Nuclear Fusion: Power Source of the Future?

According to a team of international scientists, the same reaction that powers the sun can also power the earth.

The team is working on a project in southern France to prove that fusion, or the bonding of atoms at extremely high temperatures, can be sustained long enough to be harnessed by mankind.

Neal Calder works for the project which is called International Thermo-nuclear Experimental Reactor or ITER.

[Neil Calder, ITER Communications Head]:
“If this works we will have inexhaustible, unlimited energy for humanity with none of the drawbacks of some of the other current energy sources.“

ITER employs nearly 400 scientists and sees the European Union, India, Japan, China, South Korea, Russia and the United States preparing to build the world’s largest fusion reactor.

The plan is to use deuterium and tritium, isotopes derived from water, to fuel the process.

[Gary Johnson, Deputy Director, ITER Tokamak Dep.]:
„We know our energy needs are going to continue to go up over the long term. We have to have something that will provide these energy resources for the long term. Fusion is part of that answer we think.“

The fusion process involves super-heating an electrically charged gas to more than a million degrees Celsius, the temperature of the sun.

At that point the gas becomes a “plasma” that releases more energy than it takes to create it.

But the plasma is so hot that it cannot be allowed to touch the walls of the vessel and must be contained by a magnetic field.

The fusion device, invented in Russia, takes its name from the Russian words for toroidal chamber with magnetic coils, or tokamak.

[Gary Johnson, Deputy Director, ITER Tokamak Dep.]:
„The high-side is, essentially, unlimited fuel. You know, we get deuterium out of seawater, essentially, virtually limitless. It is a very clean technology, no greenhouse gases. It is a very safe technology.“

The project was conceived at a summit between Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev in 1985, when the leaders agreed to support an international effort to develop fusion energy for the benefit of mankind.

(NTDTV)