Looking at the kind of destruction fossil fuels are generating, our world is on a lookout for cleaner energy sources.?
We surely have solar, wind, even tidal energy, but they cannot really deliver the throughput thermal energy can. But one energy source that has a ton of potential is nuclear energy.?
The world¡¯s largest nuclear fusion reactor has begun development in Southern France. The development will go on five phases with everything scheduled to be all up and running by the year 2025.
The?ITER project is going to cost roughly around ?18.2 billion and will try to replicate reactions that occur on the solar surface to power it and produce that energy on a commercial scale. The whole contraption is going to make use of numerous components, weighing a total of around 23,000 tonnes. This is also the most complex engineering feat that will be achieved in the history of humanity.
The whole unit will involve over 3,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets, some of which would weigh as large as an aircraft. These will be connected to 200 kilometres long superconducting cables. All this will be kept at a temperature of -269 degrees celsius by the world's largest cryogenic plant.?
India's?Larsen and Toubro has developed a massive component for this reactor -- a 30 diameter wide cryosat that will completely cover the reactor and help it to keep its temps low when the reactions on the inside get got, and in case you didn¡¯t know, they can get really hot.?
Parts weighing around 650 tonnes in total will leave India for the ITER site in France. These parts will then be assembled and welded on site.
In a nuclear fusion reaction, heavy hydrogen atoms fuse together at a temperature of 150m celsius -- nearly ten times hotter than the sun¡¯s core.?
This reaction results in the formation of a new atom and a neutron. Compared to a fission reaction, the fusion reaction releases four times more energy.?
Moreover, fusion reactions don¡¯t meltdown and also produce less radioactive waste, so they¡¯re more efficient than fission reactions.?