The most powerful pulsed superconducting magnet system ever built is now complete, and will soon be part of the world\u2019s grandest energy experiment.<\/p>\n
The system is the Central Solenoid of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a towering magnet core built and tested in the United States and destined for southern France, where the international project is assembling its gigantic tokamak. The magnet system will serve as the electromagnetic \u201cheart\u201d of the reactor, strong enough\u2014according<\/a> to ITER\u2014to lift a freaking aircraft carrier.<\/p>\n For the uninitiated: Tokamaks are doughnut-shaped vessels that contain superheated plasma for nuclear fusion, the energetic reaction that powers stars like our Sun. Tokamaks constrain the plasma by generating very strong magnetic fields, hence the importance of ITER\u2019s Central Solenoid.<\/p>\n ITER is dedicated to validating nuclear fusion<\/a> as a viable energy source, though none of the reactor\u2019s output will be used to power anything. ITER is simply a gigantic and expensive technology demonstrator, one that\u2019s inching increasingly closer<\/a> to actually flipping the \u201con\u201d switch to recreate the power of the Sun here on Earth. It\u2019s an expansive collaboration involving over 30 countries, aiming to prove that fusion energy\u2014basically, slamming atoms together until they produce different atoms, releasing massive amounts of energy in the process\u2014can be harnessed and scaled into a commercially viable and essentially limitless power source.<\/p>\n The newly completed magnet system isn\u2019t going to work alone. The Central Solenoid joins six massive ring-shaped Poloidal Field magnets built and delivered from Europe, China, and Russia, forming a 3,000-ton (2,721 tonne) system of superconductors cooled to -452.2 degrees Fahrenheit (-269 degrees Celsius). Together, the supercooled magnets will trap and shape scorching plasma at 270 million degrees Fahrenheit (50 million degrees C)\u2014ten times hotter<\/a> than the Sun\u2019s core\u2014until atomic nuclei fuse and let out a tenfold energy return.<\/p>\n Commercially viable fusion<\/a> has long been the clean energy grail, and ITER\u2019s setup is expected to generate 500 megawatts of energy from just 50 megawatts of input. That kind of power return would mark the start of self-sustaining \u201cburning plasma\u201d\u2014though there\u2019s a long road to that goal.<\/p>\n Private companies are attempting to demonstrate smaller-scale tokamak designs<\/a> as a potential way to realize the future of fusion, though neither approach has had its breakthrough moment to date.<\/p>\n