Building the world’s most powerful magnet ---------------------------------------------- The first module of the central magnet for a state-of-the-art hydrogen fusion reactor has embarked on an epic road trip across the United States, on its way to the ITER megaproject in southern France ---------------------------------------------- Module 1 Weight: 110 tonnes Width: 4.25m 5.6km of niobium-tin superconducting cable Escort vehicles Transport: 24-axle design only drives at night to avoid everyday traffic ---------------------------------------------- General Atomics Poway, California U.S. Houston Atlantic Ocean FRANCE ITER Marseille 500km 300 miles Should reach ITER early September 2021 ---------------------------------------------- ITER (Latin for “the way”) will be world’s largest tokamak – device which uses magnetic field to confine plasma in shape of torus (doughnut shape, left). Its aim is to replicate fusion processes of Sun to create energy Central solenoid: Shapes and controls normally unstable reactants of nuclear fusion. Largest and most powerful pulsed electro-magnet ever constructed - composed of stack of six modules Tokamak: Superheats vaporised deuterium and tritium isotopes, stripping away electrons and converting gas into plasma (150m°C), hotter than Sun Atoms undego fusion, giving off large amounts of energy Module 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 ---------------------------------------------- Energy Holy Grail: Reactor will attempt to use 50MW of heating power to generate plasma of 500MW – 10-fold increase in energy (carbon-free) ---------------------------------------------- Sources: Vice, Live Science, EurekaAkert!, NuclearNewswire, ITER Picture: ITER © GRAPHIC NEWS words: 223