When can we expect electricity generated from fusion to be available?20 Aug 2019 12:28
Experimental fusion machines have now produced fusion powers of more than ten megawatts. A new machine under construction, called ITER, will be capable of producing 500 megawatts of fusion power. ITER is expected to start operating in the early 2020s. Although it will be on the scale needed for a power station, there will still be technological issues to address to produce steady, reliable electricity, so it is anticipated that a prototype power station will be needed after ITER. Electricity generation is expected in 30 to 40 years, depending on funding and technical progress.
http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/FAQ.aspx#Electricity
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a project to demonstrate that fusion power can be produced on a commercial scale and is sustainable, is now 50 percent built to initial operation.
ITER is the most complex science project in human history. The hydrogen plasma will be heated to 150 million degrees Celsius, ten times hotter than the core of the Sun, to enable the fusion reaction. The process happens in a donut-shaped reactor, called a tokamak, surrounded by giant magnets that confine and circulate the superheated, ionized plasma, away from the metal walls. The superconducting magnets must be cooled to minus 269°C, as cold as interstellar space.
The ITER facility is being built in southern France by a scientific partnership of 35 countries. ITER has specialised components, roughly 10 million parts in total, being manufactured in industrial facilities all over the world. They are subsequently shipped to the ITER worksite, where they must be assembled, piece-by-piece, into the final machine. Each of the seven ITER members – the European Union, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States – is fabricating a significant portion of the machine. This adds to ITER’s complexity.
ITER scientists predict that fusion plants could start to come on line as soon as 2040. The exact timing, according to fusion experts, will depend on the level of public urgency and political will that translates to financial investment.
https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2017/12/8.htm
The tokamak is the most developed magnetic confinement system and is the basis for the design of future fusion reactors using this method. It was invented in the Soviet Union during the 1960s and soon adopted by researchers around the world.
the ITER Tokamak will be the largest and most powerful fusion device in the world. Designed to produce 500 MW of fusion power for 50 MW of input heating power (a power amplification ratio of 10), it will take its place in history as the first fusion device to create net energy.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
