A little less than a month after scientists working on a nuclear fusion project in the US made a major breakthrough, some not-so-good news has come for other scientists working on a similar international project.
Pietro Barabaschi, director general of the multi-billion dollar International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project said the previous goal to carry a first operation test to create plasma by 2025 was unrealistic.
The date “wasn’t realistic in the first place,” even before two major problems surfaced, Barabaschi was quoted as saying by AFP.
He added that fixing the problems “is not a question of weeks, but months, even years.”
Earlier, the project had the aim to achieve full fusion power by 2035. However, the delay cited by Barabaschi means that it could be pushed around by another few years.
ITER is a joint project between the US, India, China, Japan, the European Union, South Korea and Russia. It was started after a summit between US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.
Despite the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Moscow has managed to keep its end of the bargain connected to the project.
The project site is in southern France but the decades-old initiative has been criticised for regularly running into technical challenges and cost overruns.
Akin to the scientists in the US, the ITER project aims to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale source of energy for the world.
Last month, the scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California said they were successful in generating a fusion reaction between two hydrogen atoms and were also able to maintain the reaction in a controlled environment.
At the time, the US government patted its own back and said the breakthrough will help towards finding a renewable energy source that can help the world replace fossil fuels.
“Today, we tell the world that America has achieved a tremendous scientific breakthrough … we invested in our national labs and we invested in fundamental research, and tomorrow will continue for a future that is powered, in part by fusion energy,” said US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Nuclear fusion takes place when two or more atoms fuse to create a bigger one and this is the same process that takes place within the sun.
It is the inverse of nuclear fission, which occurs when heavy atoms are split apart. Fission is the technology currently used in nuclear power plants, but the process generates a lot of waste that emits radiation for a long time.
Source: Wio News