It is already installed in southern France and has not been designed for brute force exhibitions, although it could lift a carrier two meters from the ground. Its mission is much more ambitious: to become the key piece of the largest nuclear fusion experiment in history.
This is the central solenoid of the iter (International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor), An installation that 33 countries have raised since 2007 in Cadarache. The project seeks to imitate on Earth the same process that feeds the sun: fuse hydrogen nuclei to obtain clean and inexhaustible energy.
The colossus measures 18 meters high, weighs more than one thousand tons and generates a magnetic field 280,000 times more powerful than that of the earth. Its function: Confine plasma and help reach impossible temperatures —150 million degrees – so that hydrogen atoms can join.
The construction of the iter progresses slowly, with delays of decades: its complete start is now planned by 2035. It will not produce electricity, but will serve as a technological demonstrator. The next step would be demo, The future plant that, in the middle of the century, should connect hundreds of megawatts of fusion electricity to the network.
However, the road is not simple. Nuclear fusion is the great energy promise for half a century and has not yet given a single net watt to the network. The iter intends to change that, although its critics remember that alternative projects “As the German Stellars,” they advance with more efficient designs and shorter deadlines.
Between optimism and doubt, Iter’s solenoid already beats in the heart of the reactor. If he succeeds, he could mark the beginning of an era in which humanity achieves, For the first time, tame the energy of the stars.
