Fusion Theatre Independent

The Path to Fusion

Fusion energy is regarded as a potentially powerful, clean and sustainable energy source, using the same processes as the sun. The ITER project, in France, is to fire up the next phase of nuclear fusion research. Sabina Griffith, Communications Officer at ITER confers with EU Research, explaining why fusion is the bright star of our energy future.

By Richard Forsyth

The endeavour to harness fusion energy is a worldwide concern, pursued relentlessly by several teams of researchers. The hope to achieve fusion energy has been around for a long time and that hope drives several experimental projects. Recently, fusion energy research has been hitting the headlines again, not surprising when there are 133 fusion devices in operation around the globe. Along with international collaborations, is increased private investment. The second global fusion industry report by the FIA (Fusion Industry Association), said the amount of private investment into fusion is

“With 35 nations joined under the ITER flag it is currently the largest international science collaboration in the world. This is hard to manage, but it also gives the project stability in troubled political times.”

around $4.7 billion, which includes $2.83 billion in new funding declared a year since the previous survey. Complementary to other sustainable energy efforts, fusion is seen to play a critical part in future energy.

There have been some spectacular milestones for fusion energy research in the last couple of years from around the world. In Korea, scientists working on the KSTAR device made a major breakthrough by sustaining a super-hot plasma temperature of 100 million degrees C for 30 seconds, pushing fusion one step closer to commercial use.

“We usually say that fusion energy is a dream energy source – it is almost limitless, with low emission of greenhouse gases and no highlevel radioactive waste… fusion is not a dream,” said Yoo Suk-jae, the president of Korea Institute of Fusion Energy.

At the same time, the Chinese government has approved the construction of the world’s largest pulsed-power plant with plans to generate nuclear fusion energy by 2028.

Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/ The sprawling site of ITER in France.

“A commercial fusion plant will be designed with a slightly larger plasma chamber, for up to fifteen times more electrical power. A 2,000-megawatt fusion electricity plant, for example, would supply 2 million homes.”

Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/ A technician repelling down the module to position fiducial targets on the surfaces of the component to be used in laser metrology.

Closer to home, the UK is looking for a site for STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), a UKAEA programme to demonstrate the ability to generate net electricity from fusion – this will look at the operational life of a reactor and prove the potential to produce its own fuel, a concept design is planned by 2024. Its goal is to have an operational prototype fusion power plant by 2040. The UK’s existing JET tokamak also achieved first ever sustained, high confinement plasma using the same materials and fuel mix as ITER plans to. Its predictions were sound, which is great news for ITER’s future.

These landmarks for fusion energy have created a renewed fervour in ‘fusion science’, because the dream of clean, sustainable fusion energy seems to be creeping closer to reality, after decades of massive investment, speculation and a little eyebrow-raising about what is

Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/ Representatives of the European Agency for ITER, Fusion for Energy, gathered to celebrate the completion of Europe’s eighth toroidal field coil for ITER at SIMIC in Italy. Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/ The electromagnet, the central solenoid, is the heart of the ITER Tokamak.

‘actually’ being achieved. As Lee Margretts, at the University of Manchester commented, ‘It’s not physics, it’s engineering’ that is now the biggest hurdle to realising the fusion energy dream.

For this reason, the anticipation for ITER, the biggest tokamak fusion reactor ever created, to begin operations is mounting.

ITER to show the way

Amongst a patchwork of fields in Saint Paul-lez Durance, southern France, ITER’s sprawling infrastructure spans hectares and has become a prominent feature in the landscape. It could also become a facility that provides the key to unlocking a more positive energy future for us all. Arguably the most complex and ambitious science endeavour of our time, ITER represents the culmination of decades of research and global collaboration from China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, countries that continue to work together on this shared project, despite the broader political strains.

Success for the ITER project will be around managing to assemble and then launch the operation of the incredibly complex machine. All the major components are manufactured

in different, far-flung parts of the world but are expected to fit together with submillimetre precision and perform like a wellexperienced orchestra.

“That is what ITER stands for: Collaboration across borders, languages and mentalities. All for one: To deliver fusion energy,” states Sabina Griffith.

Collaboration and investment in this work are unprecedented, even Russia, a country excluded from international science on a large scale, remains in the ITER programme through necessity to the cause, and despite problems with imports due to the war with Ukraine. Russia is a supplier of the superconducting niobiumtin material for ITER magnets as well as other parts required for construction. Whilst this is controversial, it demonstrates the scale of involvement, commitment and investment from all countries involved in this multi-billion Euro project.

