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One Big Step For Mankind in Nuclear Fussion


The International nuclear fusion project known as Iter, meaning “The Way” in Latin is designed to 
demonstrate a new kind of nuclear reactor capable of producing unlimited supplies of cheap, clean, safe and sustainable electricity from atomic fusion. Located in the Cadarache forest of Provence in south of France. Also more than half the worlds representing the project, as 34 Nations have joined forces in the biggest scientific collaboration on the planet. Only the International Space Station being bigger.
If the project demonstrates that it is possible to build commercially viable fusion reactors then it could become the experiment that saved the world in a century threatened by climate change and an expected threefold increase in global energy demand. As the project gained final approval for the design of the most technically challenging component, the fusion reactor’s “blanket” that will handel the superheated nuclear fuel.
The building site in Cadarache has also passed the crucial stage where some 493 seismic bearings, giant concrete and rubber plinths have been set into the reactor’s deep foundations to protect against possible earthquakes. Peering over the edge of the huge seismic isolation pit, it is still possible to see some of these bearings before they are covered with a raft of reinforced concrete that will support the massive fusion machine at the heart of the $20bn Iter project.
Over the next few years about a million individual components of the highly complex fusion reactor will arrive at the Cadarache site from around the world. They will be assembled like a giant Lego model in a nearby building which has a volume equal to 81 Olympic sized swimming pools. “It is the largest scientific collaboration in the world. In fact, the project is so complex we even had to invent our own currency-known as the Iter Unit of Account-to decide how each country pays its share,” said Carlos Alejalder, Iter’s deputy director responsible for safety. “We’ve passed from the design stage to being a construction project. We will have to show it is safe, If we cannot convince the public that this is safe, i don’t think nuclear fusion will be developed anywhere in the world,” said Dr Alejalder.
“A Fukushima like accident is impossible at Iter because the fusion reaction is fundamentally safe. Any disturbance from ideal conditions and the reaction will stop. A runaway nuclear reaction and core meltdown are simply not possible.” He said. There is at least another decade of building work and further decade of testing before the reactor will be allowed to “go nuclear”. Every single stage is inspected. Even the specially prepared concrete cannot be mixed unless a nuclear safety inspector is present. If anything goes wrong with Iter, fusion will be dead,” said a spokesperson for the project.
The roost of the Iter project go back to 1985 when Mikhail Gobachev, General Secretary  of the former Soviet Union, offered his country’s prowers in nuclear fusion as a bargaining chip in the nuclear disarmament talks with US, which at time was pursuing its “Stars Wars” defence system.