Nature News: ITER—a multi-billion-euro international experiment boldly aiming to prove atomic fusion as a power source—will initially be far less ambitious than physicists had hoped.
Faced with ballooning costs and growing delays, ITER's seven partners are likely to build only a skeletal version of the device at first.
The project's governing council said last June that the machine should turn on in 2018; the stripped-down version could allow that to happen.
But the first experiments capable of validating fusion for power would not come until the end of 2025, five years later than the date set when the ITER agreement was signed in 2006.
Related News Picks
ITER plan looks to recharge hopes for fusion power
ITER Costs Give Partners Pause
Design changes dramatically increase fusion reactor's cost
Magnets touted as fix for ITER design flaw
ITER, the $11 billion fusion project gets final go ahead
Leave a comment