Joint project with EU involves more than 500 scientists and engineers and more than 70 companies
The world’s biggest operational experimental nuclear fusion reactor – a technology in its infancy but billed by some as the answer to humanity’s future energy needs – has been inaugurated in Naka, Japan.
Fusion differs from fission, the technique used in nuclear power plants, by fusing two atomic nuclei instead of splitting one.
The goal of the JT-60SA reactor is to investigate the feasibility of fusion as a safe, large-scale and carbon-free source of net energy – with more energy generated than is put into producing it.
The six-storey-high machine, in a hangar in Naka, north of Tokyo, comprises a doughnut-shaped “tokamak” vessel set to contain swirling plasma heated up to 200mC (360mF).
It is a joint project between the European Union and Japan, and is the forerunner for its big brother in France, the under-construction International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
I remember, as a teenager in the 90s, people still believed it was impossible to have fusion reactors. Now we’re building a prototype. Fucking wow.
Thanks, science!
Researchers at ITER, which is over budget, behind schedule and facing major technical problems
Sounds promising
as megaprojects expert Bent Flyvbjerg explains in the following article, these grandiose projects operate by an iron law: over budget, over time, over and over again
Performance data for megaprojects speak their own language. Nine out of ten such projects have cost overruns. Overruns of up to 50 percent in real terms are common, over 50 percent not uncommon. Cost overrun for the Channel Tunnel, the longest underwater rail tunnel in Europe, connecting the UK and France, was 80 percent in real terms. For Boston’s Big Dig, 220 percent. The Sydney Opera House, 1,400 percent. Similarly, benefit shortfalls of up to 50 percent are also common, and above 50 percent not uncommon.
Why Construction Projects Always Go Over Budget-
LNL demonstrated ignition and EAST demonstrated minute-scale high confinement. This is the most promising period in fusion research in a long time.
Interestingly, these innovations continue to be driven by government-funded research institutions rather than private industry.
Interestingly, or in this case, obviously.
That’s not surprising at all. The investment required with the high possibility of failure makes this a non starter for private business which are inherently risk adverse.
Private businesses engage in extremely risky enterprises everyday, it’s why things like explicit liability exist. The issue with something like this is their cost benefit analysis tells them that succeeding would create diminishing rates of return. Solving fusion reaction for the purposes of generating electricity eliminates a form of scarcity. Scarcity or manufactured scarcity is the only thing that enables corporations to continually increase profits.
That’s a good point. I should have mentioned ROI in my post
Awesome next step! Yes it is going to be expensive, yes it will not be successful in the beginning and so on… We need this kind of research, cause it will not develop itself!
