ITER international fusion experiment
ITER, reactor experimental de fusión internacional
- Date
- 2007-2025 · confidence medium
- Place
- Cadarache, Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, France
- Credited to
- ITER Consortium (EU, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, United States); 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev agreement, construction under way since 2007
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
The largest tokamak in the world, designed to produce ten times more fusion energy than is injected, with 18 m superconducting magnets. It is the largest international scientific collaboration ever undertaken, with first plasma now rescheduled for the 2030s.
Delays and cost overruns are considerable; first plasma with deuterium-tritium is not expected before 2039.
What it led to
- The industrial supply chain for superconducting magnets and fusion components
- The private fusion race that hopes to overtake it
- The model of large-scale multinational science despite geopolitical tensions
Built on
Made possible
- DEMO demonstration reactor
- giant superconducting magnets