Biggest Fusion Energy Reactor Faces More Delays, Higher Costs
- ITER delays presentation of new plan to achieve fusion to 2024
- Problems dash $22 billion project’s goal to start 2025 testing
People work inside the ITER construction site in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, France.
Photographer: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The world’s biggest fusion experiment involving 35 nations faces new delays and potentially billions of dollars in extra costs after defective pieces and broken supply chains disrupted the reactor’s construction in southern France.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, needs to come up with an updated pathway toward achieving fusion by 2024, the project’s supervisors said Thursday, giving management more time to sort things out after originally ordering an updated baseline this year.