ITER

ITER an acronym that stands for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor which is the largest experimental fusion reactor in the world, and one of the largest and most complex scientific projects ever undertaken. The goal of this project is to help commercialize nuclear fusion, and to actually achieve fusion. To date no man made fusion device has produced a watt of electric power. Despite all the optimism dating back to the 1950s, and all the research that has taken place since then nuclear fusion still eludes of the mathematics behind it are extremely complex not to mention the materials science required for constructing a nuclear fusion reactor. One of the major challenges of ITER is the confinement of plasma at over 160 million degrees, and holding it in the tokamak without it touching the wall because if it touches the reactor wall it will disintegrate it. Currently there is research under way to discover a wall can be constructed to withstand the tremendous heat, and pressure of nuclear fusion reactors. The first plasma of ITER is expected in 2019, and if it is successful it will be the first man made fusion device to produce power. The successor to ITER is going to be DEMO which stands for DEMOnstration reactor which will make upgrades, and apply the new knowledge learned from ITER to DEMO. Hopefully it will work because nuclear fusion is humanity's energy for the future.