#6 Not to worry - Fusion — dubbed a 'miracle for our planet' — uses easy-to-source fuel and provides cheap, clean and safe energy without radioactive waste, or the risk of meltdown.
However, this will be done by creating a ring of charged, super-hot gas called a plasma — reaching some 270,000,000°F — which will be held in place by magnets. Electromagnets, one supposes.Hope they have a reliable power source for those!
Still, no one will remember the claims made in 2020 - The ITER project was launched in 2006 and had originally planned to conduct its first test run this year, to reach full fusion by 2023.
At the end of 2016, ITER director general reported that the new schedule would aim to see so-called 'first plasma' — to prove the reactor concept works — by December 2025, and full operation reached by the year 2035.
He admitted, however, that the plan would be 'challenging' to deliver and that further delays remained a possibility. |