The world's largest fusion reactor begins to be assembled

mauromar (73)in #science • 4 years ago

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For many decades, obtaining energy by nuclear fusion has been the holy grail of many scientists, the possibility of creating a miniature star on earth that supplies us with clean, safe and unlimited energy.

After 35 years of studies and effort by scientists from 35 countries, it seems that the assembly of the largest nuclear fusion reactor ever built, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), will finally begin.

As I have already mentioned in this medium, it is a kind of oven with a donut-shaped chamber in which hydrogen is confined with magnetic fields and heated to achieve the 100 million degrees necessary to fuse the hydrogen atoms.

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The "Tokamak" which is what the creature is called weighs 23,000 tons and carries 3,000 tons of magnets that will be used to keep the super hot plasma away from the walls of the toroidal chamber.

Once the necessary temperature for the fusion has been reached, Helium and large amounts of thermal energy are produced as a result, which can then be processed to obtain electricity without producing any toxic waste.

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The fuel used is a mixture of deuterium and tritium, which are two isotopes of hydrogen that can be obtained from sea water. A quantity of this fuel the size of a melon produces as much energy as 10,000 tons of coal.

The assembly will take place in the French town of Cadarache and will last until 2025, once it is started it will produce 500 MW, which is enough to supply power to 200,000 homes.

Although only some of the energy projects that are underway are accomplished, quite possibly earlier in the second half of the century we will have clean, unlimited and free energy for all humanity. Amen

More information:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a33449184/largest-fusion-reactor-iter-tokamak-assembly-begins/