ITER means "the way" in Latin. It is a fit name for a legacy project that might open doors for solving the energy needs of the whole world for thousands of years to come. The project is the proof of concept for a long term drive by a group of countries from around the world to use fusion power as a source of energy.
Without going too much into scientific details, energy from fusion is very old news. Actually, it is millions upon millions of years old, in nature that is. The sun and the stars generate energy (such as sunlight) from fusion reactions. So, the concept has been proven in nature but regenerating it by humans, artificially while harnessing its power to be useful for electricity generation is a totally different story and something that still has to be proven over the coming decades.
While both are nuclear reactions, there is a big difference between nuclear reactors in operations today and fusion. Nuclear reactors generate energy by fission; that is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom.
However, fusion generates energy the other way around, by fusing the nuclei of two types of hydrogen together to form helium. If successfully reproduced on earth, it could provide a clean and almost unlimited source of energy, eliminating the world's energy crisis. The two kinds of materials needed for fusion are abundant in nature.
These are water and lithium. According to the ITER project website, www.iter.org, waters of lake Geneva in Switzerland will be enough to provide for the energy needs of the whole world for thousands of years. Furthermore, the fusion will not produce any greenhouse gases that are harmful to the environment.
The project was preceded by decades of research and smaller proofs of concept, before stakeholders felt comfortable to commit to building the ITER. This makes sense, given the amount of investment required for ITER. The project is one of the most expensive research and development projects ever attempted. The current cost estimates put the number at $15 billion, over the next thirty years.
Funding for the project will come from China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the US, who are partnering up to support and fund this global project. Canada, originally participating, pulled out of the project in 2003.
The project reached a major milestone a few months ago when, in November 2006, the participating countries signed the agreement to go ahead and form the international organization that would implement the project. An earlier milestone was reached in 2005 when members reached agreement on the project location, which will be in Cadarache in Southern France.
There are immense challenges facing the project. The first of which is related to its technical requirements. The processes involved in fusion require heating gases to temperatures that exceed a hundred million degrees Celsius. The technology needed to reach commercialization of fusion power has also not been completely developed or proven, yet.
Another major challenge is the number of countries holding a stake in the project, which may make the project susceptible to political changes.
The timeline for the project is a long one.
ITER is only the first project in a much longer program. The program starts with the ITER project, which seeks to prove the feasibility of fusion on earth. It is expected to take around ten years to build and is expected to be in operation for another twenty years.
Once successful, a prototype reactor will be the next project, which will prepare for building commercial fusion reactors all around the world.
If I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath on fusion power plants. If all goes well, it is expected to take until 2040 to see the first real commercial use of electricity generated from fusion.
The caveat here is that there are no guarantees that the project will succeed, or that fusion will ever be a viable source of energy on earth. Already, some environmentalist are sceptical of the project and the claims made about its safety and how friendly it is to the environment.
Many of them feel that the money committed to the project would do more good if spent on renewable energy research and development, like wind and solar energy sources.
By Ammar W. Mango
© Jordan Times 2007
