The Nuclear Engineering International reports that the ITER Organization has completed all components of its powerful superconducting magnet system, a major milestone for the world’s largest fusion energy project. The system’s most powerful magnet, the U.S.-built Central Solenoid, is strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier and will drive and control plasma in ITER’s Tokamak reactor. Built by over 30 countries, ITER aims to demonstrate fusion as a safe, carbon-free energy source, producing 500 MW of power from 50 MW input. Full operation is planned for 2039, with the project also advancing global collaboration and private sector fusion innovation. They write:
The ITER Organisation has completed all components for the world’s largest, most powerful pulsed superconducting electromagnet system for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), under construction in France. ITER is an international collaboration of more than 30 countries to demonstrate the viability of fusion as an abundant, safe, carbon-free energy source.
The final component of the electromagnet system was the sixth module of the Central Solenoid, built and tested in the US. When it is assembled at the ITER site in southern France, the Central Solenoid will be the system’s most powerful magnet, strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier. The Central Solenoid will work in tandem with six ring-shaped Poloidal Field (PF) magnets, built and delivered by Russia, Europe, and China.
The fully assembled pulsed magnet system will weigh nearly 3,000 tonnes and will function as the electromagnetic heart of ITER’s Tokamak reactor. […]
At full operation, ITER is expected to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power from only 50 megawatts of input heating power, a tenfold gain. At this level of efficiency, the fusion reaction largely self-heats, becoming a burning plasma. […]
In total, ITER’s magnet systems will comprise 10,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets, with a combined stored magnetic energy of 51 Gigajoules. The raw material to fabricate these magnets consisted of more than 100,000 kilometres of superconducting strand, fabricated in nine factories in six countries. According to the updated project development strategy, the first experiments at ITER will begin in 2034, and the full operation of this installation is scheduled for 2039.
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