It was a project that promised the sun. Researchers would use the world’s most advanced technology to design a machine that could generate atomic fusion, the process that drives the stars – and so create a source of cheap, non-polluting power.
That was initially the aim of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) which 35 countries – including European states, China, Russia and the US – agreed to build at Saint-Paul-lez-Durance in southern France at a starting cost of $6bn. Work began in 2010, with a commitment that there would be energy-producing reactions by 2020.
And you thought that petrol-powered generator was expensive.
Then reality set in. Cost overruns, Covid, corrosion of key parts, last-minute redesigns and confrontations with nuclear safety officials triggered delays that mean Iter is not going to be ready for another decade, it has just been announced. Worse, energy-producing fusion reactions will not be generated until 2039, while Iter’s budget – which has already soared to $20bn – will increase by a further $5bn.
Which is more than just typical. Luckily the Auckland Council isn’t involved. Then you’d be staring at $100bn or more.
Other estimates suggest the final price tag could rise well above this figure and make Iter “the most delayed and most cost-inflated science project in history”, the journal Scientific American has warned. For its part, the journal Science has stated simply that Iter is now in “big trouble”, while Nature has noted that the project has been “plagued by a string of hold-ups, cost overruns and management issues”.
[...] A question mark now hangs over one of the world’s most ambitious technological projects in its global bid to harness the process that drives the stars. It involves the nuclei of two light atoms being forced to combine to form a single heavier nucleus, while releasing massive amounts of energy. This is nuclear fusion, and it only occurs at colossally high temperatures.
To create such heat, a doughnut-shaped reactor, called a tokamak, will use magnetic fields to contain a plasma of hydrogen nuclei that will then be bombarded by particle beams and microwaves. When temperatures reach millions of degrees Celsius, the mix of two hydrogen isotopes – deuterium and tritium – will fuse to form helium, neutrons and a great deal of excess energy.
[...] So Iter has again put back its completion – until the next decade. At the same time, researchers using other approaches to fusion have made breakthroughs. In 2022, the US National Ignition Facility in California said it had used lasers to superheat deuterium and tritium and fused them to create helium and excess energy – a goal of Iter.
Other fusion projects claim they too could soon make breakthroughs. “In the last 10 years, there has been a huge growth in private fusion companies promising to do things differently – faster and cheaper – than Iter. Although, to be fair, some are very likely over-promising,” said Brian Appelbe, a physics research fellow at Imperial College London.
That’s where we come in. Check this out, funded by the Ardern Government, of course. But just think. Not only will Māori will have been the first to reach Antarctica, they'll also be the first to harness nuclear fusion.
[...] For its part, Iter denies that it is “in big trouble” and rejects the idea that it is a record-breaking science project for cost overruns and delays. Just look at the International Space Station or for that matter the UK’s HS2 rail link, said a spokesman.
Except fusion is the Holy Grail of nuclear physics. It makes the International Space Station look like building an aluminium shack in your backyard.
Others point out that fusion power’s limited carbon emissions would boost the battle against climate change. “However, fusion will arrive too late to help us cut carbon emissions in the short term,” said Aneeqa Khan, a research fellow in nuclear fusion at the University of Manchester. “Only if fusion power plants produce significant amounts of electricity later in the century will they help keep our carbon emissions down – and that will become crucial in the fight against climate change.”
Of course we already have a fusion reactor. It’s called the sun. We’d be better off investing billions of dollars into solar energy – more efficient and smaller batteries, better harnessing technology and making it much more affordable, that kind of thing. Yes, I know...Somewhat ironic considering the Greenies love to harp on about solar energy. But faced with the choice between trying to build a fusion reaction and solar power? There you go.
