It’s now official: First Plasma in December 2025

ITER 16 JUN, 2016 On Thursday 16 June, the ITER Council officially announced its endorsement of the Resource-Loaded Integrated Schedule for the ITER Project, which identifies the date of First Plasma as December 2025. While the ITER Council acknowledges that the endorsed schedule to First Plasma is “challenging but technically achievable,” it considers that by … Read more

Endorsed: December 2025 for ITER First Plasma

eurofusion.org 17th June 2016 ITER Flag. Image Source: ITER website. We aim to optimise the ITER Research Plan as much as possible. Tony Donné, EUROfusion Programme Manager, gives his views about the ITER council meeting. Donné visited General Fusion in 2015 and shares his opinion on the concept. Picture: EUROfusion Members of the ITER council … Read more

Fusion megaproject confirms 5-year delay, trims costs

Science Magazine Daniel Clery | Jun. 16, 2016 Construction of ITER’s central tokamak area is in full swing; first fusion is now set for 2025. © ITER Organization The ITER fusion reactor will fire up for the first time in December 2025, the €18-billion project’s governing council confirmed today. The date for “first plasma” is … Read more

Supercomputers predict new turbulent interactions in fusion plasmas

ScienceDaily.com June 15, 2016 A high-resolution photo shows the inside of the Alcator C-Mod tokamak with a representative cross-section of a fusion plasma superimposed. The inset depicts the approximate extent of the plasma turbulence simulations performed as part of this work. These simulations clearly demonstrate the coexistence of long wavelength blobs and short wavelength “streamers” … Read more

World’s Biggest Science Experiment Seeks More Time and Money

Bloomberg Jonathan Tirone | June 15, 2016 Another $5.2 billion sought for project to prove fusion works If successful, fusion reactors might enter service after 2050 The world’s biggest science experiment may get more time and money for completion when nuclear officials convene on Wednesday in France. Supervisors of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or … Read more

U.K.-E.U. split could harm fusion research

Science Magazine By Daniel Clery | Jun. 14, 2016 If the United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union on 23 June, the exit will break up cross-border collaborations and cut off E.U. funding for U.K. scientists. For fusion research, the possibility of a Brexit is particularly worry
ing. Europe’s largest fusion facility, the Joint European … Read more

Analyzing a Component of the ITER Tokamak with Simulation

comsol Brianne Costa | April 12, 2016 We can solve many of the world’s energy sustainability problems by harnessing the power of the sun through fusion energy. Tokamaks are devices that test the practicality of employing fusion energy on Earth. ITER, which will be the largest tokamak on Earth when complete, has required years of … Read more

First plasma in upgraded extreme materials-facility Magnum-PSI

Differ 8 June 2016 DIFFER’s facility Magnum-PSI produced its first plasma on Wednesday 8 June 2016, a major milestone in the relocation of this unique experiment for fusion wall materials. Magnum-PSI will be fully operational again at the end of 2016, and is the only laboratory setup in the world capable of investigating candidate materials … Read more

10 Facts You Should Know About Fusion Energy

PPPL By Larry Bernard, January 25, 2016 It’s natural. In fact, it’s abundant throughout the universe. Stars – and there are billions and billions of them – produce energy by fusion of light atoms. It’s safe. There are no dangerous byproducts. It produces some radioactive waste, but that requires only decades to decay, not thousands … Read more

AFTER ITER

ITER The next step after ITER will be a demonstration power plant—or DEMO—that will explore continuous or near-continuous (steady-state) operation. Decades of fusion research and generations of fusion devices have contributed to the design of ITER. And ITER, in its turn, will contribute to the design of the next-generation machine—DEMO—that will bring fusion research to … Read more