In a major leap toward clean energy, the international ITER project has finished building the world’s largest and most powerful pulsed superconducting magnet system, designed to help unlock the same kind of energy that powers the sun.
ITER (pronounced “eater”) is a massive collaboration between more than 30 countries, all working together to prove that fusion energy can be a safe, limitless, and carbon-free power source for the planet.
The final piece of the puzzle, a towering Central Solenoid magnet built and tested in the United States, is strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier. Once installed at the ITER facility in southern France, it will serve as the powerhouse of the fusion reactor, working alongside six giant ring-shaped magnets from Russia, Europe, and China.
Altogether, the magnet system will weigh nearly 3,000 tons. It forms the electromagnetic heart of ITER’s Tokamak, a futuristic, donut-shaped reactor that aims to replicate the energy of the stars here on Earth.
To read more, click here.