SAINT-PAUL-LES-DURANCE, France (AP) – Teams working on both continents have set similar milestones in their respective efforts to harness a key energy source to fight climate change: each has produced very impressive magnets .
On Thursday, scientists at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in the south of France delivered the first part of a massive magnet so strong that its American manufacturer claims it can lift an aircraft carrier.
At almost 20 feet high and more than four meters in diameter when fully assembled, the magnet is a crucial component in the attempt by 35 nations to dominate nuclear fusion.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a private company have announced separately this week that they have also reached a milestone with the success of the test of the world’s highest superconducting magnet that can allow the team to jump ITER in the race to build a sun. on earth.’
Unlike existing fission reactors that produce radioactive waste and sometimes catastrophic defeats, proponents of fusion claim that it offers a clean and virtually unlimited power supply. If, that is, scientists and engineers can figure out how to take advantage of it, they have been working on the problem for almost a century.
Instead of splitting atoms, fusion mimics a process that occurs naturally in stars to fuse two hydrogen atoms and produce one helium atom, as well as a whole charge of energy.
Unimaginable amounts of heat and pressure are required to achieve fusion. One way to achieve this is to convert hydrogen into an electrically charged gas, or plasma, which is then controlled in a donut-shaped vacuum chamber.
This is done with the help of powerful superconducting magnets, such as the “central solenoid” that General Atomics began shipping from San Diego to France this summer.
Scientists say ITER is now 75% complete; they aim to ignite the reactor in early 2026, with the ultimate goal of producing more energy than needed to heat the plasma and provide evidence that the fusion technology is viable.
Among those hoping to win the award is the Massachusetts team, which said it has managed to create a magnetic field double that of ITER with a magnet about 40 times smaller.
Scientists at MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems said they may have a device ready for everyday use in the early 2030s.
“This was designed to be commercial,” MIT vice president Maria Zuber, a prominent physicist, said. “This was not designed to be a scientific experiment.”
Although not designed to produce electricity on its own, ITER would also serve as a plan for similar but more sophisticated reactors if successful.
Proponents of the project argue that even if it fails, the countries involved will master technical skills that can be used in other fields, from particle physics to the design of advanced materials capable of withstanding the heat of the sun.
All nations contributing to the project, including the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India, South Korea, and much of Europe, participate in the $ 20 billion cost and jointly benefit from the results. scientists and intellectual property generated.
The central solenoid is just one of 12 major U.S. contributions to ITER, each of which is built by U.S. companies, with funds allocated by Congress for U.S. jobs.
“Having the first module delivered safely to ITER’s facilities is a triumph because all parts of the manufacturing process had to be designed from scratch,” said John Smith, director of engineering and projects. of General Atomics.
The company spent years developing new technologies and methods to manufacture and move magnet parts, including coils weighing 250,000 pounds, through its facilities and then around the world.
“The engineering knowledge established during this period will be invaluable for future projects of this scale,” Smith said.
“ITER’s goal is to demonstrate that fusion can be a viable and economically practical source of energy, but we are already looking forward to what’s to come,” he added. “This will be key for the merger to work commercially and we now have a good idea of what needs to happen to get there.”
Committing to nuclear power (first by fission and then by fusion) remains the best opportunity in the world to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, said Frederick Bordry, who oversaw the design and the construction of another extremely complex scientific machine, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. .
“When we talk about the cost of ITER, they are peanuts compared to the impact of climate change,” he said. “We’ll have to have the money for that.”
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Frank Jordans reported from Berlin and Seth Borenstein from Kensington, Maryland.
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