New Energy
World’s Biggest Nuclear-Fusion Project Faces Delays as Component Cracks
- The $23 billion ITER project in France faces new delays
- Delay could give billionaire-backed startups time to catch up
A poloidal field coil number 1, one of in the magnetic system that will serve to confine plasma in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
Photographer: Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Cracks in a key silver-lined component are creating new delays and cost overruns in the $23 billion project to prove whether nuclear fusion can generate limitless clean energy.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, under construction in southern France is being funded by the European Union and countries including China, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The world’s biggest experiment aims to show that mimicking the power that makes stars shine can produce clean energy that could help slow global warming on Earth.