Mastering fusion on Earth would pave the way for unlimited energy resources, such is the magnitude of its development. Controlled fusion is in fact one of the most promising paths to carbon-free energy – and precisely what the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project seeks to do.
ITER aims to demonstrate that fusion could become a source of carbon-free energy by 2050, a source that is manageable, safe, sustainable and inexhaustible. In doing so, the research facility was set up to show that a fusion reactor can produce ten times more energy than it consumes – achieved via an experimental reactor (or tokamak) located in Cadarache, in the south of France.
Exploring the parameters of fusion, it will be the world’s largest tokamak; a toroidal magnetic confinement chamber measuring 840m3. Bigger is definitely better in the basics of such scientific endeavour. The bigger the reactor is, the easier it is to reach more than 100 million degrees centigrade – the temperature at which fusion reactions occur.
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