Can science produce an energy source that is both inexhaustible and sustainable?
Nuclear fusion has long been touted as a genuine solution to a large portion of the world’s increasing demand for energy. From that perspective, fusion energy is both safe and environmentally benign. Equally important, the fuel source used by fusion is virtually inexhaustible. Supported by an international research effort, the first fusion reactor designed to produce more energy than it consumes is being constructed in Cadarache, France, by a coalition of nations that includes the European Union, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Russia and the United States. The experimental reactor, called ITER (see the sidebar “ITER and the Future of Fusion”), is scheduled to go online in 2018. When completed, ITER is expected to produce 10 times more energy than it will use to maintain the thermonuclear reaction. Maintaining control of the plasma is one of the two big challenges confronting ITER. The other involves materials technology: developing components that can tolerate both the proximity to
