ITER completes the world's most powerful magnet

Important progress has been made at the ITER fusion research reactor in Cadarache in southern France: The solenoid magnet, a central component of the reactor, has been completed.

The magnet is located in the center of the torus-shaped reactor, the tokamak, and will generate magnetic pulses lasting 300 to 500 seconds. Together with six ring-shaped magnets, it will trap the plasma inside the reactor chamber. The magnets will also heat the plasma to a temperature of 150 million degrees – this temperature is necessary for the nuclei of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium to fuse to form a helium nucleus and release energy in the process.

The magnet consists of six parts and was built in the USA. It is 18 meters high, has a diameter of 4.25 meters and weighs over 1000 tons. According to ITER, the magnetic field it generates has a field strength of 13 Tesla. This makes it 280,000 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. It is the strongest magnetic field in the world and strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier.

With the last element of the solenoid magnet, most of the important components have been completed. Assembly of the reactor can now begin. The first vacuum vessel was already inserted into the tokamak pit last month.

ITER to provide findings for fusion power plants

ITER –, an abbreviation for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor –, is to become the world's first large-scale fusion reactor. The aim is to gain the knowledge required for commercial energy generation using nuclear fusion. The demonstration power plant (DEMO), which fulfills all the functions of a power plant, is to be built on the basis of the findings from ITER.

The ITER project was proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev, then head of state and party leader of the Soviet Union, at a summit meeting with US President Ronald Reagan in 1985. The project involves 35 countries, including Russia and the USA, the members of the European Union, Great Britain, China, the USA and Japan.

Construction began in 2007 and the plant was due to go into operation in 2016. However, there were repeated delays, for example due to the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 or the coronavirus pandemic. In 2023, glaring defects also became known. For a long time, the First Plasma was scheduled to take place in 2025. According to the new schedule published in 2024, it will not be a – rather symbolic – First Plasma. Instead, the fully equipped reactor is scheduled to go into operation in 2035. Start of Research Operation, i.e. the start of research work, is scheduled for 2034.

(wpl)