITER
The animosity between Russia and the West reflects the cases surrounding the history of ITER’s founding. The foreign clinical experiment grew out of an attempt to defuse tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
“It’s outside of their weapons programs,” Luce said. It has become a bridge between those other political entities, to communicate with each other. “
In 1985, then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met to discuss how they could ease tensions between the two superpowers.
“They didn’t agree on much, that they would paint in combination about fusion as an energy source,” Luce said.
The concept of the ITER task evolved from this meeting, taking iterations over the years to reach the 35 member countries involved today, many of which sent scientists, engineers or task managers to work and live on site in France.
“I came here for my first ITER assembly in 1989, so I had to wait quite a bit to see how those items were made,” Luce said. “It’s getting to the point where we’re almost there, but we have to finish the job. “
“Problems. . . works”
The other nations that run on ITER are guilty of building the other parts of the tokamak. ITER reports that 85% of the parts are manufactured within the borders of member countries, so that they can expand their functions and domestic fusion industries.
Once the portions are manufactured, they are shipped to France, where they are stored in massive warehouses near the largest until it is time to load them into general assembly.
There have been delays in ITER’s timeline over the years, and when the COVID-19 pandemic bogged down global shipping and supply chains in 2020, there were more. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February caused additional complications. It was feared, for example, that one of the magnets built in Russia for ITER would encounter obstacles in reaching France from St. Petersburg.
“We are outside of national sanctions, so to speak, but we have to convince entities that this is true and that they will settle for that. They don’t have to settle for that,” Luce told CBS News. “There has been some slowdown. Obviously, we are subject to the position of the global market and the global supply chain. As with COVID, we had transportation issues. Now we still have transportation problems, just because it requires a special permit for ships. Move from one position to another, and we have giant elements that can only be moved through a boat. So we have to deal with that. But it works.
While some primary foreign clinical bodies, such as the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), severed ties with Russia and publicly condemned its invasion of Ukraine, ITER has not.
“We have a position. We have members. We are a treaty organization. We do not take a position on a political position. We have a purpose,” Luce said. On the other hand, it is smart to stay in the brain that we are a bridge to communication. We have a not unusual need. We have a not unusual way of communicating with each other. And so, that’s what fusion has been like in the past: a vehicle for political entities that disagree on many other things to have a way to communicate with each other. “
The United States bets on fusion
The U. S. government The U. S. is in the power of fusion. In March, the White House announced a plan to boost the merger’s advertising progression over the coming decades through continued investment in ITER and working with the personal sector. He announced the “potential of fusion to revolutionize the energy industry, helping to combat the climate crisis while developing the developing electric power desires of the United States and the world. “
“Of the more than 30 corporations merged worldwide, two-thirds are founded in the United States and the maximum was founded within the last decade,” the White House said. “By partnering with those corporations, we have the opportunity for those corporations to expand within our borders and solidify the leadership of the American generation in mergers. “
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is chaired by Senator Joe Manchin, who visited ITER facilities earlier this year. The committee recently held a hearing to read about how the government could increase the publicity advance of fusion power.
“Visit a facility committed to overseas clinical and technical collaboration between our geopolitical rivals, add Russia, add China (do they still pay?) And our allies, it’s helping to regain confidence in what we can do together, given so many conflicts right now. “Manchin said, “For me, fusion gives a vision and a forward-looking path to global peace. “
Luce, who testified at the hearing, said ITER would help the United States achieve its merger goals. Other experts suggested that the U. S. U. S. Increase Viewership for the Personal Fusion Sector in the U. S. The U. S. government is expected to help the United States become a leader in the field.
“The fusion race is also a race for long-term global leadership,” said Dr. Scott C. Hsu, senior fusion coordinator in the Office of the Under Secretary for Science and Innovation at the U. S. Department of Energy. “U. S. ” While the merger has long benefited from foreign collaboration and deserves to continue to do so, make no mistake, the merger is now also foreign competition. If no action is taken now, the U. S. will be able to take action now.
Not very gently
Despite its large scale and multimillion-dollar budget, Luce pressed CBS News that ITER remains an experiment and that many hurdles will have to be overcome before the merger becomes a viable advertising energy source.
Even if the ITER Tokamak is finally finished, it will not be a power plant: it is an experiment designed to count the structure of a later demonstration fusion power plant, which has not yet been built.
There are also conceivable upheavals of origin with a necessary curtain to fuel ITER’s fusion reactions, as well as the festival’s expansion of other fusion projects employing newer or other technologies.
But no matter who arrives first, Luce said fusion may be the world’s bet to expand an unlimited source of blank energy that doesn’t destroy the environment.
“I’m positive about long-term power because I think we have a solution on our hands,” Luce said. “Fusion is not going to solve the current problem. It will solidify the solution we locate and make it permanent, extensible. “, make it sustainable so that society can depend on it. This is our dream. That is our goal. Often, “I’m too focused on short-term returns. That’s the long-term goal, and we want to make sure of that. Because if we don’t invest now, it probably wouldn’t be there when we want it. “
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