Scientific America- The Problems with ITER and the Fading Dream of Fusion Energy

By Geoff Brumfiel 

On the road to unlimited energy, the world’s most complex science experiment encounters a few potholes.

The ITER fusion reactor promises to be a landmark step on the road toward unlimited clean energy. Once running, the machine will produce 10 times the amount of energy needed to power it.

Yet for all its promise, the ITER project is in trouble. Billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule, the reactor will not start power-production experiments until 2026 at the earliest.

The complex reasons behind the troubles include unforeseen engineering difficulties and the baroque bureaucratic squabbles of a global partnership of seven major stakeholders

Critics contend that ITER has become a pie-in-the-sky boondoggle whose only purpose is to suck money away from productive clean-energy research projects like wind and solar energy. The ITER fusion reactor promises to be a landmark step on the road toward unlimited clean energy

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