Heart of World’s Biggest Fusion Reactor is Finally Complete
- Editor OGN Daily
- May 7
- 2 min read
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is nearly 40 years in the making, and its most complex component is now ready for assembly.
This massive fusion reactor, involving 35 countries, hopes to one day be able to produce unlimited clean energy and is probably humanity’s leading effort to harness the energy that powers the Sun. So, it's good news that ITER has announced that the Central Solenoid - the world’s most powerful magnet and the beating heart of the tokamak - is finally complete, and will begin assembly soon.
Construction of the ITER complex in France started in 2013 and assembly of the tokamak began in 2020. The initial budget was close to $6 billion, but the total price of construction and operations is projected to be from $18 to $22 billion; other estimates place the total cost between $45 billion and $65 billion, though these figures are disputed by ITER.
When complete, ITER will be able to withstand temperatures 10 times hotter than the core of the Sun (150 million degrees Celsius) while also keeping certain components of itself near absolute zero (-273.15 degrees Celsius). At the heart of this engineering miracle is a 3,000-ton magnet system central to creating an “invisible shield” that keeps superheated plasma contained long enough to kickstart a fusion reaction.
It will be the world’s most powerful magnet. In fact, astonishingly, the magnet is so powerful that it’s capable of completely levitating an aircraft carrier, according to an ITER press release. It will be contained inside an “exoskeleton” which will support the Central Solenoid as it generates extreme forces capable of kickstarting a fusion reaction.
However, it's too early to get our hopes up that the world is about to start enjoying fusion generated clean power. ITER estimates the reactor’s first plasma date at around 2035. But once this gargantuan machine of human ingenuity is complete, we will have truly bottled a star - or, at least, a close approximation of it. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that it actually works.