Griffith reports: “With 35 nations joined under the ITER flag it is currently the largest international science collaboration in the world. This is hard to manage, but it also gives the project stability in troubled political times. The biggest challenge is the unique way we are building the machine: by in-kind contributions. So, all partners are contributing hardware to the machine, a machine that is pushing the boundaries of the known. But the fact that we are doing this all together is also something that makes us very proud.”

It demonstrates if nothing else, that the political energy invested in fusion at least, is seemingly unstoppable.

Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/ Building ITER.

ITER, which stands for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, also aptly (and which is more ‘sticky’ in terms of PR) means ‘the way’ or ‘the path’ in Latin. It is the most ambitious energy project in the world. Fusion energy almost sounds too good to be true. It’s clean, it’s self-sustainable and potentially limitless. ITER relies on two forms of hydrogen fuel: deuterium, extracted from seawater; and tritium, which is bred from lithium inside the fusion reactor. The supply of fusion fuel would be enough to power cities for millions of years. Fusion energy is carbon-free and environmentally sustainable, and for comparison, consider a pineapple-sized amount of hydrogen offers as much fusion energy as 10,000 tonnes of coal.

Another reason fusion energy is such an attractive energy solution is that it is safe. When the fusion reaction is disrupted, the reactor shuts down safely, without the need for external assistance. Tiny amounts of fuel are used, about 2-3 grams at a time; so there is no possibility of a meltdown. And whilst the costs of building and operating a fusion power plant are comparable to the cost of a fossil fuel or nuclear fission plant, unlike nuclear plants, a fusion plant will not have the costs or challenges associated with high-level radioactive waste disposal. Significantly with today’s environmental concerns, unlike fossil fuel plants, fusion will not have the environmental cost of releasing CO2 and other pollutants. It is an attractive energy source for all these reasons.

Power for millions of homes

For fusion to take place it’s necessary to generate incredibly high temperatures. At the heart of ITER is a giant tokamak reactor, the classic type of reactor for so many fusion projects, an experimental machine that produces plasma temperatures ten times hotter than the core of the sun, at 150 million degrees C. It relies on ten thousand tonnes of superconducting magnets to produce, confine and shape the superheated plasma in the shape of a doughnut. The heat produced would vaporise anything it touches, so the plasma is held in a magnetic field in this ring. The heat is captured by pipes with cooled water beneath the surface of the device’s walls. Ultimately it can provide abundant energy to heat water and create steam to drive turbines that make electricity.

A functioning fusion reactor of the future would pump out serious energy and could for an idea of scale, provide enough energy to power cities.

The ITER tokamak will produce 500 megawatts of thermal power. This size is suitable for studying a ‘burning’ or largely self-heating plasma. In a burning plasma, most of the plasma heating comes from the fusion reaction. Studying fusion technology at ITER’s scale will lead to optimisation of the plants that follow.

Griffith said, “A commercial fusion plant will be designed with a slightly larger plasma chamber, for up to fifteen times more electrical power. A 2,000-megawatt fusion electricity plant, for example, would supply 2 million homes.”

ITER is hailed to open a new chapter in fusion research. It will act as proof that the technology, the materials and the know-how to operate a fusion reactor on an industrial scale are together and it will be the first fusion reactor to produce fusion for long periods. But ITER is not created to produce energy, it is first and foremost an experiment. The next step after ITER, called DEMO, will be a prototype powerplant.

Fusion energy is still ‘in the wind’ and not available to solve immediate climate and energy challenges, so renewables will have to build that bridge.

The potential of fusion has long been recognised but it’s only now that success has become visible ‘on the horizon’.

“It is the only solution that could take over the ‘baseload power’ that is currently provided by fossil fuels. ITER scientists predict that fusion plants could start to come on line as soon as 2040. The exact timing,

“It is the only solution that could take over the ‘baseload power’ that is currently provided by fossil fuels. ITER scientists predict that fusion plants could start to come on line as soon as 2040.”

according to fusion experts, will depend on the level of public urgency and political will that translates to financial investment.”

By literally harnessing the same power as the stars, working fusion reactors will be a huge step toward the sustainable energy we need to achieve. The promise of fusion has been a long time coming, with research from around the world combining toward the same goal. When fusion reactors become fully operational, it will be one of our biggest defining moments of innovation in history.

Special thanks to Sabina Griffith, Communications Officer at ITER for her contributions.

Final assembly underway at Mangiarotti (Italy) on vacuum vessel sector. @WECNuclear