The ITER project, an internationally-backed experimental fusion power plant under construction in France, promises to demonstrate positive fusion power.  The goal is to produce 500 megawatts of output power for 50 megawatts of input power – or ten times the amount of energy put in.  The European Union plus six nations – the U.S., Russia, China, India, Japan, Korea – are collaborating to make ITER successful.  As host to the site, the European Union is financing 45% of the cost of the total project. The other six nations are only contributing 9% each. This means that the U.S. is leveraging an enormous amount of money and scientific knowledge with its relatively small investment of about $2.5 billion over ten years.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory leads the U.S. contribution to the ITER program.  Below is a great video of ITER, produced by Oak Ridge. Check it out:

To read more about ITER, click here.

To read ASP’s White Paper, “Fusion Power – A 10 Year Plan to Energy Security,” click here.

To read more about ASP’s work on fusion energy, click here.

Share on Facebook

Tweet